productivity – Social Blog

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If you are like me you are constantly amazed with just the true capabilities of generative AI such as ChatGPT. By the week I am discovering new ways to use AI and have noticed a significant increase in my productivity.

As an athlete my health, fitness and nutrition have always been of very high priority to me. I have been an avid gym goer since I was around 18 years old both to improve my overall sports performance and for health benefits. In the past few years, I have started taking my nutrition more seriously and have noticed a sizeable difference in results. I have in the past experimented with creating my own diet plans and have also used various diet plans found on the internet. Recently, I have started experimenting with ChatGPT to create personalized meal plans and I have been very impressed with the results. It has even brought me to question why someone would pay a personal trainer or nutritionist when all this information with a little bit of practice is right at your fingertips. Hereby, I would like to show how useful AI can be in creating customizable meal plans and how this can be used to make your life easier.

I recently started my “bulk,” with the goal in mind of gaining some weight mostly in the form of muscle in the coming months. I realized in the past that when I do not track what I eat, I simply do not eat enough and do not gain any weight. From experience I know that I need around 3500 calories per day and 200 grams of protein in order to gain weight. Thus, my first input into ChatGPT was:

“Please create me a meal plan of 3500 calories per day and at least 200 grams of protein.”

This resulted in the following output:

Obviously, most people do not want to eat the same food every day, thus my next question was to ask ChatGPT for some alternative meals within a similar caloric range.

Next, to optimize my daily routine, I wanted ChatGPT to base my meal plan around my daily schedule and give me the times in which to consume these meals. The following prompt was used:

“Please base my meal plan on my daily routine and give me the times to consume the meals. I leave for work at 8:30. I go to the gym during my lunch break from 11:45 to 13:00, whereafter I eat lunch comprised of rice, a type of meat (usually chicken) and vegetables. I get home from work at around 18:30.”

Now, not only has ChatGPT provided me with a personalized meal plan based on my caloric needs but it has also provided me with a schedule to consume these meals taking into account my daily work and training routine.

Next, I wanted to take this one step further and I requested ChatGPT to provide me with a weekly shopping list for these items and an overall cost estimation based on average Dutch prices so I can use this to budget my expenses:

“Please provide me with a shopping list that I can purchase the items for the meal plan for 5 days. Also provide ingredients to the alternative meals so that I do not need to consume the same meals every day. Please give me the weight/quantity of the items I need. Also, please approximate the price based on the average prices of groceries in The Netherlands and give me the total costs.”

The tool then provided me with a categorized shopping list and an estimated 5-day cost of 80 – 100 euros which I can easily export to my phone and take with me to the grocery store.

I have been using this for the past few weeks and while I do not exactly use the meals provided by ChatGPT it has given structure and inspiration of foods I can incorporate into my diet. Another advantage of this is that it is infinitely customizable and can be used by everyone. Does a person not consume pork? Is the person a pescatarian? Is the person a vegetarian but still eats chicken? No problem, there are endless possibilities, and this could really make an impact into everyone’s lives. I encourage anyone that is serious about their nutrition and fitness goals to give this a try. This really shows how AI can be used to make everyone’s life easier and increase your overal productivity.

References:

OpenAI (2023). ChatGPT, https://chat.openai.com/

No ratings yet. During these Covid-19 times, working from home has become the norm after the applied measures worldwide in order to help maintaining social distancing. Due to the inability of checking on their employees as they work from home, many companies have been afraid of a decreasing productivity at work. Consequently, employers have increasingly felt the need to introduce more and more surveillance tools that would help them monitor and track how their employees are spending their time as they work from home.

From applications that help keeping track of the time spent on each tool, to software that tracks the steps you take every day. Companies are going one step beyond basic time-tracking tools such as Toggl, and are beginning to opt for the introduction of ever more invasive programs such as Hubstaff – a software that monitors employees’ performance by taking snapshots of their monitors and calculating a productivity score based on the keystrokes, mouse movements, time spent and websites visited.

A software that is programmed to take snapshots of an individual’s screen as they are having a confidential videoconference; or that tracks down the user’s GPS coordinates as they go to the nearest cafeteria for a short coffee break, surely raises too many ethical concerns as it violates both the employees’ privacy as well as the privacy of those with whom they interact.

Not only does it raise ethical concerns, but it has also been proven that employee surveillance reduces trust between employees and their employers, driving down motivation and engagement. The ‘stress-inducing, demotivating and dehumanizing’ practice of monitoring – as described by a manager in the report Workplace technology: the employee experience – hinders employee autonomy and proactivity, both of which are necessary for a healthy and thriving company in the current digital era.

The use of surveillance software was initially intended to keep workers engaged and ensure their productivity. However, an unsurprising counter-effects occurs due to the implement of these tools: employee engagement and productivity declines together with the quality of the work they do. This is not a “vindictive reaction” to the application of such tool, but simply the result of feeling controlled and uncomfortable at (remote) work.

In a time where GDPR laws are being enforced to protect people’s privacy, how can such surveillance tools be accepted? Why are they still being implemented despite the evidence on its counter-effects?

Monitoring might be necessary and helpful to companies to make sure the work is being done and to collect data that might be used to improve the company’s strategy – especially when remote-work becomes the norm. However, managers must think through very carefully the techniques they are going to use: how will they be implemented, to what degree will they invade their employee’s privacy, and what are the possible consequences. In a time where remote work is the model to follow, how do we find the balance between tracking for improvement and respect for people’s privacy?

Satariano, A. How my boss monitors me while I work from home. The New York Times, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/technology/employee-monitoring-work-from-home-virus.html

Jones, L. “I monitor my staff with software that takes screenshots”. BBC News, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54289152

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Workplace technology: the employee experience. July 2020, UK. https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/workplace-technology-1_tcm18-80853.pdf

Kensbock, J.M., Stöckmann, C. “Big brother is watching you”: surveillance via technology undermines employees’ learning and voice behavior during digital transformation. J Bus Econ, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11573-020-01012-x

The Digital Chef: How AI Tailored my Diet and Shopping Experience.

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Remote work: Surveillance vs. Privacy

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