tasks

Microsoft wants Copilot to do more complex tasks. To achieve this, it has turned to Anthropic AI

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For a long time, when we talked about artificial intelligence at Microsoft, there was one name that came up again and again: OpenAI. The relationship between both companies was decisive for the takeoff of ChatGPT and also for the launch of Copilot. But the AI ​​board is moving quickly. New models, new players and increasingly intense competition are pushing large technology companies to diversify their bets. In that context, Microsoft’s latest move is understood. The advertisement. Microsoft has decided to integrate Anthropic technology within Copilot, the assistant that is already part of tools such as Outlook, Teams or Excel within Microsoft 365. Among the new features is coworka tool based on Anthropic technology aimed at facilitating tasks within the work environment. But that’s not all: Claude’s models will also be available within the Copilot chatbot alongside the more advanced OpenAI models, thus expanding the capabilities of the assistant without depending on a single artificial intelligence provider. From asking for something to delegating work. Microsoft explains that Cowork is designed to go a step beyond the classic model of an assistant who answers questions or writes texts. The idea is that Copilot can take care of entire tasks within Microsoft 365. When the user makes a request, the system converts it into a work plan that runs in the background. To do this, it uses data from Outlook, Teams or Excel. From there, in theory, you propose actions, ask for clarification if needed, and allow the user to review or approve each step before the changes are applied. Some examples. Let’s imagine, for example, that we ask Copilot to review our agenda in Outlook. The system could analyze the calendar, detect conflicts between meetings and identify lower priority meetings. From there I would propose different adjustments, such as rescheduling some appointments or reserving blocks of time to focus on more important tasks. Once those suggestions are reviewed and approved, the system itself could apply the changes automatically, accepting, rejecting or rescheduling meetings and reserving blocks of time to focus on other tasks. The strategy. As we noted above, the move also reflects how Microsoft’s AI strategy is changing. The company has maintained a very close relationship with OpenAI for years and continues to be one of its largest shareholders, with a stake close to 27% after investments of around $13 billion since 2019. However, the rise of new models and the rapid evolution of the sector are pushing large technology companies to not depend on a single technology. Incorporating Anthropic tools within Copilot points precisely in that direction: building an ecosystem capable of relying on different models depending on the task. Platforms before models. What we are seeing with decisions like this is that the race for AI is not limited to developing increasingly advanced models. It’s also about deciding where those capabilities are going to live. In the case of Microsoft, the answer seems quite broad: The company has been integrating Copilot into more and more products and services in its ecosystem (and also external ones). For some users, this constant presence can be very useful; For others it can be somewhat invasive. But beyond these perceptions, the movement clearly shows Microsoft’s strategy. On the whole. So this is not just about adding another technology within Copilot, but rather reinforcing the idea that Microsoft wants to turn this assistant into a meeting point for different AI capabilities within its software. Incorporating Anthropic models alongside those of OpenAI points precisely to that scenario. Rather than relying on a single technology, the company appears to be laying the groundwork for a Copilot capable of combining different solutions as the AI ​​market continues to evolve. Images | Microsoft In Xataka | The best and worst of the Internet we know has been built on anonymity. AI brings bad news

The best AI agents that are faster and easier to use to do tasks for you without complications or long installations

