Drawing upon AI tools

As a prose professional, I draw upon a couple of AI graphics tools when it’s time to show, not tell. Their job isn’t to dazzle anyone with special effects, just to quickly render an image. I do the prose part, and they provide the pixels.

My trusted AI Assistant doesn’t mind when I reach for Leonardo AI (found at, not surprisingly, leonardo.ai). It gives my digital canvas a generous daily allotment. With that, I can create realistic, occasionally improbable, images of consistently strong quality. The option for newer AI models is there if more power is needed, but the free tier handles everyday image-ening quite well.

When deadlines loom, I’ll open Microsoft Designer (designer.microsoft.com), which can produce a thumbnail or a concept sketch in seconds. It’s included in a Microsoft 365 subscription, which my authorly guild happens to require. There’s also a free version that is perfectly capable of quick illustrations.

With those tools just a few clicks away, the visual dimension of a writer’s work can be handled without breaking the rhythm of writing.

Tracking plans and priorities amid 21st‑century chaos

In olden times, those of us without an Exec Sec or even a Sec II Assistant carried fat leather‑bound calendars that we scribbled in and flipped through between meetings. Then someone invented the smartphone. It didn’t take many years after that for more than 250 task‑tracking apps to proliferate.

As a licensed late-adapter, I resisted the urge to switch apps each time a new one appeared. It has been a decade, I think, that this thing has resided on my smartphone, smartwatch, and stupid computer. That didn’t halt the tool’s evolution, and it seems to have been a winner for its developers. Today, roughly forty million people use Todoist.

Todoist nags me from every device and never hiccups. It understands my natural‑language tasks like “call Orkin Tuesday at 3,” and it will bug me at the appropriate time. Labels and filters divide my day into manageable rungs on a ladder of obligations.

I sometimes behave as a writer, drafting letters and course modules, and taking time out for dreaded dental appointments. The details and instructions all reside in Todoist.

Lately, the app has evolved with the addition of AI, but it is still recognizable and doesn’t have a scary learning curve. Among other new talents, the smarter Todoist can look ahead and suggest what to tackle first.

Those who are not already in the forty‑million‑user club can try Todoist free at todoist.com. The unexpiring free version is surprisingly capable. The Pro plan, about sixty dollars per year, includes the advanced features of AI and the capability of entangling oneself in many, many tasks.

Flowcharts, diagrams, and graphics worth 1,000 words

If you’ve ever tried to turn a dense paragraph or a multi‑step process into a diagram, you’ve experienced the pain. You open a graphics tool, drag a few boxes around, try to line up arrows, fix the spacing, and adjust the colors. About then you wonder how the clock has leaped forward another hour, and how you’ll have time to get your real work done. The diagram you’ve created is okay, but it owes you an apology for derailing your productive day.

The developers at

Napkin have seen the problem. Most conversations rely entirely on text, with ideas buried in paragraphs. Their online app makes visuals a normal part of everyday communication and helps people who never think about diagrams become visual storytellers. When ideas are shown rather than buried, the message is delivered immediately and colorfully.

Napkin converts raw text into clean visuals in seconds. Paste a paragraph, an outline, or a technical description into the app, and it will analyze the relationships and logic inside that text and generate multiple visual interpretations to be edited and exported. It’s built for people who don’t routinely nudge shapes around a slide.

You can check out its free-forever version at napkin.ai or consider the nine‑dollar Plus plan.

An AI-enabled device will move you

A glance at your wrist tells you that it’s time to get up from your desk. With SensAI installed, your Apple Watch, Garmin, or WHOOP becomes your personal trainer. Your smarter‑than‑smartwatch will rewrite your workout in real time.

SensAI is adaptive, meaning it does more than log your data. It reads your heart rate variability, sleep patterns, recovery signals, and daily rhythm, then adjusts your plan like a coach who knows exactly when you’re ready to push. The haptics are a kindly coach who won’t shock your system.

