My AI Coding Assistant Was Quietly Stealing My Productivity 😅

#ai #webdev #programming #productivity

I recently noticed something funny while working with AI coding assistants.

I give AI a feature request, write a detailed prompt, and hit Enter.

Then AI starts doing its thing.

Sometimes it takes 10–15 minutes to generate the code.

So naturally, I'm not going to sit there staring at the screen for 15 minutes. 😄

I move to another task.

Then AI suddenly asks:

“Allow access?”

Meanwhile, I'm happily working on something completely different.

I come back later, click Allow, and go back to my other work again.

Sometimes the AI finishes the task while I'm away.

And sometimes... I completely forget that I even gave it a task. 😂

But there's another problem too.

If I decide to stay and watch the AI work, I'm basically doing this:

AI: Generating code...
Me: 👀
AI: Still generating...
Me: 👀
My productivity: 📉

That's when I started using a simple trick:

I give the AI the prompt → start a timer → move to another task.

When the timer goes off, I come back and check:

Did the AI finish?
Is it waiting for permission?
Did something fail?
Is the output ready for review?

If it's still working, I set another timer and continue with my other work.

This small habit has helped me avoid both extremes:

Waiting for AI = wasted time.
Forgetting about AI = wasted opportunity.

AI should work alongside my workflow, not become the workflow.

Sometimes, the best productivity feature isn't another AI tool.

It's a simple timer. ⏱️😄

DEV Community