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Henry Godnick
Henry Godnick

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I stopped leaking money to AI coding and doomscrolling by fixing one workflow

#programming

I kept treating my two problems like they were unrelated:

  1. My AI coding costs kept jumping.
  2. My focus kept getting wrecked by feeds.

Turns out it was the same bug.

When I was distracted, my prompts got sloppy, I reran tasks more, and my token usage exploded.

What was actually happening

A typical bad night looked like this:

  • Start a coding task
  • Alt-tab to X for “2 minutes”
  • Come back with broken context
  • Fire off another vague prompt
  • Get mediocre output
  • Retry 3 times

That loop is expensive.

The 7-step system that fixed it

1) Set a session budget before I start

I now set a rough spend cap per coding block. It forces better scoping from the first prompt.

2) Track costs live, not at month-end

I built TokenBar because invoices are too late to change behavior.
TokenBar sits in my Mac menu bar and shows token/cost usage while I work.

3) Split “thinking” from “execution” prompts

Big vague prompts were my biggest cost leak. Small scoped prompts cut retries hard.

4) Kill feed surfaces during deep work

I don’t delete social apps anymore. I block the algorithmic feeds and keep utility surfaces (DMs/search).

I built Monk Mode for this exact use case.

5) Add a 90-second preflight

Before each run:

  • What output do I want?
  • What files/context are actually needed?
  • What model tier is enough?

This tiny check saves way more than any “best prompting hack.”

6) End each session with a handoff note

I leave a short note for future-me. Less context rebuild next session, fewer expensive reruns.

7) Review weekly by workflow, not provider

I stopped asking “OpenAI vs Anthropic?” and started asking:

  • Which workflow pattern wasted money?
  • Which task types had low ROI?

That changed everything.

The practical result

After one week of running this system:

  • Fewer reruns
  • Cleaner prompts
  • Lower token burn
  • More shipped features
  • Less doomscrolling relapse during coding blocks

If your AI bill and your focus both feel chaotic, treat them as one system problem.
That framing did more for me than any tool switch.

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