DEV Community: Purushothaman Ramanan

Title: I Let AI Plan My Entire Week — Here's What Happened

Purushothaman Ramanan — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 14:16:16 +0000

Body:

Everyone is scared AI will take their job. I decided to let AI take my calendar instead.

I asked ChatGPT to plan my entire week. Every task. Every meal. Every break.

Here's what happened.

Day 1: AI told me to wake at 6am. I don't wake at 6am. I did it anyway. Felt terrible.

Day 2: AI scheduled 4 hours of deep work. I lasted 2. My brain melted.

Day 3: AI suggested a 30-minute walk at 4pm. I did it. Best part of my day.

Day 4: AI planned my meals. Same thing every day. I gave up by lunch.

Day 5: I rebelled. Ignored AI. Did what I wanted. Got nothing done.

Day 6: Compromised. Used AI for structure, not control. Worked better.

Day 7: Learned the truth. AI is good at scheduling. Bad at understanding humans.

What I learned

AI won't replace you. But someone who knows how to use AI might.

AI is still developing. It already knows many things. It will get updated. One day, it may start understanding humans better. When that happens, it will slowly occupy some human jobs. But not soon.

People who work with computers every day say AI will only ever be a tool for humans. It won't completely take over any job. Because AI is still learning. It is still growing.

Use AI as a tool, not a boss. Let it organize. You decide.

Try this: Ask ChatGPT to plan one day. Follow it completely. Then adjust what felt wrong. Keep what worked.

Tags: AI productivity chatgpt experiment futureofwork

Title: I stopped using the same password for everything. Hackers found me anyway.

Purushothaman Ramanan — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 07:20:42 +0000

Body:

I thought I was smart.

One password for everything. Easy to remember. Never been hacked. Why change?

Then last month, I got an email.

"Someone tried to log into your account from Lagos, Nigeria."

I changed my password. The next week, another alert. Jakarta, Indonesia.

Changed it again. Another alert. Sao Paulo, Brazil.

That's when I learned the truth: I wasn't being hacked. My password was leaked. I just didn't know it.

Where I went wrong

One password for 20+ accounts — One breach means all accounts exposed.

No two-factor authentication — Hackers only need your password. Nothing stops them.

Ignored "password leaked" alerts — Ignorance isn't safety.

What I fixed in one day

Step 1: I went to haveibeenpwned.com and typed my email. Free. Took 10 seconds. Found out my password was in 3 data breaches.

Step 2: I changed every account to a unique password. Used my phone's built-in password manager (Google/Apple both have one free). Now I don't remember my passwords. I don't have to.

Step 3: Turned on two-factor authentication (2FA) for my email, bank, and social media. SMS codes every time I log in. Annoying? Yes. Safe? Yes.

Result: No more login alerts. No more panic. Just peace of mind.

What I learned

Hackers don't target you personally. They buy lists of leaked passwords from data breaches. Then they try those emails and passwords on every website — Gmail, Amazon, Netflix, your bank.

If you reuse passwords, you're not safe. You're just lucky. And luck runs out.

3 things you can do today (free, 10 minutes)

Go to haveibeenpwned.com — type your email. See if you've been leaked.
Turn on two-factor authentication — start with your email and bank account.
Stop reusing passwords — use your phone's built-in password manager.

I thought it wouldn't happen to me. Then it almost did.

Don't wait for the email. Do it today.

Tags: Cybersecurity, Passwords, Privacy, Online Safety, Beginners

Title: I stopped multitasking. My brain stopped feeling fried.

Purushothaman Ramanan — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 07:13:15 +0000

I used to be a chronic "double-screener."

If I was folding laundry, a podcast was blasting. If I was eating lunch, a YouTube video was playing. If I was watching a $150 million blockbuster movie on my TV, I was simultaneously scrolling through a $0 budget meme thread on my phone.

I convinced myself this was efficiency. I thought I was squeezing the juice out of every spare second.

But I wasn't a productivity genius. I was just a dopamine addict.

The Turning Point

Eventually, the cracks started to show. I noticed a bizarre trend: I couldn’t remember the plot of the movie I’d watched the night before. I was constantly re-reading paragraphs of text. My work wasn't getting done any faster, but by 3:00 PM, my brain felt like it had been run through a blender.

