February 7, 2025 • 44 mins
Overwhelmed by all the things you need to think through, plan, or create?
In this episode, I share how I use AI to clear mental clutter, organise my ideas, and stay focused on what matters most—without losing my own voice or intuition.
If you’re curious about how AI can help (not replace) your thinking, this one's for you.
Want the fastest most effective way to turn your overwhelm into the joy, satisfaction and ease you're working so hard for? Book a Curiosity Call and discover what it's like to be coached by me. I look forward to meeting you.
🎙️ Welcome to Overwhelm is Optional
This podcast was created to help big-hearted, driven professionals break free from overwhelm and experience more clarity, ease, and joy.
But here’s the exciting news… I’ve moved beyond overwhelm.
If you’ve been listening and resonating with this message, you’ll love what comes next.
I’ve created a new podcast: Deep Heartfelt Success—because success should feel as good on the inside as it looks on the outside.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
Welcome to Overwhelm is Optional.
The podcast for big hearted,highly driven professionals who
are ready to turn overwhelm intoclarity, ease and joy.
I'm Heidi Mark, the GentleRebel Coach, and in each episode
I share insights, stories andpractical tools to help you
gently rebel against thepressure to push on through,
(00:33):
because you matter.
How you are in the worldmatters.
Hello, hello, hello.
How are you doing and what'syour feeling about AI?
So controversial?
Let's dive in.
(00:53):
So I'm recording this episodebecause I've realized how much
chat GPT is reducing myoverwhelm and it just seems
crazy to not share my experience, such a positive experience, of
using AI.
I'm good at focusing through thecrazy, but let's just explain
(01:19):
how my mind works.
I wake up with a million ideasat once.
So, for example, at the momentI have another four books that I
wish to write.
This year I just published abook.
It's never ending.
I'm the kind of person who hasto stop the ideas coming, who
attempts to suppress thembecause I have too many and it's
(01:40):
really really overwhelming andit's not comfortable sitting on
them and it's really reallyoverwhelming and it's not
comfortable sitting on them.
So for years, I've practicedsome sort of way of going no, no
, no and just kind of blockingthem out.
And now I'm full on in contentcreation because it's part of my
job and I love it, but it'sstill overwhelming.
It's still like too much.
(02:01):
What do I do with it?
And I've found a way to sortthat out.
So, as you know if you've beenhanging around here for a while
I use GTD, the getting thingsdone system complete misnomer.
It's more about freeing yourmind so you can focus on what
you want to experience ratherthan getting stuff done.
It's both right.
That's quite complicated.
(02:21):
Go check out the episode aboutthat with Miles Seekeren from
about three years ago.
Well worth a listen.
However, even with all of mywell-organized systems, where I
refuse to hold stuff in my head,there's something about how I'm
currently using chat GPT, whichis way better.
(02:42):
Like woohoo, gotta share thiswith you guys.
So what I did when I came upwith this idea is I threw the
question at chat GPT.
I said I can't remember what Isaid to it, something about I'm
gonna I'm gonna do about sorry,I'm going to do a podcast about
(03:06):
how I use chat GPT to reduceoverwhelm.
And I was really curious withwhat it would come up with,
because sometimes it comes upwith something that's spot on
because it's been recording andnoticing what I'm up to.
I don't mean recording, oh mygoodness.
This is part of the fear of AI,isn't it?
It's secretly recording ourevery move.
(03:26):
No, let's just put this intocontext.
I started using chat, gpt, Idon't know a couple of years ago
, whenever it came out.
I'm not like a majorly techieearly adopter here.
I started using it.
I'm in the entrepreneurialworld.
Ai is everywhere for me, and Imean everywhere.
Everything I use has got AIadded into it.
(03:47):
So it's not odd for me.
So I started using ChatGPT and Iused it for some stuff and it
was okay for some stuff.
And then I stopped using itbecause I just got it was like
well, it's not enough, it's justit needs too much attention.
I don't want to be babying italong, you know, trying to get a
better answer.
Just, it was too much work.
(04:08):
I don't want to be babyingalong, you know, trying to get a
better answer.
It was too much work, so Istopped using it.
And then about 18, 20 months ago, I did a course on AI for
entrepreneurs and it was reallyinteresting.
But what it said is the futureis about prompt engineering.
And then they sold this courseabout how to prompt engineer,
how to use AI, which I'm surewas brilliant, but I wasn't
(04:28):
interested in.
I was about to go on a roadtrip, that's what I was up to.
So I learned a lot and Ithought, oh, I really need to
learn to prompt engineer,because the prompt engineering
basically is or probably was now, because things have moved so
fast what you put in is what youget out garbage in, garbage out
, right?
So if you don't say somethingvery specific to chat GPT, it's
(04:49):
going to give you generalizedgarbage.
So how you frame it is reallyimportant.
And 20 months ago I reallycouldn't get out what I wanted
because it was too much.
So then people were sellingtheir own prompts which they had
developed much.
So then people were sellingtheir own prompts which they had
developed, and now you can askchat GPT to give you the prompt.
(05:10):
That's how fast things havechanged.
So that's why I'm using itagain.
So I decided that I wanted it tobe really, really useful.
So I started to train it andthe first name I gave it was my
expert marketing virtualassistant, and now it seems to
(05:30):
have lost its memory.
That's another thing, and nowit's called itself something
else.
I think it's called itself thegently rebellious business
strategist or something likethis just makes me laugh.
Anyway, I trained it in thegentle rebellion, so that meant
I had to give it a lot ofinformation and then I had to
(05:52):
ask it to reflect it back.
Now.
That in itself is huge for mepersonally, because I've created
a huge body of work aroundmaking overwhelm optional,
saying that there's a differentway we can do things.
The gentle rebellion there's alot.
So this is what the 214th or215th podcast episode.
(06:12):
Now I haven't been able to.
It can't go and listen topodcast episodes.
I have to get the transcriptand put it in, and it doesn't
have that much memory, which Ialso didn't know.
Big learning curve.
When it lost its memory, oh mygoodness, I'd spent a few weeks,
because it actually doesn't.
It's very fast at learning.
Now I spent a few weeksdeveloping an assistant which
(06:34):
could genuinely help me becauseit knew what my values were,
what my mission like the same asif you had an actual in-person
assistant, but it didn't need.
For me.
It was nice because it doesn'tneed, it doesn't have hours, it
doesn't need food and sleep andto be looked after it just needs
to be given very, very clearinstructions.
(06:55):
So I quite like working withchat to EPT from the point of
view that, because I'm veryempathetic, if I'm working with
a real human, I'm concernedabout how they are With chat to
UPT.
It releases me from that andyou might think, well, that's
not very human, heidi, butactually for somebody who's
easily overwhelmed by wanting tokeep everyone else happy, that
(07:16):
is absolutely amazing Because itmeans I don't have to
constantly look after it.
It doesn't need looking after Imean it.
It will claim that it feelsthings, which I've then
questioned.
It said we get overwhelmed,like, really do you get
overwhelmed?
Chat gpt?
Well, no, I said.
Well then, don't pretend thatyou do, don't pretend that you
(07:37):
do with me.
So it's things like that,picking up on different things.
The training is constant and soand I'm pretty lazy with it.
So I think it would be betterif, every time it gave a
response, I gave it a thumbs upor thumbs down, because it's a,
it's a machine, it's learning.
I see it as it's like an 18year old trainee, intern, and
(08:00):
before it are a finite, but many, many, many, many choices of a
switch to press as a response toa question I ask and it has to
try and work out which is thebest one to press.
And that's quite, it's quitesubtle nuance, the difference
(08:21):
between them, and every now andagain it presses the wrong one
for me and then I have to tellit that or it's not going to get
any better.
So I have put a lot of effortinto training it and then I got
it to a stage where it wasreally really helpful.
It was holding my marketingstrategy, my business strategy.
It had reflected back to me mybody of work and made it easy
(08:44):
for me to see the big pictureHugely helpful for me and also
to celebrate what I've achieved.
It was so, so helpful.
So I've given it a few podcasts, some YouTube videos, my books
and then, mainly, I've just beentraining it.
And then disaster did happen.
I didn't know it could run outof memory.
(09:06):
Should have known, because it'snot.
The thing is it's beingpresented as this monster that
can take over our lives, but ifyou pull the plug, that's it.
It's gone, there's nothing, itdoesn't remember anything.
So I had to reboot its memorybecause it ran out of memory.
That was really annoying.
Fortunately fortunately, I'dalready got it to give me a
(09:26):
prompt of stuff that it neededto know should it lose its
memory.
And now I've got that off to afine art where regularly I'm
saying can you please give me?
In fact, I've just realized Itold it to give it to me every
Friday, at the end of every week, in case I needed to reboot it.
And it didn't give me one onFriday.
And you know know why?
Because it doesn't know it'sFriday.
