Occasionally, some technical advancement arrives that gives us more time. Historically, these advances were hundreds of years apart. Now they come a lot quicker. Right now, we’re going through the disruption tumble dryer once again with the arrival of agentic AI.

The upside to these things is that once we get our arms around the new thing, some things that used to take a lot of time now take very little. That gives us, in theory, extra time.

In other words, a boon.

A lot of us are getting our arms around AI now to actually start realizing that boon. I am! I don’t know how this whole AI thing is going to shake out, but I can’t deny AI’s taken a lot of donkey work off my plate.

The question is how we spend that boon.

When we talk about getting time back, we all give lip service to the idea of spending it on ourselves. Because in our heads, that quality-of-life moment is always just around the corner, right up until the moment they put you in a box.

But too often, what we actually do is the opposite. We look at our increased capacity and take on more work. The space opens up, and we immediately fill it by putting more on our backs.

At the end of the day, we’ve gained productivity and lost quality of life. Somehow, the boon that was supposed to give us breathing room has left us with even more to do. This keeps happening to us all.

This time, I’m actively trying to spend the boon on myself.

I’m using my AI boon to become more analog. By that, I mean more time in the woodshop, in the garden, reading books, taking care of myself, and spending time with my family.

Those are the things I want the extra time for. I want to get the necessary work done and then go touch grass.

This is a lot more difficult than it sounds.

These technology jumps are like catnip to me. The more I play with them, the deeper I want to go. I get one thing working and immediately see three more things I could get it to do. Before long, I’m spending the afternoon investigating how to save myself an afternoon.

And even when the technology does save me time, there’s still that temptation to fill the space with more work. I could make more content or take on another thing. After all, things are fun.

This time, however, I’m not ensnaring myself. I’m making a sincere effort to let the saved time stay mine. I want my AI boon to be a particularly well-built cabinet or a trip with my wife.

How about you? Have you thought about how you’ll spend your boon?

As these tools become more capable, we will all have opportunities to make this choice. If we don’t think about it, we’ll fall right into that more-at-the-grindstone trap.

So when something gives you an hour back, decide where you want that hour to go.

Don’t squander your boon.