I wasn't actually doing two things at once. I was rapidly fracturing my attention, leaving a little piece of my focus behind every time I switched tasks.

I was exhausted, overwhelmed, and completely fried.

So, I decided to run a radical experiment: One week of radical mono-tasking.

The Rules of the Experiment

The parameters were simple, but agonizingly difficult:

Work: No music with lyrics, no open tabs unrelated to the task, just the document.
Eating: No screens. Just me, a fork, and the food.
Leisure: If a movie was on, my phone was placed in a drawer in the other room.

Here is what actually happened.

The 7-Day Breakdown

Day 2: The Withdrawal. It felt painfully slow. Eating a sandwich in silence felt like a form of psychological torture. My hand kept twitching toward my pocket, reaching for a phantom phone. I felt incredibly unproductive, even though I was doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing.
Day 5: The Breakthrough. I sat down to write a report that usually drags on for a miserable, distracted hour. With no background videos and no notification pings, I locked into a flow state. I looked at the clock when I finished. 30 minutes. I had cut my execution time exactly in half.
Day 7: The Realization. I realized that multitasking was never about efficiency. It was a coping mechanism for a short attention span. It was an illusion that allowed me to give 50% of my effort to two things simultaneously, resulting in mediocre work and a tired mind.

The Lesson: You don't need a longer vacation. You just need to stop forcing your brain to process three realities at the same time.

The "Quiet Brain" Result

Today, my brain is significantly quieter. When I work, the work gets done faster and better. When I rest, I actually feel restored because my mind isn't trying to digest a chaotic soup of algorithms, audio, and emails all at once.

We’ve been conditioned to believe that doing more things simultaneously means we are doing more with our lives. It’s a lie.

My challenge to you: Try it for just 3 days.

Pick one task. Do it. Finish it. Move to the next.

Give your brain a break. See if it finally stops feeling so fried.

Title: I stopped using YouTube for 7 days. My attention span came back.

Purushothaman Ramanan — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 07:08:13 +0000

Body:

I didn't realize I had a problem until I tried to read a book.

Three pages in, my brain wanted to check something. Open a tab. Scroll. Click.

I couldn't focus. At all.

So I ran an experiment: No YouTube for 7 days.

No tutorials. No background noise. No "just one short video" that turns into two hours.

Here is what happened.

Day 1-2: The itch

My brain felt naked. I kept reaching for my phone. Opening YouTube. Closing it. Opening it again.

I worked in silence. It was uncomfortable. But I noticed something — I finished my work faster. No 20-minute "break" that killed my momentum.

Day 3-4: The boredom

I sat with nothing to watch. So I cleaned my desk. Then my room. Then I called my parents. Actually called. Not just a WhatsApp text.

I wasn't consuming. I was doing.

Day 5-7: The reset

I picked up that book again. Read 10 pages. Then 20. Then an hour passed without me checking my phone.

My attention span wasn't broken. It was just buried under endless content.

What I learned

YouTube isn't bad. But using it as background noise for everything? That was killing my focus.

Now I watch intentionally. One video. Then I close the tab.

No autoplay. No recommendations. No "up next."

I got my brain back in 7 days. You can too.

Try this:

· Delete YouTube from your phone for 3 days
· No videos while eating, working, or falling asleep
· Just silence and the task in front of you

Your attention span is a muscle. Stop scrolling. Start using it again.

Title: I stopped checking my phone first thing in the morning. My anxiety disappeared in 5 days.

Purushothaman Ramanan — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 06:59:11 +0000

Body:

For years, my morning routine wasn't a routine — it was a reflex.

Wake up → grab phone → scroll.

Before my eyes were fully open, I was consuming emails, WhatsApp messages, Instagram feeds, and breaking news. Before I had even stood up, I was already carrying the weight of the entire world's opinions, problems, and demands.

Last week, I decided I'd had enough. I implemented a strict new rule: No phone for the first 30 minutes after waking up.

Here is exactly what happened over the next seven days.

Day 1: The withdrawal

It felt incredibly uncomfortable. I stared at the ceiling, my hand reflexively twitching toward my empty nightstand. I actually felt my heart rate increase just from the boredom. I had to just sit there and breathe.

