I woke up at 4 this morning, like I do most days. Right away my head was full. What can I build today? Which loose thread from yesterday can I close? What could I change in the setup I already have running?
That’s when it hit me. I’ve been telling people AI addiction is real. I’ve felt the pull myself, and I’ve talked to a couple of other people who feel it too. So this morning I took an honest look at what it’s costing me.
My sleep is fine. I’ve always been an early riser, so I go to bed around 9:30 and it works. Family time is on my calendar and I show up for it. Table tennis and my workouts are on the calendar too, and when I’m playing, I’m thinking about the ball.
So on paper, I’m doing everything right.
Then I looked at what’s left. The quiet at 4 a.m. The gaps between one thing and the next. All of it now goes to AI. I’m not at a keyboard in those moments. I’m just thinking about what’s possible, and there is always more that’s possible. In 20-plus years of working with technology, I’ve never used a tool like that. There’s no bottom to it.
Everything I protect, I protect by scheduling it. Idle time is the one thing you can’t schedule, so it had no defense.
I can’t tell yet whether that’s a loss. Thinking about what to build is a better use of a quiet minute than scrolling. But a mind that’s never idle never wanders, and I suspect wandering is where a lot of my better ideas used to come from. From the inside it all feels productive, which is exactly why it’s hard to notice.
And I’m the one with the calendar habit. A lot of people don’t have that. For them it does reach into sleep and family and everything else. There are already 12-step groups for it. One is called Artificial Intelligence Addicts Anonymous. Researchers at UC Berkeley followed a 200-person company for eight months and found that AI made it easier to do more and harder to stop.
I don’t have a rule for this yet. What I’ve found so far is simpler than a rule. When my mind starts racing in a quiet moment, I look around. I pay attention to the people near me, the objects in the room, whatever is in front of me. Plain curiosity about what’s right here. It pulls my head out of what I could build and back to where I am.
Guided meditation helps the same way. I use the Calm app, and it gives my mind one thing to hold: my breath, my body, something around me.
It’s not perfect. I’m still learning. But if your calendar looks healthy and your head still never shuts off, check your idle time. You may find it’s gone too.