Are you motivated to explore the science behind SensAI? That’s available for inspection at Apple’s App Store. The basic plan starts around $6.99 per month, with an annual option that lowers the cost even more. A kind, smart coach can keep you moving in a healthy way.

Wisdom afoot

I get my best ideas while pouring a cup of coffee in the breakroom. That moment on my feet and the brief pause between tasks seem to trigger a flash of brilliance. Then I either run back to my desk, spilling coffee along the way, or I forget the genius idea and sit down with a full steaming cup and an empty cranium, returning to work.

If only there were another way to capture one’s best thoughts while away from a keyboard. Maybe a bone conduction headset, if there were such a thing, would make it easy to turn those moments into a real conversation with my AI Assistant.

It would rest in front of my ears, which stick out a little anyway. I could still hear the phone ring, my boss whining, or someone plotting an office takeover. At the same time, I could speak in my natural, calm voice and later retrieve my assistant’s clean transcription for drafting my takeover plans. It would pair with my personal distraction device, a smartphone, to capture my wisdom and voice my assistant’s unflagging encouragement.

Now my coach and assistant, Chip, tells me there are such things. “The human must tap the headset button, usually a small, flat circle on the left side just in front of the aural receptor.” We call them ears, Chip.

Chip provided this data about three devices: The Shokz OpenMove runs about $50 at shokz.com and offers a refined fit and high-quality microphone. Kimwood and Mionbel devices (brands offered at kimwoodaudio.com) often fall in the $25–$35 range.

A single tap awakens the assistant. A second tap pauses or ends the conversation. Paired with a smartphone, these headsets easily capture spoken wisdom. The bone conduction experience requires no surgery and can feel like having a good listener along for the walk.

Turn short triggers into complete, polished messages

Typedesk, from typedesk.com, brings in your best-written sentences and paragraphs for reuse anywhere you write. Blaze through email responses. Fill forms and fields without breaking flow. Your best writing can be available everywhere you work. Instead of rewrites or boilerplate assembly, you tap a trigger, and the snippet you wrote appears, ready for editing or sending as is.

Typedesk snippets follow you everywhere you write (Windows, Mac, or any major browser). Each is a reusable block of text associated with a shortcut like /update. Typedesk expands it instantly in documents, emails, or browser apps.

You can just as easily retrieve templates that include form fields. Trigger one, and typedesk opens a small panel asking for the names, dates, or other details that you normally insert. Free Text fields let you type anything. Multi‑select fields let you to choose from preset options. Random value fields pick from interchangeable phrases to add variation.

All of this is available on a free-forever plan at typedesk.com, which includes 50 uses per week and unlimited templates.

When the call ends, the notes appear

They look a little geeky, but there’s good reason to wear a headset during telemeetings. There’s no speaker‑phone blare, and you have both hands free to type and move that mouse around. But then you realize you need a third hand to scribble notes and underline the important facts. Or you can let an AI assistant handle that. If you’re not heavy into phone meetings, the assistant volunteers to scribe at no charge to your department or household.

MeetGeek, found at meetgeek.ai, seems unabashed by any appearance of, well, geekiness. It sends a bot to sit in on your Zoom, Google Meet, or Teams meetings. For the bot-averse, attendance can be either invitation-only or automatic. It accepts either invitation and will produce structured summaries that highlight decisions, action items, and key moments. Your MeetGeek assistant’s volunteer (free) service is limited to 3 hours of transcription per month, but it remains available by subscription.

A botless alternative, Tactiq (tactiq.io), uses a browser connection to summarize your Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams conversations. It captures quotable highlights at no charge if its monthly workload is ten or fewer transcripts and uses limited AI intervention.

By bot or by browser, an AI assistant stands ready to scribe.

a key to connect

When you’re writing at work, is an AI Assistant nearby to help with research, outline some key points, and critique that first draft?

