3 AI Tools That Saved My Focus (And Can Save Yours)

In August 2025, I returned to Club 80 (會八十) for a second appearance. This time, the topic hit close to home: attention, focus, and how three specific AI tools helped me build a more productive workflow.

If you missed the first episode -- where we talked about why paying for AI tools is worth it and how most people never discover the features they're paying for -- you can read about it here.

Note: This episode is currently available to Club 80 channel members.

The Focus Problem

We live in an environment designed to fracture attention. Notifications, tabs, email threads, Slack channels -- every knowledge worker knows the feeling of sitting down to do deep work and surfacing three hours later having done nothing of substance.

I don't say this from a theoretical perspective. I have ADHD. Focus isn't a productivity hack for me -- it's the difference between a productive day and a lost one.

Over the past two years, I've found three AI tools that meaningfully changed how I work. Not tools that promise to "10x your productivity" (I'm skeptical of any tool that makes that claim). Tools that solve specific, real problems in my daily workflow.

Tool 1: ChatGPT for Information Triage

The biggest time sink in knowledge work isn't doing the work -- it's figuring out what to work on. Email triage, document review, meeting prep. These are the tasks where attention leaks.

I use ChatGPT's deep search feature (the one most paid users don't know exists, as I discussed in my first Club 80 appearance) to rapidly process incoming information. Instead of reading through 30 emails to find the three that need action today, I ask ChatGPT to scan my Gmail and surface what matters.

This doesn't replace judgment. It replaces the mechanical scanning that drains attention before the real work begins.

Tool 2: AI Note-Taking for Meeting Recovery

Meetings fragment focus like nothing else. You sit through 60 minutes of discussion, capture maybe 40% of what was said, then spend 30 minutes reconstructing the rest.

AI transcription tools (I use several depending on the context) solve this completely. But the real value isn't the transcript -- it's the freedom to be fully present in the conversation. When you know the AI is capturing everything, you stop context-switching between "listening" and "note-taking" modes.

The result: better conversations, better decisions, and zero post-meeting reconstruction time.

Tool 3: AI as a Thinking Partner

This is the one I find hardest to explain, but it's the most transformative. When I'm stuck on a problem -- a workshop design, a client proposal, a strategic decision -- I use AI as a structured thinking partner.

Not "give me the answer." More like "here's my thinking, here are three constraints, walk me through the implications of each option."

In my first Club 80 episode, I showed how I use infographic "cards" as structured prompts with ChatGPT. A problem-solving framework, a decision matrix, or a strategy canvas -- fed into AI as a thinking scaffold. The AI doesn't replace your judgment. It gives your judgment more surface area to work with.

Why These Three Matter

None of these tools are revolutionary on their own. What matters is the pattern: each one removes a specific attention drain.

  1. Information triage removes the drain of mechanical scanning
  2. Meeting notes remove the drain of split attention
  3. Structured thinking removes the drain of staring at a blank page

The cumulative effect isn't "I'm faster." It's "I have more unbroken stretches of focus." And for anyone who struggles with attention -- professionally or personally -- that's the real prize.

The Broader Point

In both my Club 80 appearances, the underlying message was the same: AI tools aren't about doing things faster. They're about doing things better -- with more focus, more depth, and more deliberate thinking.

The 76% of people who aren't paying for AI tools aren't just missing features. They're missing an entirely different way of working.

This post is based on my appearance on Club 80 Episode 049. The full episode (in Cantonese) covers these tools in more detail with live demos. You can also check out all my media appearances on my Media page.

Connect with me on LinkedIn for more practical insights on AI adoption.