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Let’s tell you the best fast and easy AI agents to use, without complicated installations and configurations. This type of AI agent They are less complete and powerful than the more complete and advanced ones, but they allow you to explore how the artificial intelligence can do tasks for you. We are going to make a small list to stick to the best alternatives. Many are quite popular, others are more unknown, and we even ended up with an open source alternative for privacy lovers. Claude Cowork Claude Cowork It is possibly the best and simplest tool to test the benefits of a medicine, but in a controlled way. It is a paid feature that you can use within the desktop application of Claude. The price to use it starts at 15 euros per month. Claude Cowork allows Claude’s AI to manage files and use applications on your computer. You tell him what you want, and Claude will find the best way to do it. Also, if you install the extension Claude in Chrome in your browser, Cowork will also be able to do things for you in the browser. Perplexity Comet Comet is the browser with artificial intelligence Perplexitya platform that started as a search engine based on artificial intelligence, and now it is much more. It is now a chatbot that allows you to use various artificial intelligence models, such as Gemini, GPT or Claude. The Comet browser has the peculiarity that can use AI to do tasks for yousuch as browsing you, interacting with websites, automating tasks, searching and filtering information, managing workflows and other tasks such as comparing prices on multiple pages. Manus on Telegram Manus is an autonomous AI agent, to which you can give a high-level objective and it works on its own to achieve it. Tasks are asynchronous, so you can ask it to do something, turn off the computer, and receive a notification when the work is completed. Manus also has the ability to used in Telegram chats like a bot With this, you will be able to use Manus directly from the messaging app and without entering its official website or application, and then you will be able to access them to see the result of AI research, web development, design, whatever you have asked. ChatGPT Agent ChatGPT also has an agent mode in your application. With it, you will be able to interact directly on web pages, ChatGPT will act on your behalf to book appointments, create presentations and perform other complex tasks. Of course, to use it you will need have a paid subscription in AI. Genspark This platform is a kind of all-in-one AI worksspace. It is not exactly a chatbot but acts in a similar way to the concept of an agent, planning taskschoosing the correct tools to do it, and chaining the steps autonomously. With this tool you will be able to create applications, documents, designs, images, music, spreadsheets and more. It has a free plan with limited access, although you will have to pay to access everything. Also has more than 80 toolsand eight language models of different sizes, each for a task. AgentGPT This was one of the first services to make AI agents accessible from the browser without having to install anything. It works similar to the previous ones, you have to write what you want with natural language, the agent divides this into subtasks, and then executes them autonomously. Kuse Cowork Kuse is an open source alternative to use an agent capable of helping you perform tasks on your computer. It can generate documents and presentations, transform d oc files, PDFs, you can also create mind maps, interact with YouTube videos and more. It is therefore an open alternative to Claude Cowork, where you can decide which AI models to use attaching them with their API, or even installing them directly on your computer. In Xataka Basics | How to create a Telegram bot that sends you a summary made by Gemini of each email you receive in Gmail and other emails

repeating tasks until boredom

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Despite the great achievements that They have been harvesting some humanoid robots In recent years, in terms of the naturalness of their movements and household chores, they are still green enough to be put on sale to the mass public. Firstly because of the price, and secondly because what they say they do, they still do little effectively. teaching. In China they have already realized that, in order for them to be as effective as we hope, we have to teach them how to do things. In this sense, the country has already launched a network of more than 40 public training centers where human workers, equipped with virtual reality headsets and motion sensors, repeat everyday actions hundreds of times a day such as opening a microwave, folding clothes or tightening screws. The objective is none other than to generate the movement data that humanoid robots need to learn to perform these tasks autonomously. National priority. The Chinese government has identified embodied artificial intelligence, which is AI in physical form, as a national priority, which has sparked a wave of investment in robotics. The country is already home to more than 150 companies dedicated to humanoid robots and seeks to position itself as a world power in a sector that Goldman Sachs esteem could reach $38 billion in 2035. Why do they need so much human data. Unlike large language models, which are trained with texts available on the Internet, robots require much more complex data sets: visual information, joint movements, rotations and adaptations to unpredictable environments. And, just as they explain Since Rest of World, this information cannot be easily extracted from the web. Chinese local governments are addressing this shortage with state-funded facilities, typically built by public administrations and operated by robotics companies. How training works. The middle highlights the case of Kim, a 20-year-old computer science student who works as a trainer at a startup in Shanghai. “We call ourselves cyber workers. It’s a decent job, if a little boring,” according to account to the middle. In the country’s largest training center, located in the Shijingshan district of Beijing and developed in collaboration with the Leju company, they work with 1.66 meter high “Kuafu” robots. Just like explains In the middle, each robot is assigned two human trainers who, using motion capture devices, record between 200 daily action sequences. An example: Teaching a robot to place a frying pan on a stove required 1,250 repetitions, according to details People’s Daily Online. The spaces where robots “study”. The most complete installations replicate real-world scenarios on a full scale. These can range from automobile assembly lines and logistics warehouses to domestic kitchens and bedrooms. The Beijing center occupies more than 10,000 square meters and offers 16 specific scenarios, including environments simulating automobile factories, smart homes and nursing homes, as exposes the middle. At another facility in Hubei province, nearly 100 human-controlled humanoid robots practice movements such as ironing or wiping tables hundreds of times a day. “It’s like teaching children to walk with a lot of practice,” counted a spokesperson for the project spoke to the media. It is not the most efficient method. Several robotics researchers still debate whether recording human movements, a laborious and slow process, is really the best way to create fully intelligent robots. Ken Goldberg, a robotics researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, declared to Rest of World that this is “a noble effort and there is a lot of hope right now that this will work, but it is slow. Even if you have hundreds of people working, it will take a long time to get enough data.” Yesovercapacity. China’s National Development and Reform Commission issued a warning in November about the risks of a bubble in the humanoid robotics industry. Marco Wang, analyst at Interact Analysis, account told Rest of World that “there are some potential bubbles” because the model may generate overcapacity. While mass commercial use still seems distant, some of the largest orders come from the public sector, such as the case of the company UBTech Robotics, which sold humanoid robots worth $80 million to three data collection centers in China, according to account the middle. The first “graduated” robots are already working. Robots trained at these centers have acquired more than 20 operational skills, with success rates greater than 95%, according to they count from People’s Daily Online. Some are already deployed, handling materials at factories for state-owned automaker China FAW Group, working as couriers for Shenzhen Capital Group or carrying out inspections at electrical facilities. Images | Shijingshan Robotic Center In Xataka | China is winning the humanoid robot race. The problem is that this race doesn’t really exist.

