Not Everything Should Be Automated
Not everything is about saving time. It's about solving a real problem and things that matter.
Everywhere you look, someone’s building an AI tool to save you time. There’s an app to plan your meals, one to write your emails, another to manage your money automatically. It’s all supposed to make life effortless. But lately, I’ve started to wonder if effort itself is the point.
A few years ago, I set up a budgeting app that tracked everything. It connected to my cards, tagged every purchase, and gave me neat little graphs. It was smart, almost too smart. But after a few months, something strange happened. I stopped paying attention. I wasn’t thinking about my choices anymore. I was just scrolling through summaries the app made for me, nodding along as if that counted as awareness.
Then one weekend, I opened a Google Sheet and began entering my expenses by hand. Each line was a small pause that forced me to notice. $6.50 for coffee. $42 for gas. $18 for takeout I didn’t really need. Typing them out made me confront them.
Over time, that manual habit started changing the way I spent. I didn’t need the app’s red alerts or “spending insights.” Just the act of writing it down made me more thoughtful. Before I tapped “buy,” I’d already picture the line I’d have to enter later. Some things suddenly didn’t feel worth typing.
Now I do this after every expense I make so I don't forget about it. I simply pull up my sheet and write them down one by one. Sometimes I add small notes beside them whether it was worth having that expense.
There’s something satisfying about this small ritual. It’s not anti-technology. I still use AI tools all the time. But this just brings me closer to my choices and I can see how I live day to day. Automating it might save time, but it would cost me awareness.
Doing it by hand keeps me honest. It’s like gardening versus buying groceries. Sure, the store is faster, but tending your own plot teaches you what things cost, how they grow, and what’s worth the effort.
So while AI can summarize my spending, it can’t make me care about it. That part’s still on me. And I think that’s a good thing.
If you want a simple way to start doing this yourself, Write It Down is a lightweight spreadsheet workflow. No bank connections. You sit down once a week. You type what you spent. You see where it went.