Last month I had two problems:
1) my AI coding usage kept spiking randomly
2) my focus collapsed every time I opened "just one" social app
I’m a solo Mac dev, so both problems hit revenue directly.
Here are the 7 rules that actually worked for me.
1) Budget per session, not per month
A monthly number is too fuzzy.
I started treating each coding session like a mini budget:
- what am I building?
- what's the stop condition?
- what is the max spend for this session?
That single shift made my costs predictable.
2) Track token burn while you work (not after)
I used to check spend only when I got nervous.
Bad move.
Now I keep a live menu bar counter running with TokenBar (tokenbar.site).
Seeing cost in real time changes behavior fast.
You stop asking for giant rewrites "just to see."
3) Create a “retry tax” rule
Most of my waste came from sloppy retries.
If a prompt fails twice, I don’t brute-force it.
I pause, tighten context, and reduce ambiguity.
This alone cut a surprising amount of token churn.
4) Kill feeds before deep work
My biggest context-switch trigger wasn’t Slack.
It was feeds.
One open feed = 40 minutes gone.
I now block feed-level distractions with Monk Mode (mac.monk-mode.lifestyle) during build blocks.
Not websites broadly — just the feed surfaces that suck attention.
5) Use "boring" overnight checklists
Before sleep, I run a tiny checklist:
- tasks scoped?
- spend limits clear?
- stop conditions clear?
- distractions blocked for morning startup?
Boring systems beat motivation every time.
6) Separate “explore” from “ship”
If I’m exploring, cost can be higher.
If I’m shipping, I optimize for clear output and minimum loopbacks.
Mixing these modes was expensive.
Separating them made both faster.
7) Measure focus like a metric
I track 2 numbers daily:
- total AI spend
- uninterrupted deep-work blocks
If one goes up and the other goes down, I know exactly where to intervene.
What changed in practice
After applying these rules consistently, I stopped feeling blindsided by both bills and brain fog.
I’m still a solo builder, still moving fast — but now it feels controlled.
If you’re building with AI every day, don’t just optimize prompts.
Optimize your spend visibility and attention environment too.
Those two multipliers compound harder than most people expect.
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