We are entering an era in which robots with AI are becoming increasingly popular. LG already has its own to help us with household tasks

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LG Electronics has CLOiD officially announcedits first multitasking home robot powered by artificial intelligence, which is being presented to the public for the first time at CES 2026 in Las Vegas. The goal is for this robot to be able to automate a good part of household tasks, going beyond the basic cleaning functions to which current robots are accustomed. Below these lines we tell you all the details. LG’s first robot for domestic work According to LG, CLOiD is capable of performing complex tasks like getting milk from the refrigerator, putting a croissant in the oven for breakfast, and even taking care of the laundry: from starting wash cycles to folding and stacking clothes once they’re dry. The company is demonstrating these capabilities in various domestic scenarios during the technology fair. The robot has two articulated arms with seven degrees of freedom each. The shoulders, elbows and wrists allow forward, backward, rotational and lateral movements, while each hand includes five fingers that move independently to manipulate objects with precision. The torso can be tilted to adjust its height, allowing it to pick up objects from knee height upwards, although not off the ground. An intelligent “head” as a control center The CLOiD top unit functions as a mobile smart home control center. It is equipped with a chip that acts as the robot’s brain, screen, speaker, cameras, various sensors and generative artificial intelligence by voice. These components allow the robot to communicate with people using spoken language and “facial expressions” on its screen, learn users’ living patterns, and control connected home appliances. Integration with LG’s ThinQ and ThinQ ON ecosystem allows CLOiD to work more fully with the South Korean brand’s products, essentially acting as a hands-on smart home hub. Physical AI Technology: VLM and VLA At the core of CLOiD is what LG calls physical AI technology, which combines two models: Vision Language Model (VLM), which converts images and video into structured language-based understanding, and Vision Language Action (VLA), which translates visual and verbal inputs into physical actions. According to the company, these models have been trained with tens of thousands of hours of data on household tasks, allowing the robot to recognize appliances, interpret the user’s intent and execute appropriate actions. The wheeled base uses autonomous driving technology derived from LG’s experience with robot vacuum cleaners and his Q9 model. According to the company, this configuration was chosen for its stability, safety and cost-effectiveness, with a low center of gravity that reduces the risk of overturning if a child or pet comes into contact with it. One more step in LG’s home robotics CLOiD isn’t the only robot capable of folding clothes showing at CES this year. SwitchBot is also showing its Onero H1 with similar capabilities. However, everything indicates that at the moment LG seems to be considering CLOiD more as a concept than as a product that they are going to really sell in the short term. The company says it will continue to develop home robots with practical functions and shapes for household tasks, and expand the application of its robotic technology to conventional home appliances. The ultimate goal, according to Steve Baekpresident of LG’s home appliance solutions division, is to achieve its vision of “Zero Labor Home,” “making housework a thing of the past so customers can spend more time on the things that really matter.” Autonomous robots with generative artificial intelligence are beginning to conquer technology fairs. They are the perfect setting to attract the masses, so it remains to be seen if they end up convincing enough so that in a few years we will see them hogging store shelves. Among other factors, the price will be what decides if the move really pays off. Images | LG In Xataka | The technology industry has been searching for the “next smartphone” for a decade. Now he thinks he found it with AI