Day 2: Micro-wins

Instead of scrolling, I made tea. I sat by the window and watched the neighborhood wake up. For the first time in years, I didn't look at a digital screen for the first half-hour of my day.

Day 5: The breakthrough

I realized something profound: my chronic morning anxiety was completely gone. That familiar, tight feeling in my chest that I assumed was just "part of life"? It hadn't shown up all week.

Day 7: True freedom

I genuinely forgot my phone existed until 9:00 AM. And guess what? Work still happened. Nobody died. The world didn't end because I replied to an email 45 minutes later than usual.

The reality behind the screen

The science behind this is simple, yet we ignore it every day.

When you first wake up, your body naturally experiences a cortisol spike (the stress hormone) to help you get out of bed.

When you immediately flood your brain with work emails, negative news, and curated social media feeds, you spike that stress level through the roof. You are essentially training your nervous system to operate in a state of fight-or-flight before you've even brushed your teeth.

Waiting just 30 minutes allows your brain waves to transition smoothly from a sleepy state to an alert, calm state, letting your nervous system settle naturally.

The 30-minute challenge

I am not a productivity guru. I don't have perfect self-control. I am just someone whose mental health drastically improved by reclaiming 1,800 seconds of peace every morning.

If you want to lower your anxiety and take control of your day, try this tonight:

Charge your phone in another room (or at least across the room from your bed)
Buy a cheap, old-school alarm clock so you don't rely on your phone to wake up
Commit to 30 minutes of zero-screen time tomorrow morning. Read, stretch, make coffee, or just stare at the wall.

Give it three days. You will feel the difference.

Try this for 3 days. Then come back and tell me: Did your morning anxiety drop?

Title: I deleted my shopping apps. I saved ₹8,000 without trying.

Purushothaman Ramanan — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 06:49:02 +0000

I didn't plan to save money. I just wanted to stop buying things I didn't need.

Last month, I deleted Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, and Zepto from my phone.

No apps. No "save for later." No 2am browsing.

Week 1: I almost reinstalled three times. Force of habit.

Week 2: I needed something. I opened the website on desktop. Took 2 extra minutes. Bought only what I needed.

Week 3: I forgot the apps existed. No notifications. No "deals." No FOMO.

End of month: I checked my bank statement. ₹8,000 more than last month.

I didn't earn more. I just stopped leaking money.

The apps are designed to make spending frictionless. Remove the app, add friction. Add friction, save money.

I'm not going back. My wallet thanks me.

Try it for one week. Delete one shopping app. See what happens.

Title: I kept my phone in grayscale for 30 days. I'm not going back.

Purushothaman Ramanan — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 06:23:50 +0000

Body:

I left my phone on grayscale. No colors. No bright red notification bubbles. Just black, white, and grey.

Here is what 30 days looked like.

Days 1-10: The withdrawal

The first week was uncomfortable. My phone felt boring. That is the point.

Without colors, Instagram looked dead. YouTube thumbnails lost their magic. I opened apps out of habit, then closed them within 30 seconds.

By day 7, my screen time dropped from 6 hours to 3 hours. I didn't try to reduce it. It just happened.

Days 11-20: The quiet

Something shifted in week two. I stopped reaching for my phone when I was bored.

I sat in waiting rooms without scrolling. I ate meals without watching something. I fell asleep faster because I wasn't looking at a bright screen right before bed.

My partner noticed before I did. "You seem calmer," she said.

Days 21-30: The freedom

By week three, I forgot my phone had colors. Grayscale felt normal.

I read three books this month. Last month I read zero.

I started cooking again. Nothing fancy — just eggs and rice. But I was present.

I stopped comparing my life to strangers on the internet because their lives didn't look beautiful anymore. Just grey squares.

What I learned

Colors are designed to hook you. Red means urgent. Green means go. Blue means calm. Apps use this against your brain.

Take away the colors and you take away the manipulation.

I'm keeping grayscale forever. Not because I hate technology. Because I like being awake in my own life.

Try it for 7 days

Turn on grayscale right now.

Settings > Accessibility > Display > Color Filters > Grayscale.

Leave it for one week. See what changes.

I bet you don't turn it back.