From meal plans to gift ideas: Can AI help ease the mental load?

Until now, we’d usually turn to Google for recipes, gift suggestions and holiday ideas, but McGeorge prefers ChatGPT because you can get more specific suggestions faster, thus clearing mental bandwidth.

“Recently, I wanted gift ideas for $50 for a male cousin who’s 30 years old – it generated me a genuine list that I then distributed to the family,” she says.

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Indeed, the meal planning help is a godsend. I’ve asked for a week’s worth of quick dinner ideas containing vegetables and a protein for a family of four with a fussy three- and six-year-old. The suggestions included black bean and veg quesadillas; chicken fried rice with soy sauce and honey I’ve already got in the pantry; and a basic meatball pasta.

I chucked store-bought meatballs on a basic tomato passata with some grated carrot and zucchini and had dinner on the table in 15 minutes, while the fried rice took about five minutes after I poured rice from my rice cooker into a pan with frozen peas and corn and some leftover shredded BBQ chicken.

And while I appreciate they’re not groundbreaking recipe suggestions, when you’ve been stuck on a hamster wheel of zucchini slice and bolognaise since 2021, sometimes you just need someone – even a robot – to just tell you what to cook.

If you can use AI for idea generation or planning, McGeorge argues you’ll free up more spare time to spend on things that are more meaningful to you. “From a productivity perspective, it releases you from the mundane and repetitive tasks, whether it’s writer’s block or not knowing what to do in a situation – it’s that time you waste agonising over how to start or what to say,” she says.

“I think it’s going to release a bit of that energy that we normally keep pent-up when we’re stressed and don’t know what to do. Now we’ve got ‘someone’ to ask who is non-judgemental.”

The key is in the cues

If the answers don’t fit your brief, McGeorge suggests prompting your AI further.

“You could say, ‘These suggestions are a bit bland. Can you give me something more surprising or inspiring?’” she says.

“I think of it as my eager intern who’s occasionally hungover. They’re really eager to please and do a good job, but sometimes doesn’t get it quite right.”

Professional organiser and declutterer Amy Revell uses ChatGPT to write personalised cards for loved ones to save her time labouring over the right wording.

“I think of it as my eager intern who’s occasionally hungover.”

productivity specialist Donna McGeorge

“For my husband on our wedding anniversary, I wrote dot points like, ‘kind’, ‘loving’, ‘starting new job’, ‘proud of you’, ‘happy 21st wedding anniversary’ then asked for a four-verse poem and it was unbelievable. He didn’t even care that ChatGPT did it – he still thought it was really good,” says the host of the The Art Of Decluttering podcast. “I also used it for my kids’ Easter egg hunt. I asked for 20 easy locations around the house with one-line clues and it did something that would normally take me two or three hours in 45 seconds.”

Where AI falls short

Of course, there are many life decisions that ChatGPT can’t help with – it won’t pick up on the unhelpful habits I’m unaware of; it won’t select a kindergarten for my daughter; and it suggests consulting Yellow Pages when I ask for a local electrician to fix a broken light.

“It won’t replace a human coach – I pay attention to shifts in body language and changes in skin colour and tone. I’m able to look at the whole person, not just the words, so there are limitations to [AI],” McGeorge says.

Revell says that AI might help in freeing up time, but her preferred hack for reducing mental load comes in making household rules that reduce your daily decisions.

“A lot of women say ‘It’s easier to do it myself’ because even if we outsource the cleaning, we still have to make sure things are off the floor, the money is transferred, the door is unlocked,” she says.

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“I like to outsource the entire thing, so I’m not thinking about it. For example, in our house, my husband is responsible for our kids from 3pm to 7pm each day, so I couldn’t even tell you what time tutoring is. And at the start of the year I buy two types of kids gifts, so that when it comes to a kid’s birthday party, my kids can give them Lego or a Rubiks cube.”

But if you’re trying to work out which rules could help your house best, ChatGPT might at least offer some starting suggestions.

And as my AI friend will remind you, “The specific rules and activities may vary based on your family’s dynamics, preferences and schedules. The goal is to establish consistent and intentional practices that prioritise family time and foster a sense of togetherness. Tailor these ideas to fit your family’s unique need and interests”.

Roger that.

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