My Practical Way of Using AI Every Day
Most people probably assume my day-to-day use of AI is heavily focused on development—code generation, refactoring, and autocomplete everywhere.
That’s not really how I use it.
For me, AI acts more like a personal adviser. Someone I can consult quickly across different areas of life, get a second opinion from, and move forward with more confidence.
Here’s what that actually looks like in practice.
🏋 Fitness and nutrition are where I use AI the most
One of the most practical ways I use AI is for fitness and nutrition guidance.
I’ve used it to:
- structure weekly workouts and running plans
- adjust training based on fatigue or recovery
- break down realistic fitness milestones to chase next
- calculate macros and meal targets (back when I was tracking closely)
Instead of bouncing between articles, calculators, and forums, I can lay out my actual situation — my schedule, goals, and constraints, and get advice that’s specific to me. This gets even more effective paired with my Garmin Forerunner 265, which syncs to my phone, lets me plan workouts on my calendar, and tracks recovery and health metrics so the guidance stays grounded in real data. 💪🏽
I don’t follow everything blindly, but it gives me a clear starting point and helps me avoid overthinking small decisions.
📑 AI as a fast reader for contracts and documents
Another area where AI saves me a lot of time is document review.
I regularly use it to:
- summarize long contracts or terms
- highlight potential risks or clauses to pay attention to
- explain legal or financial language in plain English
Having a tool that can scan an entire document and give me a useful summary in seconds is a massive productivity win.
It doesn’t replace proper review when it matters — but it helps me decide what deserves deeper attention.
💲 Helping me think through financial decisions
I also use AI to sanity-check investment and financial decisions.
Not for predictions or advice I blindly follow — but for:
- weighing trade-offs
- pressure-testing assumptions
- understanding opportunity cost
- aligning decisions with my goals and risk tolerance
Explaining my current financial capacity and long-term goals, then asking “what options make sense here?” often surfaces considerations I might’ve missed.
Again, the final decision is still mine. AI just helps me think more clearly.
👨🏽💻 Yes, it helps me build SignDeck too
AI plays a role in building SignDeck — but not in the way most people assume.
I use it to:
- challenge product decisions
- improve copy and clarity
- think through edge cases
- pressure-test workflows and UX
It’s especially useful when I need a second opinion quickly, without context-switching too much.
What it doesn’t do is replace real feedback from users or freelancers who actually deal with document collection and e-signatures every day. That input still matters more than anything.
❌ I don’t actually use AI that much for coding
This usually surprises people.
I don’t rely on AI heavily for writing production code. Core logic, features, and architecture are still things I prefer to think through and write myself.
Where AI does help with code:
- generating test cases
- investigating bugs
- suggesting possible causes or fixes
- explaining unfamiliar behavior
It’s great as a debugging partner. Less great as an autopilot. If I can’t explain the code myself, it doesn’t belong in the codebase.
The models I actually use (and why)
For coding-related work, I usually switch between:
Claude Opus - when I want deeper reasoning or help investigating complex bugs.
Composer-1 - especially when working through test cases or exploring alternative implementations.
I still write the core logic myself, but these models are useful as thinking partners when I need to sanity-check ideas or trace issues faster.
For everything else — fitness planning, document review, summarizing contracts, financial decision-making, writing, and product thinking — I mostly use ChatGPT.
What AI really changed for me
AI didn’t suddenly make me better at everything.
What it did was reduce friction — less time stuck, fewer mental roadblocks, faster clarity across different areas of life.
Used this way, AI isn’t about replacing skills — it’s about supporting decision-making. That’s the role I’m comfortable giving it in my everyday life.
Final thoughts
I don’t use AI to replace thinking. I use it to refine it.
As a builder, that distinction matters — especially when you’re making real decisions, shipping real products, and playing a long game.
AI is powerful, but only if you stay in the driver’s seat. Used well, it becomes less of a shortcut and more of a personal assistant, coach, and adviser — and I think we’re firmly in that era now.