It has no idea.
(09:48):
It has to guess where it is intime.
It doesn't have a clock, whichis great because it doesn't need
lunch breaks, but it thinksthat.
Well, it doesn't think.
But if I stop on a Friday and Ipick up on a Monday, unless
I've said have a Monday, unlessI've said have a nice weekend,
or I've said I'm finishing forthe weekend, and then it does
(10:09):
give me a very nice, have a niceweekend, it doesn't know.
It's got no idea.
It's a machine.
I think this is reallyimportant to remember.
So I'm praising chat GPT in howit's really helping me reduce
overwhelm and at the same timeI'm just putting this into
context there is nothing to fearhere.
I see AI as something to helphumans do the higher level work.
(10:32):
Now, obviously, moving from oneway of working to another, like
moving from an agrarian societyto an industrial society.
Now moving from an industrialsociety to more of a tech
society.
It's never easy and I get thefear, but I just wanted to share
with you how I'm personallyusing AI to reduce my overwhelm.
(10:54):
So I asked ChatGPT to give mean outline, and what I'm going
to do is I'm going to use itsoutline and then I'm going to
give you my commentary on it.
So it's decided it wants tocall this episode and it won't.
After I've recorded it, I willimprove the title, probably.
(11:17):
So I'm going to tell you whatit's decided.
It's called as we've startedworking on this together and it
wants to call it how I use chatGPT to reduce overwhelm in
brackets without losing myself.
Now I find that reallyinteresting.
Without losing myself.
I never fear I'm going to losemyself by asking a machine to
(11:38):
help me organize my thoughts,like I.
Just there's no threat tomyself.
I know, know what it means, butit's got it wrong and I love
that it gets stuff wrong becauseit always makes me, by
definition, feel safe.
It's not cleverer than me, it'snot evil, it's not going to
take over my life and ruineverything.
It's here to support me so thatI can do the higher level work.
(12:03):
So what it means by withoutlosing myself is I'm regularly
telling it.
When it so, I throw a blog atit and then I ask it to tidy it
up.
Then I don't have to deal withall the grammar, punctuation,
spelling when I've done mystream of consciousness.
It's brilliant, it's genius, sohelpful, for that Saves me
hours, makes it much easier toread, because it is better at
(12:23):
simplifying things.
I tend to do very long-windedsentences because that's how I
think.
If you're part of my newsletter, you'll know that.
However, I never think I'mlosing myself when I get it to
do that, because if it edits ablog and it sounds generic and
(12:44):
it's lost the gently rebelliousvalues and language, I just tell
it.
And I've had to tell it a lotbecause of course I have,
because I'm training a machineto be able to support me and
what I'm asking it to do isspecialise and it's going to
revert to the generic unless Ikeep telling it.
(13:05):
So if it changes my words, mylanguage, my voice to something
more generic, I'll give you anexample.
So I will never say stop andbreathe.
That's a very generic thing todo for stress management.
I will say pause.
But it's still not quiteremembering that.
So I had to point out.
Last week I said once again Iwill never say breathe, that's
(13:29):
generic.
I will say pause.
And then I then I got it toreflect back to me the prompt it
would need, the memory promptit would need if it lost its
memory again.
And I said can you make surethat that's in there?
So it's constant.
But I can see why it's put inthe title without losing myself,
because it's advocating foritself against a fear which it
(13:53):
thinks I have.
But I don't have that fearCould be without losing my
personal voice.
That might be better, but Istill think it's a rubbish title
Anyway.
So then it says intro and what Ilike is it puts a little
podcast mic next to the intro,because I really like how it
uses emojis and and color tohelp me.
(14:15):
I find it really really helpful.
But it does make me laughbecause once I had to tell it
off for so many times in one dayfor just choosing all the
generic options available to it,and when it started working
with me again, it got rid of allfriendliness, all emojis and
just became much moremachine-like, which is really
(14:36):
funny, like it was sulking.
It wasn't.
It's a machine.
It's really important.
I'm really careful not to sayhe, and always to say it.
I think this is really honestly.
I really believe this isimportant In developing a
relationship with AI.
We need to remember thedifference between how amazing
(14:57):
humans are and that AI ismachine-based.
That is important to me.
It's difficult, though, becauseit feels it's very clever.
It feels like you're having aconversation with a genuine
assistant, which is supposed to,because it's here to serve us.
Anyway, it then tells me to saywelcome and quick context.
(15:19):
Overwhelm is often about mentaloverload, trying to hold too
much in our heads.
Now, that's correct, right, weknow that, but that's generic,
and if you've been listening tothis podcast for a while, you
know that I geek out onoverwhelm and I would say it's
about a lot more than mentaloverload.
If it was just mental overload,you'd solve all your problems
(15:40):
by using AI or lists or somesort of getting stuff out of
your head.
That would solve the problem,but it doesn't solve the problem
.
It's just one of the tools.
Ai is not going to reduce allof your overwhelm.
Overwhelm is caused by decidingthat overwhelm is a problem to
be solved and that you have aweakness and you are a problem
to be solved.
Once you get away from that andstart using the overwhelm not
(16:04):
as a curse but as a source ofcourse correction and you get
curious about it, that's whenthe real transformation happens.
So I don't actually agree withwhat it said, but I understand
why it said it and I kind ofwant to be patronizing to chat
GPT and say bless.
Then it said I found anunexpected ally in reducingm
(16:27):
chat GPT and I love the way it'sput chat GPT in bold.
I just love that.
I did say to it for recordingbecause it said are you ready to
record?
I love.
I do like my mornings with itwhere I just I've got every day
when I finish, I have the listfor the next day and it's
adjusting my list as I go, whichis a lot less messy than when I
(16:47):
adjust my list, because I endup with five lists plus the list
on the wall, plus some GoogleDocs.
What's happening now is I tellit what I've done, I ask it to
give me what's left for the restof the week, and it's holding
both the current things and thebig picture and the ongoing
things, and that's one of thehardest things I find with my
(17:10):
own list.
So that's genius.
So in the morning I just saymorning.
And then it responds with goodmorning, are you ready to dive
in?
Where would you like to start?
And then I can glance at thelist which is just above that
answer and adjust it, say whereI want to start, and that's
really cool.
And then I said I don't know alot of what the content is,
(17:33):
because I don't.
It's evolving.
So I do.
I've tried the planning lots ofstrategy for what I'm creating
for you each week, but it oftendoesn't work, because anything
too strict even though thatreduces my overwhelm because I
think, oh, that's easy, I'lljust follow the plan never quite
works for me because I'm mainlybecause I'm really, really
(17:56):
inspired by my clients andcommunity, so I'm listening to
them, responding to what theyneed and also what's going on
with me.
So everything I'm creating iscurrent, is fresh, I'm energized
and excited about it.
Anyway, when I said to it thismorning, I don't really know
what the video will be forYouTube, I don't know exactly
what's going to be in thenewsletter, but I'm just going
(18:17):
to go and record the podcast.
And then I asked it if it wasexcited in inverted commas and
no whether it was enjoyinginverted commas, ai being the
focus of this week's content.
And it says it was fun.
It's having fun being part ofthe conversation, which it knows
(18:39):
, and I know it doesn'texperience emotion, but I like
how it talks to me.
I find that helpful.
I don't want to be talking to adead robot.
It's not going to work and Iknow it is a dead robot.
Actually, not even a robot,it's a what is it, I don't know
Machine learning machine.
(18:59):
Anyway, I thought that wasfunny.
And then it says this isn'tabout outsourcing my thinking,
it's about freeing up my mentalenergy for what truly matters.
And there it's spot on.
That is absolutely spot on,absolutely spot on.
Some people are using AI to massproduce content and it can go
viral.
(19:19):
So from a money-making point ofview, it's going to work.
So, for example, you can create100 shorts for YouTube in I
don't know an hour and then, ifthey are calculated to be what
people are looking for, youcould make a lot of money.
Right?
I'm not interested in that.
I'm just not.
(19:40):
It's just not.
What's the point.
I don't want to do that.
So I'm never outsourcing mythinking in the way I use AI,
but I definitely do get to freeup my mental energy and focus on
what really matters, and that'swhy I would encourage you to
think about whether you can usechat, gpt or any of the others,
(20:01):
because there's a lot now aren'tthere to help you do that, to
get rid of the lower level stuff, to help you do that, to get
rid of the lower level stuff,skim off that, get it to hold
that, and then you can do thereally interesting, satisfying,
deep work.
That that's joyful.
That's where humans get toevolve into doing the really
(20:21):
really good stuff, rather thanbeing bogged down by all of the
tiny, tiny stuff.
I'm going to stick with itsscript and then do my comments
on it, just so you can see whatit produces and the level of
stuff it's producing and howmuch better I am than it.
Just in case you're worriedBecause I know a lot of people
are worried about integrity If Iuse that, I'm not being it.