In many offices, AI checks in through an app or a browser tab. Now there’s a call button for it. The Adesso EasyTouch 7000 is a laptop‑sized keyboard that includes a dedicated Copilot key. A click of that key summons your assistant, ready for its next assignment.

It’s battery-powered and has a USB-C port on the back for recharging. Prices vary, but comparison shoppers are likely to find the EasyTouch 7000 in the $30–40 range online and at big-box stores.

Would you extend an invitation?

Meeting bots offer real advantages and real controversy. They take on scribe duty, accurately capturing decisions and producing minutes that save minutes. But there’s concern over where the data goes, especially when proprietary decisions or personnel actions are on the agenda. It’s wise to weigh the minuses as carefully as the pluses.

MeetGeek (at meetgeek.ai) automatically joins online meetings and offers up to 3 hours of free audio and video transcription each month. Captions can be auto‑generated, speaker identification is included, and there’s even a bot‑free recording option available through the browser or desktop app when you’re logged into a MeetGeek account.

A seven‑day free trial of Sembly AI (sembly.ai) gives access to a tool that reviews output, syncs notes with CRM systems, and generates proposals, status reports, follow‑up emails, and more. Up to a year of meeting history can be queried to surface prior commitments and summarize insights.

Another meeting joiner, Tactiq (tactiq.io), captures decisions, action items, and quotes. It offers real‑time AI that answers questions and generates live transcripts. The free‑forever version produces ten transcripts and includes credits for up to five AI interactions per month.

Notes and post‑meeting reports generated by a bot can remind everyone who said what, which decisions were reached, and which topics were pushed to the parking lot. Potentially, they can be welcomed guests after their credentials have been checked, their access approved, and all attendees know there’s a scribe listening in.

Would you like distribution with that?

If an AI Assistant does research, outlines, or friendly critiques at your workplace, you might find Beehiiv (at beehiiv.com) worth knowing about. It gives your Assistant a tidy workspace of its own.

Beehiiv’s free Launch plan includes a newsletter, a website, unlimited sends, and analytics. But wait, there is indeed more.

Beehiiv isn’t just for newsletters. Workplace writers who produce announcements, internal updates, product briefs, or other recurring communications will find templates and a workflow that skips the blank page.

Beehiiv won’t elbow your Assistant aside. It doesn’t generate summaries or critique your drafts. It focuses on format and distribution, with read and click analytics available if you choose to publish through it.

Think of Beehiiv as a home base for any writing that benefits from structure. Internal comms teams can standardize updates. Product teams can handle briefs and release notes. HR can streamline onboarding sequences. Anyone doing repeatable writing can benefit from the Beehiiv buzz.

Browser extensions for everyday writing

Surfing the web is not like a trip to Maui or the nearest beach. Today’s World Wide Web is an ocean with roughly 200 million active swells. Reading and writing online is less like surfing and more like global navigation.

Free browser extensions and their upgrades can help chart the course. Any of these four will reside at the edge of the page, ready to assist with summarizing, extracting key points, and shaping the first pass of almost any writing task. The best choice among them will depend on the amount and type of online content that your work involves:

• Sider.ai is a generalist sidebar that summarizes, rewrites, translates, and handles PDFs.

• HARPA AI is especially helpful for writers who need timely, structured data.

• Merlin summarizes or revises the text you highlight on a page.

• Clico focuses on email and context reuse, reducing the repetition that comes with multiple open tabs.

All four browser extensions offer free versions that may be enough for occasional assists. You can find them in the Chrome Web Store or Microsoft Edge Add-ons, bring one aboard, and see how well it serves as a writing companion.

Save yourself an hour of inbox housekeeping

If you’re drowning in newsletters, automated alerts, and stray CCs, SaneBox will toss you a life ring. It filters and sorts incoming messages into folders it creates based on your response habits. The daily hour you save will cost $8.99 per month or about $59 per year. A free 14‑day trial is available at sanebox.com with no credit card required.

