Shortcutting Formatting using AI

Shortcut Formatting using AI
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    Hi! I’m Brandy Lawson, and this is Elevated, the podcast helping you build a better Kitchen & Bath Design business. In the last episode, we explored some real-world examples of applying ethical AI use principles in your business. Today, we’re examining another powerful way AI can help streamline your workflows and save you time: formatting.

    As a business owner, you know how much time and effort can go into formatting documents, tables, code, and even calendar files. It’s a necessary evil – you know ugly spreadsheets get no love, but it can also be a real drain on your productivity. That’s where AI comes in. By leveraging AI tools, you can automate and simplify many of these formatting tasks, giving you more time to focus on the high-value work that truly matters.

    How AI Simplifies Formatting in Seconds

    Let’s start with tables. In my own business, we often use tables to format information in proposals and internal documents. But creating and formatting these tables can be a time-consuming process, especially when dealing with large amounts of data. That’s why I love using AI to handle this task for me. By simply dumping a bunch of paragraphs into an AI tool, I can have it generate a beautifully formatted table in seconds. And if I need to make any adjustments to the table borders or styling, AI can help with that too, saving me the headache of wrestling with Word or Google Docs. (seriously, why do they feel the need to always be moving buttons in the menu?)

    Beyond tables, if you need information put into a spreadsheet, or a spreadsheet formatted in a specific way, AI can help there also. From generating a menu plan (yes really, you can do that), to outputting a sample project budget, you can have AI assist with spreadsheet generation and formatting.

    How AI Handles Complex Scheduling with Ease

    Another great example of using AI for formatting is with calendar files. Recently, I needed to add my son’s entire school year calendar to Google Calendar. For us, this is the way we ensure he gets picked up at the right time and can plan for school holidays. But with early release Fridays most weeks (but not all) and three sets of half days throughout the year, creating all those recurring events with exceptions is a task I dread every year. So this year I downloaded the .ics file from the school website, fed it into an AI tool along with details on the school day start and end times, and voila! The AI generated a new .ics file that I could easily import into Google Calendar, saving me the manual work and mental exhaustion.

    How AI Rescued My Broken JavaScript Bookmarklets

    But AI’s formatting prowess doesn’t stop there. It can even help with code. I use JavaScript bookmarklets in Chrome to pre-fill parts of forms, but when a Chrome update broke them, I limped along for weeks getting frustrated that my time-saving “hack” no longer functioned. I knew what I wanted the code to do, but I don’t have the JavaScript skills to fix it myself. Enter AI. By explaining the issue and what I needed, an AI tool was able to update the code for me, and now my bookmarklets are working again and all feels right in the world (well, at least for the moments I use them every week).

    The key takeaway here is that AI can be an incredible tool for increasing the value of your time and attention. By outsourcing and simplifying tasks that require knowledge, time, and effort, AI frees you up to focus on the work that moves the needle for your business.

    So this week, I encourage you to look for opportunities to use AI for formatting in your own workflows. Whether it’s tables, calendars, code, or something else entirely, there’s likely an AI tool out there that can help. And if you’re not sure where to start, don’t worry – search previous episodes for some great recommendations.

    What’s Next

    Next week, we’ll be talking about another powerful way to use AI in your business: quickly extracting information from meeting recordings. From action items and decisions to timelines and project phases, AI can help you capture all the important details without having to try to write down all of this during the meeting or comb through a meeting recording. So be sure to tune in for that.

    Are you all in on using AI in your business, but need some hand-on expert help? Book 15-minutes with me at fieryfx.com/chat to get personalized guidance.

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