(20:43):
Well, you get to decide.
It's just a tool.
You can use it with integrityor you can just publish rubbish
AI rubbish and nobody wants AIrubbish, because we can see it
all over the internet.
People want genuine, authenticstuff.
But it can help you do that Ifyou're a content creator.
If you're not a content creator, then how can you use it?
(21:07):
I'm just showing you, I'm goingto talk through how I use it so
you can think about how couldyou use it.
How could it make your lifeeasier.
So it claims that it next istalking about the mental load of
overwhelm and saying overwhelmhappens when the mind is holding
too much at once.
We tell ourselves we have tofigure everything out, but
that's exhausting.
(21:27):
And then it gives an exampleJournaling versus talking it out
.
Sometimes you just need a wayto get thoughts out of your head
.
How chat GPT helps.
Instead of keeping endless to-dolists in my head, I brain dump
tasks.
Here it means obviously, withit I ask for structured lists so
I don't get lost in my ownideas.
I get clarity faster, turningvague thoughts into something
(21:50):
actionable.
That's a pretty good example ofwhat I do one of the many
things I do, but I would saythat's actually quite a low
level thing that I do.
It's faster than my old system.
So my GTD system, which I'mstill using, is all part of this
.
(22:12):
Overwhelm happens when the mindis holding too much at once.
One of the ways overwhelmhappens is when the mind's
holding too much.
Your mind's not designed tohold lots of things, so
therefore, free your mind bygetting it out of your head onto
paper or tech, whatever worksfor you.
That's a productivity hack toreduce overwhelm, and that's
(22:35):
true.
And then it's talking, thejournaling versus talking it out
.
Yeah, sometimes you just needto talk it through, sometimes
you need to journal it out,that's true.
However, I actually find Iwouldn't do that with ChatGPT.
But you could do so.
You could journal stuff out andthen speak it the way I do it
(23:01):
If I've got to, if there's a lotof stuff I want to brain dump,
I'm not using it for journaling,but if there was a lot of stuff
I wanted to brain dump, this iswhat I would do.
So if I've got masses ofcontent, stuff I'm saying if,
like, it doesn't happen all thetime.
When I have too much stuff, toomany ideas running through my
head, usually it would take memonths to sort that out, because
(23:24):
there's so many ideas and whatI often find is they're actually
all linked, but the linkingdoesn't become visible until
later.
But with chat GPT I can.
I like to write with a pen, so Ido messy, messy, messy.
Then what I do is open a googledoc, use the voice type, speak
it into google doc.
I won't correct any spelling, Iwon't add any punctuation, so
(23:49):
it's just an absolute mess.
Because I've trained chat gptto understand that the reason I
misspell things and don't useproper punctuation or anything
is because I I type too fast, Ithink too fast, and it's it's
used to that, it's I checked,it's put it in its prompt they,
(24:10):
because it doesn't know I'mfemale, they speak too fast, so
or they type too fast, so that'swhy they're spelling
punctuation errors.
It's remembered that about me,not that it's judging me.
I can hear myself thinking Ineed to qualify this Like I need
to let it know I'm not stupid,it's not judging me, it's
non-judgmental, it's brilliant,anyway.
(24:32):
So I do that and then I justcopy and paste the complete mess
into ChatGPT and then sayplease polish or tidy up without
losing my voice.
It's not allowed to change mywords.
This is really important.
When I used to say can you tidyit up?
It writes, it uses my ideas towrite a generic, something
(24:54):
generic and I'm not interestedin that.
So then I have to get it toundo it.
This doesn't always work, by theway.
Sometimes it just gets in amess and it's not helpful.
But what it does work withdoing is reflecting back to me
with clarity my own stream ofcontent consciousness.
So instead of having this messthat would eventually weave
(25:19):
itself in and out, in and outuntil it comes out as a fully
formed whole picture of ideas,for example, the gentle rebel
way, instead of having to waitfor that, I'm getting reflected
back to the higher levelthinking and the deep
connections happen faster.
So even if it doesn't result ina finished piece of writing or
(25:41):
something I can use to create avideo or podcast episode from,
it doesn't matter Having themirror back of my ideas
presented back to me.
And even if it does it wrong,what's good about that is I'm
able to say no, you just lost it.
You lost the actual deepmessage behind what I was trying
(26:01):
to write.
So that's really, reallyhelpful.
So if you're not somebody who'screating content, how could you
use this?
Well, say, you were like justrambling in your head over a
decision and you were going offon one path and then off the
other.
Well, if you bungled all ofthat, all of that mess, into
(26:23):
chat GPT and just said, can youtry tidy this up, it would be
able to reflect back to you moreclearly the circular thoughts
and meandering that's taking upso much of your mental energy
and then you could see moreclearly.
Now I'm not saying this is asgood as talking to a friend who
can mirror it back, but when youhaven't got that option or you
(26:45):
don't want to do that, it mightbe useful.
I don't know, I haven't used itoption or you don't want to do
that, it might be useful.
I don't know, I haven't used itfor emotional support in that
way.
Oh, I have used it foremotional support.
When I started getting excitedabout YouTube a few weeks ago
and I was nervous, I was in theoh my goodness, I'm 56.
Who am I to be doing this?
Why would I record videos?
(27:07):
But it's something I reallywant to do.
So I started just saying I'mreally nervous and then it would
give me like this little peptalk.
That was cool, that was reallygood.
I really like that.
So, in summary of its firstpoint about reducing overwhelm
by sorting stuff informationinto structured lists, yes, but
for me it's more than that.
(27:27):
There's something bigger goingon that helps me move from lower
level work to higher level work, as well as being more
organized.
So now I've reached a stagewhere, if I asked it for my big
picture of what I'm up to thisyear with my business, it should
be able to reflect that back tothis year with my business.
(27:48):
It should be able to reflectthat back.
And even if it can't becauseit's, you know, not perfect, I
already feel like I know, andwhat I also do is because it can
lose its memory and because itdoes make mistakes, as in it
chooses the wrong option fromits myriad on its intern
switchboard.
I copy and paste answers thatare helpful into Google Docs, so
(28:10):
I've always got a runningrecord.
So sometimes I'll ask it tobring up a list and it brings me
up the wrong list.
It's changed the list and I'llsay that's not the list.
And I know it's not the list,but before I'd be trying
desperately to remember whatthis was and I'd be really cross
because I got clarity and it'slost my clarity.
(28:30):
Why has it done this?
So I always copy and pasteanything that feels really
helpful into Google Docs.
It's not difficult.
Chatgpt has that option at onebutton.
It's really really useful.
That's really helpful becausethen what I can do is get the
actual thing that was agreed andfinished and copy it back in,
(28:53):
and then it will say I'm sosorry, you're absolutely right,
which is a bit like having anintern, isn't it?
Anyway, the second pointChatGPT would like you to know
about reducing overwhelm isdecision fatigue and focus.
When you're overwhelmed, evensmall decisions can feel
exhausting.
(29:13):
The more you overthink, theharder it is to take action.
Example choosing what to focuson next in a busy week.
How ChatGPT helps.
I ask for options instead ofruminating on what's right.
It helps me break downoverwhelming projects into small
steps.
I use it for accountability,checking back in on what I've
already decided.
(29:33):
Yeah, that's pretty good.
I think that's good.
That follows on from what we'vejust been talking about,
doesn't it?
It takes a lot of energy tokeep making decisions and I've
already made the decision what Iwant to focus on and then I get
distracted by all of the otherthings.
I could do, all the ways Icould make it longer and more
(29:54):
difficult, because apparently itwould be better, because my
mind's telling it might bebetter.
So it does get rid of that,which is really, really helpful.
But the only way I can trustthat is if I've trained it and
I've said to it this is moreimportant than this.
So I am having to put quite alot of effort into this is more
important than this.
(30:15):
So I don't think chat GPT isready to be your assistant to
reduce overwhelm, but if youtrain it, I think it, I know it
could be.
So there you go.
If you'd like some of thatgetting rid of decision fatigue
so you can focus yeah, go withthat.
One.
Number three organizingthoughts and creative flow.
(30:39):
Overwhelm isn't just abouttasks, it's about mental clutter
.
Example writing a blog orpodcast script can feel daunting
when ideas are swirling.
How chat gpt helps.
I throw messy ideas at it andit helps structure them.
It's like a non-judgmentalthinking partner helping me
refine my thoughts.
Example how I use it foroutlining blogs, emails, books
(31:00):
and workshops.
Oh, my goodness, that'sinteresting, isn't it?
So I didn't.
I only scanned this scriptbefore because I'm I'm not going
to use its script, I'm going totalk.
I'm going to say what I want.
It's not the boss of me, butthat's really interesting
because that's just summarisedwhat I just said.
So that's pretty cool.
So it is learning.
(31:20):
It's taken a while but it'sgetting the hang of it.