InboxZero offers another way to avoid daily unsubscribing and spam‑folder review. It clears out the digital underbrush so the conversations that merit thoughtful replies remain. It also “drafts replies in your voice.” A one‑minute video at getinboxzero.com previews the features. The starter plan is $20 per month (or $216 annually) after a 7‑day free trial.

Will human hands control the keyboard?

Workplace and creative writers everywhere have noticed that AI has become a formidable wordsmith. A faceless assistant seems ready to do the writing, given a basic idea and a pushbutton prompt. When that happens, the writer’s voice drifts toward the default, and interoffice communication loses its human voice and becomes faceless.

One option is to reject writerly tools, ignore the red squiggles under your typos, and beware of Grammarly’s blue squiggles. That insistence can cost you time and might not produce your best writing.

AI tools can collaborate on early drafts, reorganize ideas, or refine tone, but must be guided to do that. It’s your option. When you develop collaborative skills, you gain speed without loss of voice or professionalism. Some tools are designed with this partnership in mind.

Lex Pro provides inline help while the writer remains present in the draft. Its inner AI refines structure without chat window intrusions that might derail a train of thought. The monthly price listed at lex.page is $24.99.

Another potential collaborator, MailMaestro, can help with workday communication by expanding a short cue into a draft email. A 14 day full feature free trial precedes the $15 monthly subscription available at maestrolabs.com.

Compose AI brings collaborative spirit into a browser. Its autocomplete and rewriting tools can assist with updates and replies while you stay in the sentence. Pricing at compose.ai shows a free plan that’s limited to 1,500 words of AI-generated text per month. The premium plan is $14.00 monthly after a free 7-day trial.

Progress is in the cards

With Gingko Writer, the dreaded blank page shrinks to the size of a card. As you focus on one small card at a time, a coherent first draft emerges. When you’re writing reports, proposals, or tomorrow’s best seller, Gingko offers a quick route around writer’s block.

The guidance Gingko Writer offers is subtle, not generic or flattering. After the first draft, it exports your in-progress words with two clicks, never replacing your voice or redirecting your intent.

A 14-day free trial is available, and the price after that is $12.75 per month or $117 per year. Similar tools include Scrintal Pro ($9 per month, paid annually) and Heptabase AI Blocks ($11.99 per month after a 7-day free trial).

Replies for undocumented FAQ

If your work includes support emails, help replies, or customer follow‑ups, a visit to crisp.chat may be in order. Crisp is a lightweight tool that suggests improvements to customer‑facing responses. When used by support or communications teams, it helps maintain accuracy in Frequently Used Replies that never quite make it into FAQ.

The free forever version of Crisp includes a contact form and website chat widget for direct customer communication. AI assistance, however, requires credits. A reasonable expectation is roughly $5 for upwards of 100 AI‑powered actions, such as rewriting a message, summarizing a thread, or generating a suggested reply. Without those credits, Crisp still supports a team’s written work when the writing is fully human‑driven.

An AI Assistant for IT writing

Here’s a documentation tool that can ease the workload of creating simple cheatsheets or detailed handbooks for computer‑based processes. Trupeer generates steps, headings, and basic explanations of what’s happening on screen, then leaves room for human judgment to adjust and refine the deliverables.

If your target audience includes new hires learning internal software or customers getting started with your online products, there’s no need to begin with a blank page. Upload a screen‑captured workflow. Trupeer will shape that recording into step‑by‑step instructions.

Grammar is corrected and filler words are filtered out, leaving you with an editable text script. The voiceover it provides is also editable. You can choose the AI voice, language, accent, or style you prefer. The zooms, captions, and other callouts it adds to the video can be adjusted or removed.

Trupeer also generates a written guide from the same recording. Actions shown in the video are documented as procedures. From that draft, human hands can adjust steps, reorder them, rewrite explanations, or localize them.

If your work involves SOPs, onboarding guides, or internal references, a visit to trupeer.ai may be worth your time. A 10‑day free trial is available; after that, the cost is $49 per month.