How I Use AI as a Decision Engine for My Life (and How You Can Too)

When I was twelve, I wrote a bucket list of goals I hoped to achieve over the course of my life. At seventeen, as I prepared to leave for college, I created a different kind of list: questions about personal finance, insurance, healthcare, and long-term planning. These were topics I realized would quietly determine whether those goals were realistic.

I spent hours researching these topics and stitching together information from disparate sources. Over time, what began as curiosity turned into a system: a way to track decisions, trade-offs, and progress across my time, finances, health, and career.

Today, I use AI not to "run" my life, but to analyze it to surface blind spots, pressure-test decisions, and prioritize actions when everything feels important. The result is not perfection or constant optimization, but clearer judgment and faster course correction.

Below is the system I use and how you can replicate it.

Centralize Your Life Data, Then Ask Better Questions

AI is only as useful as the information you give it. Rather than relying on vague prompts about your life, the goal is to centralize structured documents that reflect how you actually spend your time, money, and energy.

I use NotebookLM (by Google) because it allows multiple documents to be analyzed together while staying organized. I keep everything in a single notebook called Career & Life Planning.

The Essential Documents

You do not need dozens of tools. You need a small number of honest, regularly updated documents.

1. Daily Schedule & Habits (Google Doc)

A simple, date-based log of how you actually spend your time, written in rough time blocks.

Why it matters:

This reveals whether your daily actions are aligned with your stated priorities and makes time trade-offs explicit.

2. To-Do List & Deadlines (Google Doc or Sheet)

A living document with:

• Tomorrow's tasks

• Upcoming deadlines

• High-priority vs. optional items

Why it matters:

This gives AI a readable picture of your workload and allows it to help sequence tasks based on urgency and impact.

3. Goals & Bucket List (Google Doc)

A numbered list of short-, medium-, and long-term goals with:

• Current status

• Specific next steps

• Notes on relevance (e.g., "not a current priority")

Why it matters:

This is the anchor for every other decision. Goals without steps are wishes. This makes them real and achievable.

4. Monthly Budget (Spreadsheet)

Tracks:

• Post-tax income sources

• Spending by category (with caps)

• Monthly surplus or deficit

Why it matters:

This allows you to assess whether your lifestyle is mathematically compatible with your goals.

5. Net Worth Tracker (Spreadsheet)

Three sections:

• Cash assets (liquid)

• Long-term assets (retirement, property, etc.)

• Debts and liabilities

Why it matters:

Budgeting shows short-term behavior. Net worth shows a long-term trajectory. You need both. (Plus, it shows where you need to rebalance your bank accounts)

6. Professional Documents

• LinkedIn profile (downloaded)

• Resume

• Educational history (courses, projects, extracurriculars)

Why it matters:

Together, these give AI context to evaluate role fit, identify narrative gaps, and suggest high-leverage improvements.

7. Health & Fitness Data

Wearable data from smart watches, body scans, or basic logs of sleep, exercise, and recovery.

Why it matters:

Health constraints shape every other outcome. Ignoring them leads to fragile plans.

8. Timeline of Life Events (Google Docs)

Bulleted list of big wins, life events, and losses that reflect the genuine events in your life.

Why it matters:

There are always external circumstances. This allows AI to make genuine assessments based on your material reality.

What AI Is Actually Useful For

With all of this information in one place, AI becomes valuable not because it has "answers," but because it can reason across domains that humans usually consider in isolation. It can literally make predictions based on both your workload and your exercise routines about your health.

Example Prompt Areas

Financial

• Are my current spending and saving habits aligned with my goals?

• What is the fastest reasonable path to paying down my debt?

• What income do I need to sustain my desired lifestyle long-term?

Behavioral & Time Use

• Are my daily actions high-leverage relative to my goals?

• How should I structure tomorrow based on my deadlines?

• Where am I consistently misallocating time?

Health

• Are my current fitness habits sustainable?

• How long will it take to reach my fitness goals at this pace?

• Is my schedule contributing to overtraining or burnout?

Professional

• Which roles best match my background and trajectory?

• What gaps should I address to reach the next level?

• How does this job align with my long-term financial and lifestyle goals?

Often, AI confirms what I already suspect. That confirmation matters - it reduces uncertainty and emotional noise in decision-making.

Important Caveats

This approach is not for everyone.

Over-tracking can lead to:

• Analysis paralysis

• Burnout

• Treating life as a spreadsheet rather than a lived experience

The system only works if you:

• Update documents honestly and consistently (usually daily or weekly)

• Allow goals to change

• Treat AI as an advisor, not an authority

Human judgment still matters.

Closing

Used well, AI is not a productivity hack. It is a decision amplifier that reflects your reality back to you more clearly than intuition alone.

If you already think in systems, this approach can help you move faster with fewer regrets. If you don't, start small. One document is enough to begin.

If you experiment with this, I'd be interested to hear what works and what doesn't as you adapt it to your own life.