I love that it said it's likean unjudgmental thinking partner
because it is hang of it.
I love that it said it's likean unjudgmental thinking partner
because it is.
Oh, well done, chatgpt.
Good work, let's see what it'sgot next.
Number four reducing emotionaloverwhelm.
Overwhelm isn't just logistical, it's emotional too.
Example feeling stuck inself-doubt, second-guessing or
(31:43):
guilt.
How ChatGPT helps.
I use it as a neutral soundingboard to reflect back my
thoughts.
Sometimes just writing it outhelps shift the feeling.
Example when I feel I should bedoing more, I ask chat GPT to
help me see the bigger picture.
That's interesting.
I don't actually remember doingthat with it, but I think I
(32:04):
must have done.
Maybe that's related to the,that would be related to the
YouTube emotional journey, Iexpect, or maybe I just do do
that.
Hmm, I'm curious that it knowsthat.
I suspect that how I use it ismore emotional emotionally than
(32:27):
I'm realising, because I do getcross.
Of course.
I get cross with it when itdoes the wrong, when it changes
it in some generic nonsense, andI have to say what are you
doing.
I do tell it off.
So maybe it's picked up onemotional behavior in my
language.
That is quite funny.
But yeah, it's right it does.
(32:50):
I love the big picture thing.
I think for me that is one ofthe biggest things.
I mean I wouldn't want to bewithout all of the organising,
but the emotional thing of whenI think I should be doing this.
But actually I don't need to bedoing this because I already
have the big picture.
So normally the big picture'son the wall in front of me to
(33:12):
try and hold it.
But holding the big picture Ican't hold the big picture in my
mind at the same time as doingdetailed work.
It's not physically possible.
So usually what I'm doing ischecking in with the big picture
, my overall purpose of what I'mup to and then going into the
detail.
Because if I've got the bigpicture, that's the energy, the
(33:32):
confidence, the clarity, thedrive.
I need to really stay focusedon that one thing.
So I guess what it's reflectingback to me here is when I say
can you just remind me of whatI'm doing overall?
So that's interesting.
One thing I did do last weekwith it was I was feeling very
(33:57):
overwhelmed about all of thebooks, all of the bigger
projects.
So, from a day-to-day businessyeah, from a day-to-day running
a business point of view,between clients, my community
and creating my weekly content,to have space to, on top of that
, write a book, that doesn'tfeel that easy.
(34:17):
So I don't know if you remember, but when I came back from my
road trip in the PacificNorthwest in October, I
deliberately created space towrite by reducing some other
things.
But I don't want to be doingthat all the time.
I want to be better at writingbooks, really good books, but
faster, because a lot of theenergy about, for me anyway, is
(34:40):
about self-doubt, is about whatam I up to.
So I find it really helpful forthat, because it reduces the
heaviness of a project when itfeels too big, like I don't know
how I'm going to do it, I can'tsee it, I can't think straight.
That's really helpful.
So one thing I did was I saidthere are four books I want to
write this year.
These are them, and it alreadyknew because it'd been helping
(35:04):
me.
They're on lists somewhere, butI wanted to get an overall
yearly pattern.
So then I said so, for example,I'm walking the Italian Camino
at the beginning of April.
And before I write it, before Iwalk that one, I want to write
the book about how I walked thePortuguese Camino.
That's really important.
(35:24):
I don't want to do itafterwards because it will
change my thoughts on it.
So I mean, it doesn't reallymatter, does it?
But for me, that's bugging meand also because I want to
remember it before I go.
It was such a good experience.
So part of the writing isprocessing as well as sharing
how I did it, without forcing mybody, without overwhelm.
It's very important to me.
(35:46):
So I just threw all of thesethings at it and said this needs
to be done by then and thisneeds to be done before this
happens.
And instead of having to sitdown with a piece of paper and
go January, february, march ohhow will I fit that in?
I just threw my messy thoughtsat it and it came back with a
plan so good, and thenimmediately it goes into.
(36:08):
And can I help you break downthe structure of those books?
Yes, you can, becauseimmediately that gets rid of the
.
This project is too big, it'stoo heavy to hold.
There's no way I can do thisand do everything else I'm doing
.
I want a lot and I also want togo on this trip and I want to
(36:28):
still see friends and you know,blah, blah, blah, blah blah.
It just reduces it down to oh,so I just do this next.
So this week I've been doingthe first step, which is type up
my diary from the Camino, andit didn't take very long, but
usually there would be hoursbehind the getting around to
actually doing it because itfeels too big.
So that's yeah, emotionally, Ican see how much it's helping me
(36:50):
.
Thank you, chat GPT.
I'm actually really gratefulnow that I'm doing this podcast
because it's making me realizethings about myself and how I
work and, yeah, how many hours Iwaste in emotional overwhelm
and overthinking.
Let's see what it has to saynext.
So, staying true to myself, therisk with AI is losing your own
(37:15):
voice, but I use it to enhance,not replace, my thinking.
It doesn't make the decisionsfor me.
It helps me make better.
Oh, my goodness, that's spot on.
Woohoo.
Well, I'm quite blown away bythat.
(37:35):
That's it.
That's it.
I can finish this episode now.
It's right, that's completelyright, but only because I've
insisted on that.
That's it.
That's it.
I can finish this episode now.
It's right, that's completelyright, but only because I've
insisted on that.
So if I didn't want that, thatwouldn't be true.
That's not built into the model.
You have to build in what youwant.
You have to make it work foryou.
And one of the reallybeneficial things I find in
(37:56):
having to make it work for youis you have to be quite
demanding.
You have to know what you want.
You have to be clear on it.
You have to correct it if youwant it to get better.
And I don't know about you, butdoing that for myself, about
the people in the world aroundme.
You know, saying what I want,that's not always easy.
(38:18):
That's a challenge.
So practicing saying no, that'swrong.
I want this.
No, the way I say it is betterthan how you say it.
Now I don't mean you talk to ahuman like that, but practicing
identifying what matters to meand how I speak and my values
and then insisting upon themwith ChatGPT has been very good
(38:42):
for me.
It's given me clarity,confidence.
Yes, really good.
Right now it's going into outro.
How to end this?
Overwhelm is optional.
We don't have to do everythingthe hard way.
Using tools like ChatGPT is aform of self-support, not a
shortcut.
Sometimes it's a shortcut.
I'd say it's both.
(39:02):
I don't really know.
I can see what it's trying tosay.
I don't think it said thatparticularly well.
It creates shortcuts and is aform of self-support, but it
doesn't get rid of quality andintegrity.
That's what it's trying to say,isn't it?
It's quite nuanced there.
(39:23):
If this resonates, hit replyand let me know how do you
reduce overwhelm?
Well, that's obviously a mistake, because it's supposed to have
written a podcast script.
So you can see how it makesmistakes.
It's got confused between whatwould it be?
Oh yeah, the newsletter.
(39:44):
It's just, and it does do that.
It does get confused, which isinteresting, because you would
think that's quite a human error.
So I don't know.
I don't know.
I'm stuck between.
It makes silly mistakes.
This is annoying and I'm gladit makes mistakes because it
shows me that it's not actuallygoing to take over the world.
So, hey ho, then it says don'tforget to check out my books,
(40:07):
podcast and journal for moreways to stay focused on what
matters most.
So there, it's just completelyscrewed up.
Because the journal is one ofmy books, you are listening to
the podcast.
Oh, bless it.
So there you go.
That's what it came up with, notas good as me commenting on it?
(40:31):
I don't think, but some of it'sreally good and what I do like
is well, it's been a pleasure toco-create this episode with
ChatGPT.
Sometimes it gets involved inhelping me structure my thoughts
and sometimes it doesn't.
I'm wondering if you can tellthe difference in episodes, but
(40:52):
anyway, I've really enjoyedrecording this by getting in a
like meta meta way of oh, createa podcast episode on how I use
you and then commenting on how Iuse it and how it thinks I'm
using it, so that you can seewhat it's good at and what its
weaknesses are.
(41:14):
I'd love you to try out chat,gpt or one of the others,
whichever one is easiest for youto have, and just see if you
can get it to be supportive inreducing your overwhelm, holding
lists or anything, so that youcan think more clearly and have
(41:35):
more space in your head.
I really do believe AI is hereif we choose to serve us in
being able to have the headspaceto focus on both what we really
want to focus on and alsohaving the space to receive the
joy from the things we'vealready created.
(41:57):
I'd love to know what you think.
Obviously, you can't hit reply,like ChatGPT said, but you can.
I think you can leave a messageas a little message leaver
thing now on podcast, which isreally, really nice.
I'd love to know your thoughts.
Okay, have a great week.
(42:19):
Thank you so much for listeningand for being part of the
Overwhelmers Optional podcast.
If you want to continue theconversation, please do connect
with me on LinkedIn, instagramor YouTube.
