How I Use AI for Slow Living: Practical Ways to Stay Human with Modern Tools
When I first started using AI, I thought it would be the magic solution to my overflowing to-do list. A miracle cure for business burnout. A productivity fairy godmother.
And technically? It was.
But it also created some of the worst content I’ve ever written.
(No offense, AI. We’ve come a long way since then. 😂)
Back then, I was focused on speed. Efficiency. Output. I was trying to keep up and listen to all that advice that told me that AI could help “save time”—when what I really needed was to slow down and listen to myself.
What I realize now is this:
So much of the common advice about AI completely misses the point.
It’s not about saving time at all costs.
It’s about staying more human—not less.
And it wasn’t until I reconnected with my values—and rebuilt my work life around intention and creativity—that I realized AI didn’t have to be the enemy of slow living. It could be a quiet ally.
I’ve since moved from using AI to churn out content at lightning speed (fellow solopreneurs, I see you) to using AI to help create more space—space for things like brainstorming, strategizing, and playing.
Space to help my business and my life feel more like me.
The Real Reason I Use AI (Hint: It’s Not for Speed)
These days, I use AI every day—but not to replace my voice.
Instead, I use it as a tool to support my creativity, not override it.
Here’s how I use AI now—not to go faster, but to stay grounded:
🌿 Processing Ideas:
When I’m spinning with too many ideas (hello, neurodivergent brain), I’ll brain-dump into a chat and ask AI to help me organize and prioritize.
It’s like having a non-judgmental, lightning-fast project manager who doesn’t care how messy I get.
🌿 Finding Patterns:
Sometimes, AI spots themes, links, or emotional throughlines that I wasn’t consciously aware of yet.
(Like how my businesses all center around creative sovereignty.)
🌿 Gentle Brainstorming:
When I’m feeling stuck, tired, or overwhelmed, I don’t need a polished answer—I need a spark.
AI helps me brainstorm, freewrite, or rough out ideas without judgment.
🌿 Organizing Real Life Stuff, Too:
I use AI for personal things, too—like breaking down complicated ingredient lists in skincare products, comparing vacation options, adapting recipes to my family’s nutritional needs, developing a schedule for potty training a new puppy…
Basically, whenever the mental load gets too heavy, I offload it.
🌿 Creating Systems That Actually Work for Me:
Each project I work on has its own saved space and clear boundaries, so I can drop in and out without losing momentum (or myself).
Staying Human: Setting Boundaries with AI
It would be so easy to let AI run the show—to blindly accept whatever it suggests, or to let convenience replace creativity.
I also know from early experience that it’s super easy to use AI as a crutch to do things faster, push things harder, get alllllllll the things done! But that path can lead to poor quality and emotional burnout.
So? The most important thing for me is to set boundaries.
✨ I don’t outsource my voice.
When a draft doesn’t sound like me, I riff, brain-dump, freewrite, or even just chat it out. The more I show up fully, the better the collaboration.
✨ I don’t treat AI like a magic wand.
It’s a co-creator, not a crutch. If something feels off, I stop and reflect instead of pushing forward just to check a box.
✨ I embrace the messy middle.
Sometimes (okay, most times 😂) the first answer isn’t the best one—and that’s okay. The real magic is in the process, not the speed.
✨ I use it to support slowness, not to speed up unnecessarily.
If I can create better work more gently with a little help, that's a win. But if it ever feels like a shortcut at the expense of my soul, I pause.
✨ I use AI to hone my intuition, not replace it.
While AI helps me strategize and make decisions, I focus on asking it to help me ask more and better questions, not just to provide quick answers.
I know a lot of people simply see AI as an expedient means to an end.
But for me? I use AI as a way to create more breathing room in my slower, more intentional life—not as a way to squeeze in more tasks or speed up the conveyor belt of productivity. (Because let’s face it: hustle culture doesn’t need any more help. Am I right?)
Why Intentional Tech Use Matters
Let me be clear: I’m not anti-technology.
(Far from it. You’ll have to pry my tech from my cold, dead Gen X hands.)
In fact, during my Ph.D. work, I even studied the philosophy of technology—to better understand our human relationships to it.
Spoiler alert: it’s not tech itself that’s the problem.
It’s how unconsciously we often use it.
When we treat technology solely as a way to move faster or do more, we risk seeing everything—including ourselves—as resources to be optimized.
(For more on this, read a bit of Martin Heidegger. Not light reading by any means, but also? You’re welcome.)
We’ve seen this pattern play out again and again.
Think about social media. What began as a way to connect us became a tool to manipulate us—quietly engineered to steal our time, shape our opinions, and keep us scrolling. The Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal didn’t happen because tech is evil. It happened because no one slowed down long enough to ask: Should we be doing this?
Or take Amazon’s warehouse algorithms, which track employee productivity down to the second—and penalize workers for “time off task,” even when it’s just a bathroom break. It’s a stark example of what happens when we use technology to optimize humans instead of support them.
And then there’s the tragic cost of optimization at scale.
Take Toyota’s accelerator failure (circa 2009)—where someone decided it was more “cost-effective” to manage lawsuits than recall faulty tech. Safety took a backseat to efficiency—and people paid the price.
Or the Challenger explosion at NASA, where engineers voiced serious concerns about launch conditions but were overruled in the name of deadlines and national pressure.
Or how about more recently, when Boeing’s 737 MAX crashes revealed eerily similar patterns: overlooked warnings, software patches in place of structural fixes, and lives lost in the name of market share.
The moral of the story? These companies (and, sadly, so many others) value tech’s speed and efficiency (not to mention money, but hey, that’s a discussion for another day) over everything else: including human life.
And so, not to veer too far off course, I think we can all agree that this level of greed for money, speed, and efficiency is, you know, wrong. (Duh.)
But all of this is to say…
The problem isn’t tech.
The problem isn’t innovation.
It’s the absence of reflection. Of questioning. Of valuing humanity and intuition and softness.
And in a culture obsessed with “faster, better, more”—we forget to ask if the tradeoff is worth it.
That’s why, for me, slow living isn’t about rejecting technology.
It’s about reclaiming your relationship with it.
It's about using tools with intention, creativity, and critical thought—not letting them use you.
When you approach AI (or any tech) as a collaborator rather than a replacement, you create something richer:
Work that feels true.
Systems that feel sustainable.
A life that slows down a bit, and that still feels beautifully, unmistakably human.
Let’s Bring AI Back to You
Of course, most of us aren’t running billion-dollar companies or launching spacecraft.
But we are running households. Caring for others. Holding big dreams and real exhaustion.
And the way we choose to use (or not use) technology does matter—because it shapes our energy, our attention, and our sense of self.
If you're craving a slower pace, fewer tabs (literal or metaphorical), and more space to hear yourself think… I've got just the thing.
Inside The Opt-Out Club, you’ll find:
✨ Gentle tools to help you opt out of overwhelm
✨ Monthly slow-living shifts to support your nervous system (not stress it out)
✨ And a cozy, thoughtful guide: Slow Living with AI—your new favorite way to use tech without letting it take over your life
Because tech should support your rhythm—not speed it up.
Ready to join the cozy rebellion?
