For years, I kept too much in my head: deadlines, facts, half-finished ideas. It slowed my thinking. Recently I started treating project management as a drive and AI as a processor. The split is simple and it is starting to work.
The drive is where the work lives when I am not doing it. For me that is Asana, our firm’s project management tool. A task carries a short description of the goal, real dates, links to source files, and the notes that belong with that task. Once those details move to the drive, my mind lets go and I have more room to think.
AI is the processor and the place where I work through ideas. I use it to test a few frames for a problem, check the order of a memo, and draft a rough pass I will edit down. As a companion in analysis, it helps me debug my own thinking. If a side issue starts to pull me off track, I let the model surface assumptions, edge cases, and cleaner routes back to the core question. I still choose the path and stand behind the advice, and I work within privacy and confidentiality guardrails. The speed comes from quick iteration rather than quick typing.
Holding the boundary between these two tools matters. Facts and records belong on the drive so I can find them later. Thinking belongs in the processor where I can push and pull on it. Each tool has a job. The drive keeps the memory. The processor applies the power.
I am building a few small habits so this becomes second nature. Put it on the drive right away; link the source where I will look for it; name things consistently; close the loop by returning outcomes and next steps to the task. Following the protocol is a gift to my future self because it keeps the system reliable.
This shift changes how the work feels. When my head was the storage unit, I spent energy keeping track of everything. Now more of the weight sits outside of me and I can use that energy to make choices. I still edit a lot, but I edit with a clearer map.
None of this replaces judgment; it gives judgment room to operate. I am not chasing speed for its own sake. I am looking for clarity with less strain. When the memory is handled by the drive and the processor is warm, I can focus on the part of the job that is most human: deciding and standing behind the work.
I see patterns. When the drive is thin, the processor feels noisy. When I skip the thinking space, lists multiply and momentum stalls. When both are doing their jobs, the work is calmer and outcomes are better.
I am early in this routine and expect to keep adjusting how I split memory from compute. For now the rhythm is steady: a client asks a hard question; I make space on the drive; I use the processor to see the options; I choose a path and write plainly. The responsibility stays with me. The system supports the person. The person serves the client.