I mentioned on Instagram that I’d spent several hours copying over multiple different calendars for the upcoming school year to my master (Google) calendar, which I live and die by. I put everything in there — addresses for playdates, phone numbers and names of nannies who will be with the kids at the playdate if need be, field names/numbers for sporting events and practices, etc — so I can be out and about and have everything at my fingertips. (Lan and I share this calendar so it’s also helpful that we can cross-check with one another.) Anyhow, this past Saturday, I copied over every single sports practice, game, tournament, religious ed/CCD class, school event, vacation date, etc from about seven different calendars into my own. I couldn’t believe how many Magpies responded to that post with: “Have you thought about using Claude for this?”
Confession: I’m a luddite on the AI front. This is partly, vaguely ethical, i.e., I will never use AI in my writing practice and therefore have created certain (possibly overly-obstinate) walls between myself and the technology, but it’s also a bit…lazy on my part? Incurious? I feel strangely lackadaisical about wanting to learn and use it. My sister keeps telling me I need to get on board, that by using it to take care of mundane/repetitive/low-leverage tasks, I can free up time to do more important and meaningful stuff. And I like that idea.
Even still, I wondered about the use case of Claude with the calendar task. Wasn’t there something intrinsically useful to me in the manual copying over of dates and places? It helped me see that not all of Hill’s Sunday baseball games are the same time this year — a detail I may have glossed over if just skimming the calendar — and also oriented me in the flow of the next couple of months. I’ve now mentally wrapped my head around their breaks, their random days off, their sports schedules. I don’t know. I feel braided into the routine in a way I’m not sure I’d feel if I’d just looked across the Claude-loaded calendar. The risk of a date or time being incorrectly copied over also nagged at me. I mean, I can always cross-check against the master calendar the day before, but doesn’t that obviate the entire effort?
I’m aware, in tapping this out, that I’m nit-picking in the way of all laggards. (The lady doth protest too much!) I want to replace that flinty circumspection with curiosity. So here is my attempt to begin to learn:
Are there ways that Claude and other tools have made your life easier, simpler, better?
Has it freed up time to spend with your kids or focus on more important strategic things in life?
Post-Scripts.
+Magpies weigh in on planning a smooth rentree into the school year.
+My morning rituals and routines.
Shopping Break.
+The $128 dress I want to wear right now. Loose and airy, but on-trend in that fun bandana print!
+Today is the last day to order from the Cadets sale! 40% off sitewide (!) – discount appears in cart. I placed my order yesterday, buying Hill basically a pair of shorts in every color available in the club style (plus a new pair of Cardios and mesh shorts) the next size up. Take a spin through their women’s section, too – pretty picked over, but there are still some fun statements, like this striped rollneck.
+Meant to mention that THE Donni pants were restocked in the good gingham colors on Monday, including green and blue. Try code SARAH10 or GABS10 for a discount.
+Have this new Faherty blouse in my sights. It has a Nili Lotan quality to it and would look so cool paired with Ruti pants / Nili Shon pants.
+OK, I might not use Claude yet, but I do have a very actionable motherhood shortcut I swear by: I order multiple of the same birthday gifts to dole out each year vs. scramble to buy a new gift each time a child is invited to a party. Last year, I got sooo many eight and nine year old girls these Hill House x Wetbrush hairbrushes, hair clips, scrunchies, etc (<<actually, these are all on sale now! Buy in bulk!). This year’s go-to gift is Roller Rabbit’s cute little coin pouches. I just ordered four different prints for the season ahead using code RRTHANKSYOU for a discount!
+Just got these cargo pants in and they are INCREDIBLE. Wow. J’adore. A great alt to the viral Flight pant if you’re a petite like myself; they hit right at top of foot. You can see me in my pair here; I cuffed them because I like to show a little bit of ankle.
+I put together a little Anthro Fall Favorites Edit here!
+Hello new SoldOut arrivals! I’m loving so many of their just-launched items, including this striped tee, this knit polo in the cherry red or demure charcoal, and this chocolate brown rugby! Every time I visit their site, I just want to wear sleek, elevated basics. AND – they restocked the tee in azure!!! The blue is so perfect for fall paired with navy, chocolate, marigold! Use code jenshoop.
+The coolest shoe I’ve seen on the streets in a long time. (Spotted in Norway.) Also LOVE these fringed loafers as we head into fall.
+Just got my navy blazer down for the attic. I just love her so much. The elongated, trim silhouette; the glossy gold buttons. Actually would like phenomenal with the aforementioned cargo pants and lugsole boat shoes. I love to throw on with basically everything in the fall months. Perfect for back to school night, teacher chats, meetings, etc!
+Trending among Magpies right now.
+Added the Cyklar sensorial body wash to my shower and howwww did I wait this long? As you know, I’m addicted to the luxe body lotion in this scent (HOW is it only $29? I keep thinking they’ll bump up the price to like $56 and no one would blink because it’s that good), and to the scent in general — I brought the purse rollerball with me on the plane and rolled it on my wrists multiple times during travel day, which is bound to have…unpleasant scents and moments. You can get all three of these products in a bundle at a discount here. Treat yourself!
+Fun short sleeved sweatshirt. Love it in the sky blue.
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