How to Boost Productivity With AI as a Freelancer

Everyone else is using AI… am I falling behind?”
 I felt that way, until I changed one habit. I stopped treating AI like a search engine and started using it as a start engine. When something sits on my to-do list because I’m not sure where to start (or, honestly, dreading it), I open ChatGPT and ask: “How would you tackle this?” It gets me from avoidance → action → refinement. Five simple ways I use it now: 1. The Ugly First Draft: “Give me 3 slide layout options and a rough narrative for this goal…”. Momentum beats perfection. 2. Structure My Thinking :“Turn these notes into a storyline: So What → Why Now → What It Means → What Next.” 3. Role-Play the Tough Room: “Be a skeptical CFO/CTO and grill this plan. What would you ask? Where are the holes?” 4. Template, Not One-Off: “Convert this doc into a reusable template + checklist so my team can repeat it.” 5. Tailor & Tighten: “Rewrite for an exec read in 150 words, then a version for sales with 3 talking points.” I still own the judgment and edits, AI just gets me moving. Less dread, faster drafts, better work. If you’ve got an “ugh” task lurking on your list, drop a hint (redact the details) and I’ll share the starter prompt I’d use. #AI #Leadership #Productivity #WorkSmarter

Are 24 hours not enough for you to get your work done? AI tools are the answer. Let me give you three quick hacks to improve your productivity and steal back some time. 1️⃣ Fireflies.ai I have Fireflies set to go to every meeting (virtually), if I miss one or forget a point, it gives me a summary and a video recording. The search the video by text is a huge time saver. My novel use is that I use it to summarize when I transcribe customer case studies. Then I bring them into a word processor and am able to have all the key points. I also am able to pull customer quotes from the transcript easily. 2️⃣ PromptDen by PromptForge I found myself writing my prompts over and over again or saving them in Notion and forgetting about them. I use PromptDen to save my prompts so I can just run them over and over again. I tweak them right in PromptDen so I have them ready. My novel use is that I create prompts for any task I do more than once a week. That's not novel. What I do is create series of prompts so that I can run a workflow. Example ↳ Prompt 1: Write an outline for an article ↳Prompt 2 :Create the article from the outline ↳Prompt 3: Improve the opening (I use a few shot prompt with a couple of examples I like. This helps get rid of the dangling participle that ChatGPT loves to put at the beginning of every paragraph. ↳Prompt 4: Provide a critique of the article (Just for the record these are complex prompts that have been optimized for my style not just the sentence you see here). 3️⃣ Midjourney Describe Describe is the lesser known but equally useful function for Midjourney for trying to create an image from something I see and I like(the one most common is /imagine for creati images). It can look at a prompt and then create four prompts describing the image and create four variations by default. My novel use is that when I see a cool image that I like and want to make a similar one for my blog, newsletter, ad campaign, etc. You can upload the image to Midjourney and then use the /describe function to create four descriptions of the image and then tweak them quickly to your own style. This beats searching endlessly through stock art sites. If you want more tips and tricks like this, subscribe to my weekly newsletter, The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise, Link in comments below 👇

There’s more to AI than ChatGPT and DeepSeek… Here are 6 AI productivity tools I can’t stop using: 1. Perplexity (Personal Researcher) When I want in-depth answers to urgent questions, I use Perplexity more than Google these days. It’s like having your own 24/7 research assistant — I use it to do industry research, competitor analysis, fact-finding, and much more. https://www.perplexity.ai/ 2. Substrata (Dealmaking Assistant) High-stakes dealmaking can get complex, making it hard to have a clear understanding of how things are going. Substrata solves this by carefully evaluating all the signals (across your calls and emails) to understand who has the upper hand in a deal — and how to get it if you don’t. My company closed two massive deals this year (both Fortune 500 firms), and I used this tool a ton. https://www.substrata.me/ 3. Gamma (AI-Powered Presentations) Create infinite presentations, websites, and more in seconds with AI. It’s saved me hundreds of hours already, and the end results always look great. https://gamma.app/ 4. Claude (Idea Generator) I use Claude 90% of the time, and ChatGPT just 10%. Why? Claude’s writing sounds more human and is really good at giving easy-to-understand concepts. I use it to get ideas for carousels/infographics and improve my LinkedIn content. https://claude.ai/ 5. NotebookLM (Infinite Knowledgebase) This is the most underrated AI tool right now… You can combine all of your knowledge (PDFs, recordings, blog posts, etc) on a given subject in a single place and get instant hallucination-free answers when you search it. The best part? It’s 100% free (from Google). https://lnkd.in/gAfYp_Kb 6. Tango (Easy SOPs) Creating walkthroughs and SOPs for new hires is incredibly important—but equally tedious and time-consuming. This is by far the best tool for doing that (and creating any kind of how-to) that I’ve found. https://www.tango.ai/ … Those are my favorites. Which would you add?

After using AI tools every day for the past year, one thing has consistently stood out in boosting my productivity: using AI as an expert transcriptionist. Think about the last time you visited a healthcare professional. Often, they’re typing notes during the conversation, dividing their attention between the computer and their dialogue with you. Now, contrast that with an ER doctor—when they’re in the middle of an emergency, they don’t stop to type. Instead, a trained medical scribe documents everything in real-time, allowing the doctor to focus entirely on patient care. AI can be a powerful “scribe” in any domain. Unlike hiring just anyone, this tool brings built-in expertise to the table—whether you’re building a go-to-market strategy, processing your accounting/finance transactions, or building marketing, campaigns and the associated content creation. With AI as your domain-specific transcriptionist, you can simply speak your thoughts, letting it handle the documentation and freeing you to focus on moving your work forward more quickly. Stop typing. Start talking. Let AI do the work for you. Have you tried using AI tools this way? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

How AI Helps Me Create Better Content: My Writing Partnership with Claude I've been using AI as a thought partner in my writing process, and it's transformed how I develop content. Here's my approach: First, I give Claude context - existing materials, interview transcripts, or data sets relevant to what I'm creating. This ensures the AI understands the depth and nuance of the subject. Then I define clear communication goals - who the audience is and what we're trying to accomplish. But the magic happens in step three: I have Claude ask me probing questions about my ideas. This forces me to articulate my thoughts more clearly and often reveals gaps in my thinking. Once I've thoroughly explored the concept, Claude creates an initial draft incorporating my insights. Having this "strawman" to respond to dramatically accelerates my process - I can quickly identify what works and what needs refinement. The critical step: fact-checking. I review everything carefully, looking for assertions that might not be backed by evidence. Several times I've asked Claude where it got a statistic only to receive an apology for making it up! Finally, I move the draft to collaborative tools where colleagues provide additional feedback. This approach has dramatically increased not just my productivity and writing quality, but the depth of my thinking itself. The AI doesn't replace my expertise - it amplifies it by challenging assumptions and helping clarify complex ideas. Want to know more about how I'm using AI to improve my product leadership? Full article link in the comments.