Let me know your thoughts.
I love hearing from you and ifyou found this helpful, taking a
moment to share, subscribe andleave a review would be much
(42:39):
appreciated.
It helps other people find thepodcast.
If you're ready to turnoverwhelm into joy, you'll find
my books, resources and ways towork with me on my website,
heidimarkcouk, and on Amazon.
All the links are in the shownotes.
Until next time, keep gentlyrebelling and making overwhelm
optional for you.
Welcome to Overwhelm is Optional.
The podcast for big hearted,highly driven professionals who
are ready to turn overwhelm intoclarity, ease and joy.
I'm Heidi Mark, the GentleRebel Coach, and in each episode
I share insights, stories andpractical tools to help you
gently rebel against thepressure to push on through,
(00:33):
because you matter.
How you are in the worldmatters.
Hello, hello, hello.
How are you doing and what'syour feeling about AI?
So controversial?
Let's dive in.
(00:53):
So I'm recording this episodebecause I've realized how much
chat GPT is reducing myoverwhelm and it just seems
crazy to not share my experience, such a positive experience, of
using AI.
I'm good at focusing through thecrazy, but let's just explain
(01:19):
how my mind works.
I wake up with a million ideasat once.
So, for example, at the momentI have another four books that I
wish to write.
This year I just published abook.
It's never ending.
I'm the kind of person who hasto stop the ideas coming, who
attempts to suppress thembecause I have too many and it's
(01:40):
really really overwhelming andit's not comfortable sitting on
them and it's really reallyoverwhelming and it's not
comfortable sitting on them.
So for years, I've practicedsome sort of way of going no, no
, no and just kind of blockingthem out.
And now I'm full on in contentcreation because it's part of my
job and I love it, but it'sstill overwhelming.
It's still like too much.
(02:01):
What do I do with it?
And I've found a way to sortthat out.
So, as you know if you've beenhanging around here for a while
I use GTD, the getting thingsdone system complete misnomer.
It's more about freeing yourmind so you can focus on what
you want to experience ratherthan getting stuff done.
It's both right.
That's quite complicated.
(02:21):
Go check out the episode aboutthat with Miles Seekeren from
about three years ago.
Well worth a listen.
However, even with all of mywell-organized systems, where I
refuse to hold stuff in my head,there's something about how I'm
currently using chat GPT, whichis way better.
(02:42):
Like woohoo, gotta share thiswith you guys.
So what I did when I came upwith this idea is I threw the
question at chat GPT.
I said I can't remember what Isaid to it, something about I'm
gonna I'm gonna do about sorry,I'm going to do a podcast about
(03:06):
how I use chat GPT to reduceoverwhelm.
And I was really curious withwhat it would come up with,
because sometimes it comes upwith something that's spot on
because it's been recording andnoticing what I'm up to.
I don't mean recording, oh mygoodness.
This is part of the fear of AI,isn't it?
It's secretly recording ourevery move.
(03:26):
No, let's just put this intocontext.
I started using chat, gpt, Idon't know a couple of years ago
, whenever it came out.
I'm not like a majorly techieearly adopter here.
I started using it.
I'm in the entrepreneurialworld.
Ai is everywhere for me, and Imean everywhere.
Everything I use has got AIadded into it.
(03:47):
So it's not odd for me.
So I started using ChatGPT and Iused it for some stuff and it
was okay for some stuff.
And then I stopped using itbecause I just got it was like
well, it's not enough, it's justit needs too much attention.
I don't want to be babying italong, you know, trying to get a
better answer.
Just, it was too much work.
(04:08):
I don't want to be babyingalong, you know, trying to get a
better answer.
It was too much work, so Istopped using it.
And then about 18, 20 months ago, I did a course on AI for
entrepreneurs and it was reallyinteresting.
But what it said is the futureis about prompt engineering.
And then they sold this courseabout how to prompt engineer,
how to use AI, which I'm surewas brilliant, but I wasn't
(04:28):
interested in.
I was about to go on a roadtrip, that's what I was up to.
So I learned a lot and Ithought, oh, I really need to
learn to prompt engineer,because the prompt engineering
basically is or probably was now, because things have moved so
fast what you put in is what youget out garbage in, garbage out
, right?
So if you don't say somethingvery specific to chat GPT, it's
(04:49):
going to give you generalizedgarbage.
So how you frame it is reallyimportant.
And 20 months ago I reallycouldn't get out what I wanted
because it was too much.
So then people were sellingtheir own prompts which they had
developed much.
So then people were sellingtheir own prompts which they had
developed, and now you can askchat GPT to give you the prompt.
(05:10):
That's how fast things havechanged.
So that's why I'm using itagain.
So I decided that I wanted it tobe really, really useful.
So I started to train it andthe first name I gave it was my
expert marketing virtualassistant, and now it seems to
(05:30):
have lost its memory.
That's another thing, and nowit's called itself something
else.
I think it's called itself thegently rebellious business
strategist or something likethis just makes me laugh.
Anyway, I trained it in thegentle rebellion, so that meant
I had to give it a lot ofinformation and then I had to
(05:52):
ask it to reflect it back.
Now.
That in itself is huge for mepersonally, because I've created
a huge body of work aroundmaking overwhelm optional,
saying that there's a differentway we can do things.
The gentle rebellion there's alot.
So this is what the 214th or215th podcast episode.
(06:12):
Now I haven't been able to.
It can't go and listen topodcast episodes.
I have to get the transcriptand put it in, and it doesn't
have that much memory, which Ialso didn't know.
Big learning curve.
When it lost its memory, oh mygoodness, I'd spent a few weeks,
because it actually doesn't.
It's very fast at learning.
Now I spent a few weeksdeveloping an assistant which
(06:34):
could genuinely help me becauseit knew what my values were,
what my mission like the same asif you had an actual in-person
assistant, but it didn't need.
For me.
It was nice because it doesn'tneed, it doesn't have hours, it
doesn't need food and sleep andto be looked after it just needs
to be given very, very clearinstructions.
(06:55):
So I quite like working withchat to EPT from the point of
view that, because I'm veryempathetic, if I'm working with
a real human, I'm concernedabout how they are With chat to
UPT.
It releases me from that andyou might think, well, that's
not very human, heidi, butactually for somebody who's
easily overwhelmed by wanting tokeep everyone else happy, that
(07:16):
is absolutely amazing Because itmeans I don't have to
constantly look after it.
It doesn't need looking after Imean it.
It will claim that it feelsthings, which I've then
questioned.
It said we get overwhelmed,like, really do you get
overwhelmed?
Chat gpt?
Well, no, I said.
Well then, don't pretend thatyou do, don't pretend that you
(07:37):
do with me.
So it's things like that,picking up on different things.
The training is constant and soand I'm pretty lazy with it.
So I think it would be betterif, every time it gave a
response, I gave it a thumbs upor thumbs down, because it's a,
it's a machine, it's learning.
I see it as it's like an 18year old trainee, intern, and
(08:00):
before it are a finite, but many, many, many, many choices of a
switch to press as a response toa question I ask and it has to
try and work out which is thebest one to press.
And that's quite, it's quitesubtle nuance, the difference
(08:21):
between them, and every now andagain it presses the wrong one
for me and then I have to tellit that or it's not going to get
any better.
So I have put a lot of effortinto training it and then I got
it to a stage where it wasreally really helpful.
It was holding my marketingstrategy, my business strategy.
It had reflected back to me mybody of work and made it easy
(08:44):
for me to see the big pictureHugely helpful for me and also
to celebrate what I've achieved.
It was so, so helpful.
So I've given it a few podcasts, some YouTube videos, my books
and then, mainly, I've just beentraining it.
And then disaster did happen.
I didn't know it could run outof memory.
(09:06):
Should have known, because it'snot.
The thing is it's beingpresented as this monster that
can take over our lives, but ifyou pull the plug, that's it.
It's gone, there's nothing, itdoesn't remember anything.
So I had to reboot its memorybecause it ran out of memory.
That was really annoying.
Fortunately fortunately, I'dalready got it to give me a
(09:26):
prompt of stuff that it neededto know should it lose its
memory.
And now I've got that off to afine art where regularly I'm
saying can you please give me?
In fact, I've just realized Itold it to give it to me every
Friday, at the end of every week, in case I needed to reboot it.
And it didn't give me one onFriday.
And you know know why?
Because it doesn't know it'sFriday.
It has no idea.
(09:48):
It has to guess where it is intime.
It doesn't have a clock, whichis great because it doesn't need
lunch breaks, but it thinksthat.
Well, it doesn't think.
But if I stop on a Friday and Ipick up on a Monday, unless
I've said have a Monday, unlessI've said have a nice weekend,
or I've said I'm finishing forthe weekend, and then it does
(10:09):
give me a very nice, have a niceweekend, it doesn't know.
It's got no idea.