AI promised to free senior employees from tedious work. In reality it is loading them with more tasks

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Imagine a young recent graduate in finance, eager to join a large consulting firm. He dreams of learning the trade from below. That inexorably involves preparing reports, researching markets, creating presentations, etc. But along comes AI and suddenly those routine tasks are automated. He produce more and faster, but all that torrent of documents lands on the desk of the person in charge of supervising him, a senior manager who is now passing hours checking errors that have been overlooked. This scenario is what reveals a study prepared by the consulting firm UpSlide and its conclusion leaves an unexpected twist: artificial intelligence not only removes the access ladder for new workers, but also burdens the most veteran workers.​​ AI takes away opportunities for recent graduates. According to the data that they are being collected In different studies on the impact of AI on recent graduates, job offers for entry-level positions have been reduced between 11% and 20% in the last year. The reason: AI now takes over the basic administrative tasks that before these young people did. Furthermore, a elaborate study by researchers from the University of Navarra and IESE Business School, based on data from 138 million workers in the United States, reveals that in companies exposed to generative AI, average salaries fall by 4.5% compared to those not exposed. In the most affected, the salary drop reaches 7.7%, with the initial salaries of juniors decreasing by 6.3%, while those of seniors remain stable or increase slightly.​ Juniors produce more, seniors review more. The UpSlide report indicates that younger employees use the AI ​​tools their companies have implemented to improve their efficiency in distribution (24%) and research (22%) tasks. On the other hand, the use of AI for senior profiles implies an increase in the review and quality control tasks of their work. According to the authors of the study, while juniors have stepped on the accelerator producing more content and documentation with AI, seniors have had no choice but to dedicate more time in their day to review all that new AI generated content. “Rather than reducing workload, AI is displacing: it places more pressure on senior professionals, who must now review, validate and correct a growing volume of AI-generated content. This bottleneck is especially critical in high-value operations, where the margins of error are minimal,” the study’s authors underline. AI overloads seniors. The data indicates that 41% of the seniors participating in the study dedicate more than 11 hours per week to reviews, such as checking errors in the figures of financial presentations or formats. 83% of them recognize greater pressure on seniors for quality reviews, and 82% see more risk of those errors finally reaching the client. “While the technology is very impressive, it just doesn’t beat the professional touch. That’s why we’re making sure to create review checkpoints with humans in the workflow,” said Joshua Stolarz, Managing Director at KPMG in the study.​​ A model that makes the revision more expensive. Yes, as they point out the evidenceAI automates training tasks for junior profiles, concentrating review on seniors, one of the arguments used by the main CEOs of technology companies that the use of AI would allow the most senior profiles to free yourself from administrative tasks to focus on giving value to the products. By leaving them with the burden of reviewing AI-generated content, you actually bury them in more administrative work. If the trend pointed out by the study is consolidated, companies could opt for more veteran profiles in their hiring, which would reverse the dynamics of fire these employees when the cuts come. However, these more experienced profiles also they earn better salariesso many companies could rethink implementing AI if it means increasing your labor costs. In Xataka | Jensen Huang is clear: at this point no one should learn to program, AI will do it for us Image | Unsplash (Omid Ajorlo)

