I'm Reclaiming My Time (And Using AI to Do It)

How forced recovery became my wake-up call about platforms, algorithms, and where my time actually goes

I’m slowly still recovering from what my body decided was the perfect time for a medical emergency. Four to six more weeks of this, they tell me. And honestly? It’s been the best worst thing that could have happened (I shared what happened in last week’s newsletter here).

Because when you’re forced to be still, really still, your mind catches up to what your body has been screaming at you for months. Maybe years.

I had my moment. My realization. My complete shift in perspective about what I’ve been doing and what’s “required” for online business to grow, market, and "scale” (assume the quote usage is sarcasm here).

The “We Do Not Care” Club

There’s a woman named Melani Sanders who started a movement for perimenopausal, menopausal, and post-menopausal women called the “We Do Not Care Club." One of my favorite examples: “We do not care if it says it is not dishwasher safe; it is now.”

That’s the energy I’m bringing to this realization.

Stick with me, though, because this not-so-little epiphany of mine feels like massive freedom, and I’m hoping it will do the same for you.

This is directed at all the platforms and big tech that have made billions off users who create free content for them (while they gather our data and sell traffic to advertisers).

✔️ We do not care if the algorithm prefers carousels. We’re making what we want to make.

✔️ We do not care if the platform says to post at 3 PM on Thursdays. We’re creating on our own schedule.

✔️ We do not care if it’s “best practice” to reply to every comment within the first hour. We’re building actual relationships, not feeding engagement metrics.

I spent years—years—trying to optimize for platforms.

Learning their preferences. Adapting to their changes. Dancing to their tune. And for what? So Meta can harvest data to sell ads? So TikTok can keep people scrolling past my work to the next dopamine hit or sell to yet another billionaire for more data?

Meanwhile, I’ve been connecting with real humans on Substack.

Having actual conversations on YouTube. Building relationships that matter. These platforms aren’t perfect, but at least they’re tools for connection rather than systems that extract it.

Using AI to Reclaim My Time

Here’s where this gets interesting, and where I might sound a little hypocritical given that I literally teach people how to use AI for content creation.

I’m not saying don’t use these platforms. I’m not burning any boats (been there, done that).

What I am saying is this: I want to utilize AI to reclaim my time, allowing me to spend it on what truly matters.

I had this thought while chatting with Claude: What if I tracked my time based on the task, added in my hourly rate, stated whether or not this was something I could create an automation for, and then measured if the task I was working on was before or after the automation (it’s a work in progress, I’ll show you tomorrow).

What if I could see, in actual dollars, what I was spending on appeasing algorithms versus building relationships? What if I automated everything that didn’t require my actual creative brain, so I could focus on the stuff only I can do?

So I’m building a time-tracking system in Mocha. Start and stop. Before and after. Real numbers.

Real choices about where my energy goes.

Because at the end of this recovery period—at the end of my life, honestly—I don’t want my legacy to be “she was really good at Instagram carousels.” I want it to be “she created things that mattered and connected with people who mattered to her.”

All of the major platforms answer to shareholders; they don’t care about the users (not that this was news to me).

I think it was the release of Sora 2 (still waiting on an invite), which, if you’re not familiar with it, is OpenAI’s new “social platform” to rival TikTok (although once a TikTok sale goes through, it will be interesting to see what happens)… but the entire platform is AI video. 😳

At first, I thought, “What the bucket… seriously?!?!”

Then I sat with it for a minute and realized how much I had pulled back from social media over the last year in terms of sharing personal things. (I don’t think of Substack or YouTube as social media.)

All of a sudden, I saw the whole idea in a different light.

I want to connect with real people and foster genuine relationships, but that doesn’t happen by appeasing a constantly changing algorithm.

*Side note: I don’t like the idea or agree with using anyone else’s likeness in videos they have no control over. I’m simply referring to content about me & my business.

This Is Just the Beginning

This isn’t a manifesto.

It’s not a call to abandon social media or rage against the machine.

It’s a reframe. A reclaiming. An awakening.

I’m running an experiment, and I’m going to share what I learn. On Thursday, I’ll send out the newsletter with the actual tactical stuff—what I’m building in Mocha, which automations I’m setting up, and how I’m using AI to handle the algorithm-feeding so I can focus on creating and connecting.

But today, I just wanted to tell you about my “a-ha” moment.

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P.S. If you’re reading this and thinking “yes, this, exactly this”—I see you. We’re going to figure this out together. Stay tuned for Thursday’s newsletter, where I share what I’m actually doing about it.