Last Wednesday at 11:30 PM, I was still at my desk stressing over the third version of a proposal. My phone buzzed—it was a screenshot of a social media post from Xiao Liu in the next team, captioned "Today's sunset is so beautiful." In the photo, she was standing downstairs from the office holding a milk tea, and the orange-red glow on the horizon stung my eyes.
I've known Xiao Liu for three years. She used to be just like me—the type who'd keep revising drafts until the security guard came to kick us out. Until last month, when she started using something called an AI writing assistant, and it was like she had a cheat code. What used to take her a whole afternoon to grind out for a product post now takes half an hour. And the quality isn't bad either—the boss nods in approval.
This really rubbed me the wrong way. Why does she get to leave on time while I'm here wrestling with words?
So I swallowed my pride and asked her. Xiao Liu was straightforward and showed me her workflow. Turns out she just throws the product materials into the AI writing assistant, enters a few key requirements like "keep it down-to-earth," "highlight value for money," "add a use case scenario," and within seconds a first draft comes out. She then makes some adjustments and polishes it—way faster than writing from scratch.
That's when I realized the problem wasn't that I wasn't working hard enough—it was that I'd been using brute force. It's like everyone else has switched to an electric bike while I'm still pedaling a bicycle—no matter how hard I push, I can't keep up.
After going back, I gave it a try too. The first time I used the AI writing assistant for my weekly report, I entered the few things I'd done that week, selected a "concise and clear" style, and what came out was actually clearer than what I'd normally agonize over. After that, for activity copy, emails, summaries—I'd let AI produce a foundation first, then build on top of it myself. The time saved was enough for me to grab a coffee and breathe.
Honestly, these days, working smart matters way more than working hard. The tools are right there—whether to use them is up to you. If you're still like I used to be, staying up late editing drafts every night, you really should try a different approach. After all, overtime is never-ending, but the sunset only lasts a moment.