Editor’s Note: This article is an opinion piece. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views, positions, or policies of Woodard.
This morning, I opened ChatGPT and discovered a new feature called Work. Work? I already have work.
Overnight, what had been familiar was suddenly different. I was not searching for a new feature. I was trying to start my day. I was technologically tired. Every week seems to bring another update, another feature, and another reminder that I am already behind on something I had not even heard of yesterday.
What was wrong with the model I had been using? Nothing. It did exactly what I needed it to do. I asked questions. It answered them. We had a perfectly good relationship.
Now there was something new. I did not want new. I wanted what worked. Why do software companies keep changing things that already do what we expect them to do?
One screen led to another, then another, then another. At some point, I stopped looking for a way to do my work and started trying to understand the software. Before long, I was lost in a technological rabbit hole. Every screen introduced another feature, setting, or application I was apparently expected to connect.
I was not drowning in work. I was drowning in options.
None of them seemed connected to what I was trying to accomplish. Every click required learning something new, connecting something else, or making another decision. This was not the kind of work I wanted to do. I just wanted to get things done.
Instead, I became overwhelmed, frustrated, and really cranky. I screamed a few words that would not survive the editorial review process at The Woodard Report.
Two hours later, I had clicked buttons, followed directions on where to go next, and changed settings. I was more confused than ever. This was not how I planned to start my day. I had become remarkably efficient at doing nothing.
That is the part nobody mentions when they tell us how much time AI will save. Every new tool comes with a learning curve. Every connection requires decisions. Some days it feels as if keeping up with technology has become the job. Am I the only one?
Maybe that is why I find myself thinking about simpler systems. I hit a big number on my birthday this year. I remember the old days. Remember Ditto machines? Those glorious contraptions that made copies before photocopiers became common? The pages arrived covered in purple ink and carried a smell that anyone of a certain age remembers instantly.
I loved that smell. When the teacher handed out fresh copies, I would hold them to my nose and breathe it in. Some memories never leave you. In fact, if somebody captured that fragrance and called it "Eau de Elementary School," I'd run to the store and buy a bottle today.
I am not suggesting we go back to Ditto machines, avocado appliances, and shag carpet. Our technology was less demanding. The machine made the copies, then we used the copies. Nobody expected us to create an account, watch a tutorial, or connect three applications before making a copy.
Before all this, I had a system that worked. It never asked me to update it. Every night, I write down "The Six Most Important Things I Need to Do Today." The paper sits on my desk. Each morning, I check my calendar, then my list, and start working. Nothing synchronized. Nothing integrated. Nothing sent me notifications about notifications. My system was basic. It was simple. Most importantly, it worked. When did we decide simple systems were broken? Who are we listening to?
If a process does not have a dashboard, an automation, and seventeen colorful labels, we are told it needs improvement. Better. Faster. More efficient. Why are we listening to them instead of ourselves? We confuse sophistication with usefulness and activity with accomplishment.
Accountants and bookkeepers face this pressure constantly. We are told to connect our practice management system to our email, our email to our CRM, and our CRM to everything else. Then we connect those platforms to a third platform, which updates a fourth platform and alerts a fifth platform that something changed somewhere. The software is working very hard and talking to itself. The only one left out of the conversation? Me.
I love AI. I use it every day. It has changed how I work and expanded what I believe any accounting firm can accomplish. In fact, some of the AI tools I use today save me hours every week.
I use Double to help me communicate with clients. I use Plaud to organize and summarize client conversations. I use ChatGPT to answer life's truly important questions, like, "Who won Survivor 50?"
Those tools help me work. They satisfy my curiosity. The challenge is knowing which tools belong in the workflow and which ones become the workflow.
Curiosity matters to me. I want to understand what is changing, experiment, and remain relevant. But curiosity does not require adoption. I can explore a tool without redesigning my workflow around it.
The fear of falling behind can make us adopt technology before we identify the problem it needs to solve. We connect everything because connection sounds like progress.
A tool can save five minutes on a task while costing two hours to learn. That is not necessarily a bad investment if you use it often enough. But if you only use the feature twice, you did not save time. This is where accountants have an advantage. We would never approve an investment without understanding its return. Technology should be no different.
What specific problem does the tool solve? How much time will it take to learn? How often will we use it? What will we stop doing after we adopt it? If we cannot answer those questions, we are not making a technology decision. We are reacting to marketing.
After my two-hour experiment, I returned to my "The Six Most Important Things I Need to Do Today" list. That was not surrender. It was a decision.
Technology should earn a place in your workflow. Before you add the next tool, ask yourself one question: Is this helping me do the work, or has learning the tool become the work? We are constantly told to move faster and adopt more tools. It is easy to believe that if we are not using the latest feature, we are falling behind.
I am not sure that is true. If your system helps you serve clients, meet deadlines, and get meaningful work done, you are not behind. You are exactly where you need to be. Trust your judgment. Trust your experience. Trust what works. If that happens to be artificial intelligence, wonderful. If it happens to be a piece of paper and a pen, that is fine too.
You do not have to chase every shiny new object, follow the crowd, or abandon a system that works simply because someone else thinks there is a newer, better way. The only thing that may need an upgrade is our confidence in ourselves. Sometimes the smartest decision is not adopting something new. It is trusting what already works.