A list of six tasks

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Productivity techniques can Be so complex either so simple as is the human mind. Therefore, there are productivity methods in which it is planned Until the last detail And others, such as the one that Ivy Lee devised almost 100 years ago, whose maximum argument is the efficiency and simplicity. The success of the method created by Ivy Lee is due to three main reasons. First, it forces continue with the tasks until its end, which reduces the tendency to leave pending issues procrastine tasks. Second, force to establish real priorities in tasks, helping to distinguish the urgent of the important. And finally, it limits the number of daily taskswhich facilitates commitment to each of them and avoids overload. This apparent simplicity is, in reality, its greatest strength. It is not enormous planning or dedicate more time to structuring tasks to do them. Just a sheet of paper and a pen. But under this simplicity its true importance underlies: it establishes limits that help not to disperse and avoid the temptation to add more tasks than you can really address in one day. Ivy Lee and Charles M. Schwab’s challenge Ivy Lee was a publicist and American productivity consultant, considered the founder of the current public relations methods. In 1918, Charles M. Schwab, one of the richest men in the world in those years, and president of Bethlehem Steel, asked him for help to improve the productivity of his employees. Schwab wanted his company to be still more efficient and competitive. The agreement between the two was simple: Lee promised to analyze how Schwab employees worked and contribute some improvements to work more efficiently. In return, Lee would not charge anything for his advice at the beginning, and agreed with Schwab that would pay what he would consider just after checking the results. After reaching that agreement with the millionaire, the consultant said: “Give me 15 minutes with each of your executives.” Weeks later, Schwab was so impressed with the increase in productivity of his employees that he delivered a check of $ 25,000 in recognition for the work done. Today, those $ 25,000 would be equivalent to about $ 516,000. What is Ivy Lee’s method Ivy Lee’s method It is very simple to implement. At the end of each working day, each Schwab employee had to write a list with only six tasks that he had to complete the next day. These tasks should be ordered by real priorityso that the most important and urgent occupy the first places, followed by the important and not urgent, to close with only the urgent but not important. The next morning, the person had to concentrate only on the first task of the list and not go to the next until he finished it. Thus, I would make task by task, without distractions or jumps between activities. If any task was left without completing, it automatically passed to the list of the next day, ensuring that none of the assigned tasks would be unsolved. As you can see, the system designed by Lee does not seem much. It is easy to implement, does not require a great organizational effort or use complex tools. However, under this appearance of simplicity there is a wolf with lamb skin that hides different psychological tricks They guarantee their success. The keys to the success of the Ivy Lee Method First of all, Its simplicity makes it very flexible. If any unforeseen argument arises, the first reaction should be to try avoid distracting you From your main objective of finishing your task list. However, if it is something unapolable, it is enough to pause it, and resume it at the same point as soon as possible. The time you have consumed to solve that unforeseen event will simply prevent you from completing the latest tasks of the list, so they simply pass the next day. Actually, six is ​​only an orientative number that can vary depending on the nature of tasks. Such and As James Clear indicatesauthor of the Best-Seller ‘Atomic habits‘, limit the number of daily tasks forces to prioritize and “prune ideas”discarding the accessory and focusing on the essential, in the really important. Having too many options can induce a state of paralysis by choiceso limiting the options forces you to commit to those six chosen and complete them. Another of its advantages is that Eliminates starting friction When facing tasks. Having the list made from the previous dayyou just have to get to work. That Elimination of starting barriers They are an elixir for those who have a tendency to procrastination since they should only sit down and get to work on the task that it plays. Your linear progress strategy Avoid multitaskingone of the main enemies of productivity and inexhaustible source of Mental fatigueallowing a deep approach to A single activity at the same time. That facilitates The concentration and improves the quality of the work done because the attention is not dispersed, reducing the possibility of committing failures. The fact of having the objective of completing tasks, contributes to improving the perception of work done And it is obtained A psychological reward for having succeeded. In Xataka | Ed Sheeran lives without mobile phone. The reason is simple: to disconnect is more and more a privilege of billionaires Image | Pexels (Suzy Hazelwood, energypic.com)

