The Pretty Shiny Things | AI for People Who Have Other Things to Do

You can love your work, work hard, and still have no idea how to turn it off. After three days of camping with my laptop closed, I came home excited for Monday, and I finally figured out why I’ve been looking at balance all wrong. This week: why your balance doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s, what AI can and can’t do for it, and the experiment I’m starting right now. If you’re ready for a different kind of balance, you’re in the right place.

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In this episode:

• Why I came home from a three-day retreat excited for Monday instead of dreading it
• The balance myth: why your balance doesn’t have to look like a pie chart, or like anyone else’s
• Why working hard and loving your work isn’t the problem
• What AI can do for balance (it can make leaving possible), what it can’t do (fill your cup), and how it can quietly make the work half of your life bigger
• Three questions to find your version: when you do your best work, what actually refills you, and what your reset rhythm is
• The experiment I’m starting: letting AI schedule my days for a week or two

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💌 The Shiny List: my weekly 3–2–1 for your inbox: 3 things worth taking from this week’s episode, 2 decidedly non-AI things I’m loving, and 1 AI prompt to steal and try for yourself.

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If you're still asking AI one question at a time, you're stuck on level one. This week: the four-part formula for actually handing off a whole task, tested on a real camping trip and a genuinely messy multi-platform inbox, plus why I let an app watch my entire workday on purpose.

Full show notes (every link and resource mentioned) are on the blog: theprettyshinythings.com/blog/5

In this episode:

• The three levels of using AI, and why most of us are stuck on level one or two
• The camping trip test: the lazy prompt vs. the full four-part formula prompt, and how different the results were
• The four-part formula for delegating a whole task: outcome, stuff, rules, finish line
• How the same formula works on a genuinely chaotic, multi-platform email setup
• Why I let an app watch my entire workday, and how it resets the "I got nothing done" spiral
• The one trick I use to get an outside read on an anxious email before I hit send

Tools & Resources:

• Little Bird — the app used to review the workday and read messages back with an outside perspective
• Episode 2 — outsourcing your executive function
• Episode 3 — picking one tool and committing to it
• Episode 4 — setting AI up so it actually knows you

✨ Grab the free 5 AI Prompts to Get Your To-Do List Under Control Today

Find me: 📱 Instagram | 📘 Facebook | 🎵 TikTok | 📺 YouTube

💌 The Shiny List: my weekly 3–2–1 for your inbox—3 things worth taking from this week’s episode, 2 decidedly non-AI things I’m loving, and 1 AI prompt to steal and try for yourself.

Hit follow/subscribe so the next one lands automatically. 🧡

You paid for the AI app, typed your question, and got back something beige, generic, and completely useless. It’s not you. We spent 25 years learning to talk to computers in keywords, and AI needs the opposite. This episode covers how to ask so you get real answers, plus the one-time setup that means you never have to explain your entire life to it again. If you’re an ADHD millennial who wants AI to actually work for your brain, you’re in the right place.

Full show notes (every link, the full swap list, and a copy-paste instructions template) are on the blog: theprettyshinythings.com/blog/4

In this episode:

• Why AI gives you vanilla answers, and the three questions to answer before you hit Enter
• “Don’t say this, say this instead” swaps that turn vague asks into real assignments
• Why the first answer is the first pancake, plus how to talk back and make it sound less like a robot
• “Gaslighting” your AI (an audience, a bet, a coworker who disagrees) and how to make it stop agreeing with you
• The three-layer setup (memory, standing instructions, and projects) so every chat starts in the middle instead of at zero
• The corrections list: how to write your instructions without inventing anything

Tools & Resources:

• ChatGPT—the app I started with, and the one that wrote me up
• Claude—where I moved, and what I use for basically everything now
• Full swap list + copy-paste instructions template—take the whole thing or à la carte what you want
• Episode 2—for the 1:00 a.m. “should I quit my job” reminder
• Episode 3—picking one app and sticking with it

✨ Grab the free 5 AI Prompts to Get Your To-Do List Under Control Today

Find me: 📱 Instagram | 📘 Facebook | 🎵 TikTok | 📺 YouTube

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For most of history, there’s been exactly one rule about getting ahead: pay in time, or pay in money. For the first time ever, both of those trades are available to basically anyone for about $20 a month—this episode breaks down the AI wealth gap and gives you the dead-simple way to actually pick an AI tool and stick with it. You’re in the right place.