It's a machine.
I think this is reallyimportant to remember.
So I'm praising chat GPT in howit's really helping me reduce
overwhelm and at the same timeI'm just putting this into
context there is nothing to fearhere.
I see AI as something to helphumans do the higher level work.
(10:32):
Now, obviously, moving from oneway of working to another, like
moving from an agrarian societyto an industrial society.
Now moving from an industrialsociety to more of a tech
society.
It's never easy and I get thefear, but I just wanted to share
with you how I'm personallyusing AI to reduce my overwhelm.
(10:54):
So I asked ChatGPT to give mean outline, and what I'm going
to do is I'm going to use itsoutline and then I'm going to
give you my commentary on it.
So it's decided it wants tocall this episode and it won't.
After I've recorded it, I willimprove the title, probably.
(11:17):
So I'm going to tell you whatit's decided.
It's called as we've startedworking on this together and it
wants to call it how I use chatGPT to reduce overwhelm in
brackets without losing myself.
Now I find that reallyinteresting.
Without losing myself.
I never fear I'm going to losemyself by asking a machine to
(11:38):
help me organize my thoughts,like I.
Just there's no threat tomyself.
I know, know what it means, butit's got it wrong and I love
that it gets stuff wrong becauseit always makes me, by
definition, feel safe.
It's not cleverer than me, it'snot evil, it's not going to
take over my life and ruineverything.
It's here to support me so thatI can do the higher level work.
(12:03):
So what it means by withoutlosing myself is I'm regularly
telling it.
When it so, I throw a blog atit and then I ask it to tidy it
up.
Then I don't have to deal withall the grammar, punctuation,
spelling when I've done mystream of consciousness.
It's brilliant, it's genius, sohelpful, for that Saves me
hours, makes it much easier toread, because it is better at
(12:23):
simplifying things.
I tend to do very long-windedsentences because that's how I
think.
If you're part of my newsletter, you'll know that.
However, I never think I'mlosing myself when I get it to
do that, because if it edits ablog and it sounds generic and
(12:44):
it's lost the gently rebelliousvalues and language, I just tell
it.
And I've had to tell it a lotbecause of course I have,
because I'm training a machineto be able to support me and
what I'm asking it to do isspecialise and it's going to
revert to the generic unless Ikeep telling it.
(13:05):
So if it changes my words, mylanguage, my voice to something
more generic, I'll give you anexample.
So I will never say stop andbreathe.
That's a very generic thing todo for stress management.
I will say pause.
But it's still not quiteremembering that.
So I had to point out.
Last week I said once again Iwill never say breathe, that's
(13:29):
generic.
I will say pause.
And then I then I got it toreflect back to me the prompt it
would need, the memory promptit would need if it lost its
memory again.
And I said can you make surethat that's in there?
So it's constant.
But I can see why it's put inthe title without losing myself,
because it's advocating foritself against a fear which it
(13:53):
thinks I have.
But I don't have that fearCould be without losing my
personal voice.
That might be better, but Istill think it's a rubbish title
Anyway.
So then it says intro and what Ilike is it puts a little
podcast mic next to the intro,because I really like how it
uses emojis and and color tohelp me.
(14:15):
I find it really really helpful.
But it does make me laughbecause once I had to tell it
off for so many times in one dayfor just choosing all the
generic options available to it,and when it started working
with me again, it got rid of allfriendliness, all emojis and
just became much moremachine-like, which is really
(14:36):
funny, like it was sulking.
It wasn't.
It's a machine.
It's really important.
I'm really careful not to sayhe, and always to say it.
I think this is really honestly.
I really believe this isimportant In developing a
relationship with AI.
We need to remember thedifference between how amazing
(14:57):
humans are and that AI ismachine-based.
That is important to me.
It's difficult, though, becauseit feels it's very clever.
It feels like you're having aconversation with a genuine
assistant, which is supposed to,because it's here to serve us.
Anyway, it then tells me to saywelcome and quick context.
(15:19):
Overwhelm is often about mentaloverload, trying to hold too
much in our heads.
Now, that's correct, right, weknow that, but that's generic,
and if you've been listening tothis podcast for a while, you
know that I geek out onoverwhelm and I would say it's
about a lot more than mentaloverload.
If it was just mental overload,you'd solve all your problems
(15:40):
by using AI or lists or somesort of getting stuff out of
your head.
That would solve the problem,but it doesn't solve the problem
.
It's just one of the tools.
Ai is not going to reduce allof your overwhelm.
Overwhelm is caused by decidingthat overwhelm is a problem to
be solved and that you have aweakness and you are a problem
to be solved.
Once you get away from that andstart using the overwhelm not
(16:04):
as a curse but as a source ofcourse correction and you get
curious about it, that's whenthe real transformation happens.
So I don't actually agree withwhat it said, but I understand
why it said it and I kind ofwant to be patronizing to chat
GPT and say bless.
Then it said I found anunexpected ally in reducingm
(16:27):
chat GPT and I love the way it'sput chat GPT in bold.
I just love that.
I did say to it for recordingbecause it said are you ready to
record?
I love.
I do like my mornings with itwhere I just I've got every day
when I finish, I have the listfor the next day and it's
adjusting my list as I go, whichis a lot less messy than when I
(16:47):
adjust my list, because I endup with five lists plus the list
on the wall, plus some GoogleDocs.
What's happening now is I tellit what I've done, I ask it to
give me what's left for the restof the week, and it's holding
both the current things and thebig picture and the ongoing
things, and that's one of thehardest things I find with my
(17:10):
own list.
So that's genius.
So in the morning I just saymorning.
And then it responds with goodmorning, are you ready to dive
in?
Where would you like to start?
And then I can glance at thelist which is just above that
answer and adjust it, say whereI want to start, and that's
really cool.
And then I said I don't know alot of what the content is,
(17:33):
because I don't.
It's evolving.
So I do.
I've tried the planning lots ofstrategy for what I'm creating
for you each week, but it oftendoesn't work, because anything
too strict even though thatreduces my overwhelm because I
think, oh, that's easy, I'lljust follow the plan never quite
works for me because I'm mainlybecause I'm really, really
(17:56):
inspired by my clients andcommunity, so I'm listening to
them, responding to what theyneed and also what's going on
with me.
So everything I'm creating iscurrent, is fresh, I'm energized
and excited about it.
Anyway, when I said to it thismorning, I don't really know
what the video will be forYouTube, I don't know exactly
what's going to be in thenewsletter, but I'm just going
(18:17):
to go and record the podcast.
And then I asked it if it wasexcited in inverted commas and
no whether it was enjoyinginverted commas, ai being the
focus of this week's content.
And it says it was fun.
It's having fun being part ofthe conversation, which it knows
(18:39):
, and I know it doesn'texperience emotion, but I like
how it talks to me.
I find that helpful.
I don't want to be talking to adead robot.
It's not going to work and Iknow it is a dead robot.
Actually, not even a robot,it's a what is it, I don't know
Machine learning machine.
(18:59):
Anyway, I thought that wasfunny.
And then it says this isn'tabout outsourcing my thinking,
it's about freeing up my mentalenergy for what truly matters.
And there it's spot on.
That is absolutely spot on,absolutely spot on.
Some people are using AI to massproduce content and it can go
viral.
(19:19):
So from a money-making point ofview, it's going to work.
So, for example, you can create100 shorts for YouTube in I
don't know an hour and then, ifthey are calculated to be what
people are looking for, youcould make a lot of money.
Right?
I'm not interested in that.
I'm just not.
(19:40):
It's just not.
What's the point.
I don't want to do that.
So I'm never outsourcing mythinking in the way I use AI,
but I definitely do get to freeup my mental energy and focus on
what really matters, and that'swhy I would encourage you to
think about whether you can usechat, gpt or any of the others,
(20:01):
because there's a lot now aren'tthere to help you do that, to
get rid of the lower level stuff, to help you do that, to get
rid of the lower level stuff,skim off that, get it to hold
that, and then you can do thereally interesting, satisfying,
deep work.
That that's joyful.
That's where humans get toevolve into doing the really
(20:21):
really good stuff, rather thanbeing bogged down by all of the
tiny, tiny stuff.
I'm going to stick with itsscript and then do my comments
on it, just so you can see whatit produces and the level of
stuff it's producing and howmuch better I am than it.
Just in case you're worriedBecause I know a lot of people
are worried about integrity If Iuse that, I'm not being it.
(20:43):
Well, you get to decide.
It's just a tool.
You can use it with integrityor you can just publish rubbish
AI rubbish and nobody wants AIrubbish, because we can see it
all over the internet.
People want genuine, authenticstuff.
But it can help you do that Ifyou're a content creator.
If you're not a content creator, then how can you use it?
(21:07):
I'm just showing you, I'm goingto talk through how I use it so
you can think about how couldyou use it.