There is a strategy to focus and combat multitasking: compartmentalize tasks

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We live surrounded by stimuli and notifications that fight for monopolize our attention. The problem is that, what begins as “only a view of notification in case it is something important” becomes two hours of kittens videos. Such and as an account Berto Pena in his blog and in his book ‘Superhabic‘, compartmentalizing tasks helps protect your time and favor concentration, something that has become a challenge to take better advantage of each day and Keep the focus In what really matters. Compartmentar is a simple technique that can be applied to any type of task, but with which very good results are achieved. HE Avoid procrastinationimproves the Classification of priorities And prevents tasks being extended more than necessary. Assign an order and time limit to your tasks Comparting tasks consists in defining specific moments and times for certain activities that we know we must do. For this, a mixture of productivity techniques such as ‘Time Blocking’ To assign a specific hole in the calendar that we will dedicate exclusively to doing that task. When assigning a certain block of time to each task, it is prevented the work from extending more than the account, thus fighting the effect of the Parkinson’s law. This productivity law states that “work expands until the time is available for it to end.” In this way, the effort dedicated to each task is delimited and mental fatigue is prevented while preventing tasks from eternalizing. On the other hand, when establishing a period of time at a given time, it is Promote planning and is conditioned to commit to the task. Without excuses or postponements. After all, one of the greatest friction of procrastination is start doing homework. The compartmentalization of the tasks forces to adapt the nature of the tasks to the time blocks. In this way, if a task is too big for your daily day, it is easier to divide it into smaller tasks that occupy less time and program them in successive days. In this way, the motivation is maintained to complete a task that you have already started taking advantage of the “Zeigarnik effect“: the natural brain trend To finish those tasks that you have already started, even when it is not mandatory to do so. Your brain does it for a unstoppable need to close a door that was kept open. Advantages of segmenting tasks in time blocks As we have already mentioned, one of the main advantages of this technique is the Concentration improvement and the multitasking reduction. By dedicating an exclusive time block to an activity, the temptation to jump from one task to another is reduced. Another advantage of this technique is that the Regularity and discipline. Comparting tasks helps to build habits by assigning a certain task in a recurring time strip. When establishing that routine, the brain ends up raising awareness and integrating the habit associating a certain day and time to an action as one of the Habits triggers to those referred to by James Clear in his book ‘Atomic habits‘. This strategy also facilitates management and organization of tasks In the day to day. When distributing tasks in compartments throughout the week, a clear vision of what should be done and when. Thus, improvisation is avoided and each task receives the attention and time it needs. Finally, companding allows greater flexibility against unforeseen events. Something very useful for long projects. Although the technique provides structure, margin also offers to adapt and if an urgency arises, it is easier to readjust the time blocks without sacrificing the time dedicated to each task and without causing a domino effect on the rest of the scheduled tasks. Applying it is easy, but it must be progressive The first step to compartmentalize is Identify tasks and activities that will be programmed in time blocks. To start, it is easier to do so with short and recurring tasks, so that the results are appreciable in the short term. Read every day for an hour, do an hour of exercise, spend daily time to review the notes of that subject that costs you, etc. Once identified, they are assigned specific gaps on the agenda being realistic with the duration that each task needs. Do not worry if one day you have plenty or you lack time, just take it into account for the next time you program that task. It is a learning process in which it will be necessary to apply corrections. What should be immovable It is your commitment With scheduled tasks. If it’s time to do it, Focus on her And forget everything else. No pauses or interruptions. Concentration and deep work until the time block ends. The breaks, like any other task, must also be programmed and respected to avoid exhaustion. It is recommended to start little by little, with two or three tasks a week, and add more blocks progressively as the routine is consolidated and the first results begin to be obtained. In Xataka | “Doing nothing” is a great technique to improve your productivity. Neuroscience is clear Image | Unspash (My Profit Tutor, Jo Szczepanska)

convert email into a list of tasks

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The email, that novelty relic whom no one has been able to kill, is about to suffer its greatest metamorphosis. Hotmail or Gmail They brought storage and search capacity, clients of third parties such as Spark introduced a new way of managing them. What is coming is deeper: AI is making The mail goes from being a writing activity to a decision activity. To write answers to mark boxes. The first systems are already here: Gmail summarizes long threads and develops basic ideas. Outlook suggests short answers. Apple Intelligence summarizes, rewrite and expand paragraphs. Spark Directly take your previous mails to emulate your voice and generate answers with your style. It is just the prologue. When this goes more, We will stop writing most mails, we will simply approve a proposalor we will clarify it. Or we will choose between certain options. In the future, our mail clients will present each mail not as a text to read, but as an action proposal: Accept meeting Thursday at 11:00 a.m. Thank information and ask for more details. Decline proposal. A touch and ready. It is an inevitable change because in the background mail has always been a task management system disguised as communication. Most professional emails ask for something: confirmation, information, decision, action. The AI ​​simply naked this reality, eliminates the liturgy of forced courtesy and repetitive writing. I have written thousands of times “thanks in advance” or “good weekend.” The machine can do it for us. Even in our style. And it will free us from That corporate slavery For what really matters: decide. The end of the game will be something we already anticipate: Bots talking with bots. As Mg Siegler points outthere will come a time when the AI ​​will automatically schedule that meeting with the AI ​​of your contact, will negotiate dates, send reminders, will write the subsequent act, even ask how your child after the operation, perhaps. Humans We will appear for decisions that really require human criteria (Some will also want to delegate that, but It is another topic). And the mail will not disappear, but it will largely be somewhat invisible. And by automating routine communication, we will recover the communication that is worth it. In Xataka | From chaos to calm: thus manage my email using the technique of “Inbox Zero“ Outstanding image | SparkXataka