Full show notes (every link and resource mentioned) are on the blog: theprettyshinythings.com/blog/3

In this episode:

• The real reason there’s an “AI wealth gap”—and why it’s the same time-for-money, money-for-time trade that’s existed forever
• Why tools that used to cost thousands now cost about $20 a month
• The dead-simple way to pick between ChatGPT, Claude, and the rest—without falling down a research rabbit hole
• Why committing to one tool beats bouncing between six of them
• Where these tools are headed next, and why that’s genuinely good news for a scattered brain

Tools & Resources:

• ChatGPT—better for chatty back-and-forth brainstorming, bouncing ideas out loud
• Claude—better for big, complicated, in-depth work: long documents, messy projects, files

✨ Grab the free 5 AI Prompts to Get Your To-Do List Under Control Today

Find me: 📱 Instagram | 📘 Facebook | 🎵 TikTok | 📺 YouTube

💌 The Shiny List: my weekly newsletter

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Everyone's worried AI is going to replace their creativity. My ADHD brain says the opposite is true. This episode is about why hyperfocus, pattern recognition, and nonlinear thinking make you and me built for the AI era, and how to actually use AI as outsourced executive function instead of just fancy Google.

📖 Want the full write-up? This episode's blog post goes deeper than the podcast—plus every link mentioned. Tap here to read it.

In this episode:

• Why ADHD brains are wired to thrive in the AI shift, not fall behind in it
• Hyperfocus, pattern recognition, and nonlinear thinking as an unfair advantage instead of just a diagnosis
• Using AI as outsourced executive function—brain dumps, prioritizing, and getting unstuck from decision paralysis
• What NOT to use AI for: the thinking, judgment, and decisions that are still yours to make
• How "Chad" (yes, my AI bot) helped land a book title
• Protecting your brain and your nervous system from AI's dopamine hijack
• The golden rule: AI should make you more yourself, not less

Tools & Resources:

• ChatGPT—My all-purpose AI assistant, including the voice feature I call "Chad"
• Claude—My go-to for long, complicated work
• Littlebird—watches what you're doing on your computer and builds SOPs from it

✨ Grab the free 5 AI Prompts to Get Your To-Do List Under Control Today

Go back to Episode 1 for the full story of how I got here.

Find me @hey.katmurphy: 📱 Instagram | 📘 Facebook | 🎵 TikTok | 📺 YouTube

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Keywords

adhd and ai, ai for adhd, adhd productivity, executive function, outsourced executive function, ai for millennials, hyperfocus, adhd brain, ai tools for adhd, ai and creativity, adhd and creativity, practical ai, how to use ai, ai boundaries, pretty shiny things podcast

Two years ago I was actively ignoring AI, on purpose. In this first real episode, I’m telling you exactly how that changed: the text from my best friend that started it all, the moment I realized I might be “the old person” in the room now, and what this show is actually going to cover every week. If you’ve ever felt like everyone else picked up a new language overnight, you’re in the right place.

Full show notes (with every link mentioned) are on the blog: theprettyshinythings.com/blog/1

In this episode:

• Why I spent years actively ignoring AI, on purpose
• The text from my best friend Siobhan that changed everything: “You should be teaching AI”
• The moment I realized I might be the one who’s behind now, after being the tech person my whole life
• Why this show isn’t me descending a mountain with AI wisdom—I’m figuring it out too
• The four lanes every episode will live in: catch up without shame, protect your peace, clear your plate, build a system that sticks

Tools & Resources:

• ChatGPT—where I reluctantly started
• Claude AI—what got my attention mid-30-day-challenge

✨ Grab the free 5 AI Prompts to Clear Your To-Do List by Tonight

Find me: 📱 Instagram | 📘 Facebook | 🎵 TikTok | 📺 YouTube

💌 The Shiny List: my weekly newsletter

Hit follow/subscribe so the next one lands automatically. 🧡

Feel like everyone else somehow learned how to use AI while you missed the memo?

Yeah. Me too.

The Pretty Shiny Things Podcast is for ADHD millennials who want to use AI to make life easier—without the hype, overwhelm, or feeling like you need to become a completely different person to keep up.

I’m Kat, and not that long ago, I was actively ignoring AI. On purpose. Now I use it every day to get some of the lists, calendars, admin, and general life stuff out of my brain and off my plate.

This podcast is about how I got there—and how you can too.

New episodes every week starting September 9th.