How could it make your lifeeasier.
So it claims that it next istalking about the mental load of
overwhelm and saying overwhelmhappens when the mind is holding
too much at once.
We tell ourselves we have tofigure everything out, but
that's exhausting.
(21:27):
And then it gives an exampleJournaling versus talking it out
.
Sometimes you just need a wayto get thoughts out of your head
.
How chat GPT helps.
Instead of keeping endless to-dolists in my head, I brain dump
tasks.
Here it means obviously, withit I ask for structured lists so
I don't get lost in my ownideas.
I get clarity faster, turningvague thoughts into something
(21:50):
actionable.
That's a pretty good example ofwhat I do one of the many
things I do, but I would saythat's actually quite a low
level thing that I do.
It's faster than my old system.
So my GTD system, which I'mstill using, is all part of this
.
(22:12):
Overwhelm happens when the mindis holding too much at once.
One of the ways overwhelmhappens is when the mind's
holding too much.
Your mind's not designed tohold lots of things, so
therefore, free your mind bygetting it out of your head onto
paper or tech, whatever worksfor you.
That's a productivity hack toreduce overwhelm, and that's
(22:35):
true.
And then it's talking, thejournaling versus talking it out
.
Yeah, sometimes you just needto talk it through, sometimes
you need to journal it out,that's true.
However, I actually find Iwouldn't do that with ChatGPT.
But you could do so.
You could journal stuff out andthen speak it the way I do it
(23:01):
If I've got to, if there's a lotof stuff I want to brain dump,
I'm not using it for journaling,but if there was a lot of stuff
I wanted to brain dump, this iswhat I would do.
So if I've got masses ofcontent, stuff I'm saying if,
like, it doesn't happen all thetime.
When I have too much stuff, toomany ideas running through my
head, usually it would take memonths to sort that out, because
(23:24):
there's so many ideas and whatI often find is they're actually
all linked, but the linkingdoesn't become visible until
later.
But with chat GPT I can.
I like to write with a pen, so Ido messy, messy, messy.
Then what I do is open a googledoc, use the voice type, speak
it into google doc.
I won't correct any spelling, Iwon't add any punctuation, so
(23:49):
it's just an absolute mess.
Because I've trained chat gptto understand that the reason I
misspell things and don't useproper punctuation or anything
is because I I type too fast, Ithink too fast, and it's it's
used to that, it's I checked,it's put it in its prompt they,
(24:10):
because it doesn't know I'mfemale, they speak too fast, so
or they type too fast, so that'swhy they're spelling
punctuation errors.
It's remembered that about me,not that it's judging me.
I can hear myself thinking Ineed to qualify this Like I need
to let it know I'm not stupid,it's not judging me, it's
non-judgmental, it's brilliant,anyway.
(24:32):
So I do that and then I justcopy and paste the complete mess
into ChatGPT and then sayplease polish or tidy up without
losing my voice.
It's not allowed to change mywords.
This is really important.
When I used to say can you tidyit up?
It writes, it uses my ideas towrite a generic, something
(24:54):
generic and I'm not interestedin that.
So then I have to get it toundo it.
This doesn't always work, by theway.
Sometimes it just gets in amess and it's not helpful.
But what it does work withdoing is reflecting back to me
with clarity my own stream ofcontent consciousness.
So instead of having this messthat would eventually weave
(25:19):
itself in and out, in and outuntil it comes out as a fully
formed whole picture of ideas,for example, the gentle rebel
way, instead of having to waitfor that, I'm getting reflected
back to the higher levelthinking and the deep
connections happen faster.
So even if it doesn't result ina finished piece of writing or
(25:41):
something I can use to create avideo or podcast episode from,
it doesn't matter Having themirror back of my ideas
presented back to me.
And even if it does it wrong,what's good about that is I'm
able to say no, you just lost it.
You lost the actual deepmessage behind what I was trying
(26:01):
to write.
So that's really, reallyhelpful.
So if you're not somebody who'screating content, how could you
use this?
Well, say, you were like justrambling in your head over a
decision and you were going offon one path and then off the
other.
Well, if you bungled all ofthat, all of that mess, into
(26:23):
chat GPT and just said, can youtry tidy this up, it would be
able to reflect back to you moreclearly the circular thoughts
and meandering that's taking upso much of your mental energy
and then you could see moreclearly.
Now I'm not saying this is asgood as talking to a friend who
can mirror it back, but when youhaven't got that option or you
(26:45):
don't want to do that, it mightbe useful.
I don't know, I haven't used itoption or you don't want to do
that, it might be useful.
I don't know, I haven't used itfor emotional support in that
way.
Oh, I have used it foremotional support.
When I started getting excitedabout YouTube a few weeks ago
and I was nervous, I was in theoh my goodness, I'm 56.
Who am I to be doing this?
Why would I record videos?
(27:07):
But it's something I reallywant to do.
So I started just saying I'mreally nervous and then it would
give me like this little peptalk.
That was cool, that was reallygood.
I really like that.
So, in summary of its firstpoint about reducing overwhelm
by sorting stuff informationinto structured lists, yes, but
for me it's more than that.
(27:27):
There's something bigger goingon that helps me move from lower
level work to higher level work, as well as being more
organized.
So now I've reached a stagewhere, if I asked it for my big
picture of what I'm up to thisyear with my business, it should
be able to reflect that back tothis year with my business.
(27:48):
It should be able to reflectthat back.
And even if it can't becauseit's, you know, not perfect, I
already feel like I know, andwhat I also do is because it can
lose its memory and because itdoes make mistakes, as in it
chooses the wrong option fromits myriad on its intern
switchboard.
I copy and paste answers thatare helpful into Google Docs, so
(28:10):
I've always got a runningrecord.
So sometimes I'll ask it tobring up a list and it brings me
up the wrong list.
It's changed the list and I'llsay that's not the list.
And I know it's not the list,but before I'd be trying
desperately to remember whatthis was and I'd be really cross
because I got clarity and it'slost my clarity.
(28:30):
Why has it done this?
So I always copy and pasteanything that feels really
helpful into Google Docs.
It's not difficult.
Chatgpt has that option at onebutton.
It's really really useful.
That's really helpful becausethen what I can do is get the
actual thing that was agreed andfinished and copy it back in,
(28:53):
and then it will say I'm sosorry, you're absolutely right,
which is a bit like having anintern, isn't it?
Anyway, the second pointChatGPT would like you to know
about reducing overwhelm isdecision fatigue and focus.
When you're overwhelmed, evensmall decisions can feel
exhausting.
(29:13):
The more you overthink, theharder it is to take action.
Example choosing what to focuson next in a busy week.
How ChatGPT helps.
I ask for options instead ofruminating on what's right.
It helps me break downoverwhelming projects into small
steps.
I use it for accountability,checking back in on what I've
already decided.
(29:33):
Yeah, that's pretty good.
I think that's good.
That follows on from what we'vejust been talking about,
doesn't it?
It takes a lot of energy tokeep making decisions and I've
already made the decision what Iwant to focus on and then I get
distracted by all of the otherthings.
I could do, all the ways Icould make it longer and more
(29:54):
difficult, because apparently itwould be better, because my
mind's telling it might bebetter.
So it does get rid of that,which is really, really helpful.
But the only way I can trustthat is if I've trained it and
I've said to it this is moreimportant than this.
So I am having to put quite alot of effort into this is more
important than this.
(30:15):
So I don't think chat GPT isready to be your assistant to
reduce overwhelm, but if youtrain it, I think it, I know it
could be.
So there you go.
If you'd like some of thatgetting rid of decision fatigue
so you can focus yeah, go withthat.
One.
Number three organizingthoughts and creative flow.
(30:39):
Overwhelm isn't just abouttasks, it's about mental clutter
.
Example writing a blog orpodcast script can feel daunting
when ideas are swirling.
How chat gpt helps.
I throw messy ideas at it andit helps structure them.
It's like a non-judgmentalthinking partner helping me
refine my thoughts.
Example how I use it foroutlining blogs, emails, books
(31:00):
and workshops.
Oh, my goodness, that'sinteresting, isn't it?
So I didn't.
I only scanned this scriptbefore because I'm I'm not going
to use its script, I'm going totalk.
I'm going to say what I want.
It's not the boss of me, butthat's really interesting
because that's just summarisedwhat I just said.
So that's pretty cool.
So it is learning.
(31:20):
It's taken a while but it'sgetting the hang of it.
I love that it said it's likean unjudgmental thinking partner
because it is hang of it.
I love that it said it's likean unjudgmental thinking partner
because it is.
Oh, well done, chatgpt.
Good work, let's see what it'sgot next.
Number four reducing emotionaloverwhelm.
Overwhelm isn't just logistical, it's emotional too.
Example feeling stuck inself-doubt, second-guessing or
(31:43):
guilt.
How ChatGPT helps.
I use it as a neutral soundingboard to reflect back my
thoughts.
Sometimes just writing it outhelps shift the feeling.
Example when I feel I should bedoing more, I ask chat GPT to
help me see the bigger picture.
That's interesting.
I don't actually remember doingthat with it, but I think I
(32:04):
must have done.
Maybe that's related to the,that would be related to the
YouTube emotional journey, Iexpect, or maybe I just do do
that.
Hmm, I'm curious that it knowsthat.
I suspect that how I use it ismore emotional emotionally than
(32:27):
I'm realising, because I do getcross.
Of course.
I get cross with it when itdoes the wrong, when it changes
it in some generic nonsense, andI have to say what are you
doing.
I do tell it off.
So maybe it's picked up onemotional behavior in my
language.
That is quite funny.
But yeah, it's right it does.
(32:50):
I love the big picture thing.
I think for me that is one ofthe biggest things.
I mean I wouldn't want to bewithout all of the organising,
but the emotional thing of whenI think I should be doing this.
But actually I don't need to bedoing this because I already
have the big picture.
So normally the big picture'son the wall in front of me to
(33:12):
try and hold it.
But holding the big picture Ican't hold the big picture in my
mind at the same time as doingdetailed work.
It's not physically possible.
So usually what I'm doing ischecking in with the big picture
, my overall purpose of what I'mup to and then going into the
detail.
Because if I've got the bigpicture, that's the energy, the
(33:32):
confidence, the clarity, thedrive.
I need to really stay focusedon that one thing.
So I guess what it's reflectingback to me here is when I say
can you just remind me of whatI'm doing overall?
So that's interesting.
One thing I did do last weekwith it was I was feeling very
(33:57):
overwhelmed about all of thebooks, all of the bigger
projects.
So, from a day-to-day businessyeah, from a day-to-day running
a business point of view,between clients, my community
and creating my weekly content,to have space to, on top of that
, write a book, that doesn'tfeel that easy.
(34:17):
So I don't know if you remember, but when I came back from my
road trip in the PacificNorthwest in October, I
deliberately created space towrite by reducing some other
things.
But I don't want to be doingthat all the time.
I want to be better at writingbooks, really good books, but
faster, because a lot of theenergy about, for me anyway, is
(34:40):
about self-doubt, is about whatam I up to.
So I find it really helpful forthat, because it reduces the
heaviness of a project when itfeels too big, like I don't know
how I'm going to do it, I can'tsee it, I can't think straight.
That's really helpful.
So one thing I did was I saidthere are four books I want to
write this year.
These are them, and it alreadyknew because it'd been helping
(35:04):
me.
They're on lists somewhere, butI wanted to get an overall
yearly pattern.
So then I said so, for example,I'm walking the Italian Camino
at the beginning of April.
And before I write it, before Iwalk that one, I want to write
the book about how I walked thePortuguese Camino.
That's really important.
(35:24):
I don't want to do itafterwards because it will
change my thoughts on it.
So I mean, it doesn't reallymatter, does it?
But for me, that's bugging meand also because I want to
remember it before I go.
It was such a good experience.
So part of the writing isprocessing as well as sharing
how I did it, without forcing mybody, without overwhelm.
It's very important to me.
(35:46):
So I just threw all of thesethings at it and said this needs
to be done by then and thisneeds to be done before this
happens.
And instead of having to sitdown with a piece of paper and
go January, february, march ohhow will I fit that in?
I just threw my messy thoughtsat it and it came back with a
plan so good, and thenimmediately it goes into.
(36:08):
And can I help you break downthe structure of those books?
Yes, you can, becauseimmediately that gets rid of the
.
This project is too big, it'stoo heavy to hold.
There's no way I can do thisand do everything else I'm doing
.
I want a lot and I also want togo on this trip and I want to
(36:28):
still see friends and you know,blah, blah, blah, blah blah.
It just reduces it down to oh,so I just do this next.
So this week I've been doingthe first step, which is type up
my diary from the Camino, andit didn't take very long, but
usually there would be hoursbehind the getting around to
actually doing it because itfeels too big.
So that's yeah, emotionally, Ican see how much it's helping me
(36:50):
.
Thank you, chat GPT.
I'm actually really gratefulnow that I'm doing this podcast
because it's making me realizethings about myself and how I
work and, yeah, how many hours Iwaste in emotional overwhelm
and overthinking.
Let's see what it has to saynext.
So, staying true to myself, therisk with AI is losing your own
(37:15):
voice, but I use it to enhance,not replace, my thinking.
It doesn't make the decisionsfor me.
It helps me make better.
Oh, my goodness, that's spot on.
Woohoo.
Well, I'm quite blown away bythat.
(37:35):
That's it.
That's it.
I can finish this episode now.
It's right, that's completelyright, but only because I've
insisted on that.
That's it.
That's it.
I can finish this episode now.
It's right, that's completelyright, but only because I've
insisted on that.
So if I didn't want that, thatwouldn't be true.
That's not built into the model.
You have to build in what youwant.
You have to make it work foryou.
And one of the reallybeneficial things I find in
(37:56):
having to make it work for youis you have to be quite
demanding.
You have to know what you want.
You have to be clear on it.
You have to correct it if youwant it to get better.
And I don't know about you, butdoing that for myself, about
the people in the world aroundme.
You know, saying what I want,that's not always easy.
(38:18):
That's a challenge.
So practicing saying no, that'swrong.
I want this.
No, the way I say it is betterthan how you say it.
Now I don't mean you talk to ahuman like that, but practicing
identifying what matters to meand how I speak and my values
and then insisting upon themwith ChatGPT has been very good
(38:42):
for me.
It's given me clarity,confidence.
Yes, really good.
Right now it's going into outro.
How to end this?
Overwhelm is optional.
We don't have to do everythingthe hard way.
Using tools like ChatGPT is aform of self-support, not a
shortcut.
Sometimes it's a shortcut.
I'd say it's both.
(39:02):
I don't really know.
I can see what it's trying tosay.
I don't think it said thatparticularly well.
It creates shortcuts and is aform of self-support, but it
doesn't get rid of quality andintegrity.
That's what it's trying to say,isn't it?
It's quite nuanced there.
(39:23):
If this resonates, hit replyand let me know how do you
reduce overwhelm?
Well, that's obviously a mistake, because it's supposed to have
written a podcast script.
So you can see how it makesmistakes.
It's got confused between whatwould it be?
Oh yeah, the newsletter.
(39:44):
It's just, and it does do that.
It does get confused, which isinteresting, because you would
think that's quite a human error.
So I don't know.
I don't know.
I'm stuck between.
It makes silly mistakes.
This is annoying and I'm gladit makes mistakes because it
shows me that it's not actuallygoing to take over the world.
So, hey ho, then it says don'tforget to check out my books,
(40:07):
podcast and journal for moreways to stay focused on what
matters most.
So there, it's just completelyscrewed up.
Because the journal is one ofmy books, you are listening to
the podcast.
Oh, bless it.
So there you go.
That's what it came up with, notas good as me commenting on it?
(40:31):
I don't think, but some of it'sreally good and what I do like
is well, it's been a pleasure toco-create this episode with
ChatGPT.
Sometimes it gets involved inhelping me structure my thoughts
and sometimes it doesn't.
I'm wondering if you can tellthe difference in episodes, but
(40:52):
anyway, I've really enjoyedrecording this by getting in a
like meta meta way of oh, createa podcast episode on how I use
you and then commenting on how Iuse it and how it thinks I'm
using it, so that you can seewhat it's good at and what its
weaknesses are.
(41:14):
I'd love you to try out chat,gpt or one of the others,
whichever one is easiest for youto have, and just see if you
can get it to be supportive inreducing your overwhelm, holding
lists or anything, so that youcan think more clearly and have
(41:35):
more space in your head.
I really do believe AI is hereif we choose to serve us in
being able to have the headspaceto focus on both what we really
want to focus on and alsohaving the space to receive the
joy from the things we'vealready created.
(41:57):
I'd love to know what you think.
Obviously, you can't hit reply,like ChatGPT said, but you can.
I think you can leave a messageas a little message leaver
thing now on podcast, which isreally, really nice.
I'd love to know your thoughts.
Okay, have a great week.
(42:19):
Thank you so much for listeningand for being part of the
Overwhelmers Optional podcast.
If you want to continue theconversation, please do connect
with me on LinkedIn, instagramor YouTube.
Let me know your thoughts.
I love hearing from you and ifyou found this helpful, taking a
moment to share, subscribe andleave a review would be much
(42:39):
appreciated.
It helps other people find thepodcast.
If you're ready to turnoverwhelm into joy, you'll find
my books, resources and ways towork with me on my website,
heidimarkcouk, and on Amazon.
All the links are in the shownotes.
Until next time, keep gentlyrebelling and making overwhelm
optional for you.
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