When the desire to finish tasks generates as much anxiety and problems as not doing them

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Procrastination is the art of leaving all the workload To your future selfknowing that in the end it will touch you to do it, but with has a hurry and higher doses of Anxiety and frustration. However, and against all prognosis, there is also its counterpart: Precrasticationor not to bear to leave the tasks for later. Although it does not seem like it, precostination is an obsession that also It has negative effects. What is precostination? The term was coined by the professor in psychology David Rosenbaum in his study ‘Precrastication: Accelerate the achievement of a subopjective at the expense of additional physical effort‘In 2014. Rosenbaum showed with his experiment that people sometimes choose the option that implies more physical effort Just to cross out a task of your list. To get to that conclusion, the participants were asked to choose between two cubes with water that had to take to the end of a hall. One of these cubes was sometimes closer to the beginning of the hall and sometimes a little further. However, the researchers observed that, often, the participants chose the cube that was closer to the exit point to take it to the end, even when choosing the second cube meant loading it for a shorter distance. When asked why they had chosen the first cube, most participants replied: “I wanted to finish the homework as soon as possible“ This behavior marked a tendency to advance the task assigned to any cost, even at the expense of implying greater physical wear in the process. At work, this translates into the need to finish everything as soon as possible, motivated by the idea that speed is equal to efficiency. However, that is to start from a wrong premise since speed is not always efficiency. People with a tendency to precostination may feel satisfied at the end of the work ahead of time, but those hurries to finish the tasks can lead to errors and lack of focus on execution. “It’s like going to the supermarket, filling the basket with a lot of apples and continuing to buy carrying them despite knowing that you will go through the place where they meet when you go to the box,” explained the psychologist Obsessed with crossing homework Precrastication is a problem more common than it may seem. Who suffers its effects is often shown as an example of productivity in a society that values ​​immediacy and we need everything “for yesterday.” This affects the quality of work and it is not valued that, some tasks, require time and reflection. Precostination is not always easy to identify. We are completing tasks, believing that we are being productive. However, finishing things ahead of time, without due dedication, it can generate stress, errors and exhaustion. If you feel you need to balance your way of working, these tips can help you: 1. Plan your tasks If you are aware of your tendency to precostine, try to contain your first instinct to launch yourself to Complete everything immediately. Take a time to analyze and prioritize what tasks do you really need your immediate attention. You can use The ABCDE method to prioritize tasks according to their urgency and importance. 2. Set reasonable times Not all tasks must be executed at the time, so It is important to reflect about its impact on the project or your day. Before acting, ask yourself: “Is it necessary to solve immediately? Is it urgent to answer that email immediately or can you do it later?” Impose waiting periods For non -urgent activities for Force that reflection and give you space to reflect and address things with a clearer and more serene mind. It is very likely that you discover new ways of addressing it in a more creative way. A good strategy to face precrastination is the one proposed by the “Slow Work”, which defends the idea that work at a more leisurely pace It favors creativity, concentration and improves the quality of the final result. 3. Concentrate on one thing at the same time The impetus to finish tasks can make you fall into multitasking. An error that brings only heads to those who put it into practice, exhausting the energies and avoiding that The brain deepens in the tasks between hands. Instead of trying to cover everything at once, focus at the present time and Complete a single task After another. That will help you better value the resolution process of the tasks, instead of obsessing with the rapid results. 4. Live with uncertainty One of the features that leads the precostinators to finish tasks ahead of time It is his uncertainty intolerance of having pending things, in a kind of ‘Zeigarnik effect‘. Be aware that Everything has its rhythms and processes is key to face the need to cross out at all costs the tasks of the list. Practice patience and focus on what you can control. 5. Manage your energy He Mental exhaustion It is one of the greatest dangers of precostination. Knowing that there is an incomplete task is an additional mental burden for those who have a tendency to precostine. To avoid it, be sure to include regular breaks in your dayincluding them as another task in your day. This will allow the brain to recover part of its energy and you can address your tasks in the best cognitive conditions. In Xataka | Procrastination is closer to the mental disorder than laziness: the three causes that cause it and how to avoid them In Xataka | Science has denied the morning mantra of productivity gurus: cold shower is as useless as early morning Image | Unspash (The Drink Luis Villasmil)

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