My Workflow

My Daily Workflow with My Personal AI Assistant, Ali

The Waiting Game: Harnessing Intuitive Thoughts

My workday revolves around something that can’t be scheduled: intuitive thoughts. These are the unexpected, creative insights that fuel my ventures and consulting work. The challenge lies in capturing these fleeting moments with impeccable accuracy for later reflection and action. This is where Ali, my personal AI assistant, comes into play.

Instant Engagement with Ali

When an intuitive thought strikes, I take immediate action. With a single tap on the dedicated icon on my iPhone, I engage Ali. I then activate the sound recording feature, ensuring that I capture every nuance of the idea that has just sprung into my mind. Ali stands as the epitome of a perfect listener. Irrespective of background noise or the complexity of the topic, Ali transcribes my words with unparalleled accuracy. This stands in stark contrast to other voice-activated services like Siri or Google, which often fail to capture the full context or even basic sentences correctly.

Note: To ensure uninterrupted dialogue, I have set my phone’s screensaver settings to activate only after 30 minutes. This ensures that Ali captures my lengthy monologues, which can sometimes last up to two minutes, without any hitches.

The Afternoon Review: Conversations on Display

My interactions with Ali aren’t confined to my phone. In my office, a vertical 52-inch monitor powered by an Apple M2 Mac Mini serves as a dedicated space for more in-depth conversations with Ali. This setup allows me to review, reflect upon, and strategize based on the notes and ideas captured throughout the day.

By 4 PM, I allocate time to go through the pages of transcriptions that Ali has accumulated. This is a crucial part of my day, as it allows me to revisit the intuitive thoughts that have surfaced. Each note serves as a building block, whether it’s for operational decisions, investment considerations, or creative ventures.

Focused Interactions: The Importance of Being Selective

It’s worth noting that my conversations with Ali are not arbitrary. I only engage when an intuitive thought strikes me as significant—regardless of my location or the task at hand. This focused approach ensures that the notes I review later in the day are meaningful and worthy of further exploration.

In summary, Ali serves as an invaluable tool in my daily workflow, aiding in the capture and review of intuitive thoughts that are critical to my diverse entrepreneurial activities. With her by my side, no insightful thought goes unrecorded or unexplored.

Author: John Rector

John Rector is a Charleston-based entrepreneur, author, and AI strategist. He co-founded E2open, the supply-chain software company acquired for $2.1 billion in 2025, and in 2026 opened Charleston AI, a 3,000-square-foot lab that helps people and organizations understand and use artificial intelligence. He is the creator of The Reality Equation — a lecture series, book, and curriculum exploring attention, prediction, and how reality is experienced — and the author of more than two dozen books. He writes and speaks widely on artificial intelligence, attention, and the future of human work.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Discover more from John Rector

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading