Ai

My AI Agent Helps Me Start Tasks I Used to Avoid

The Blank Page Was My Kryptonite

I’ve got a confession. For years, I’d put off tasks that weren’t technically hard. Things like writing a draft email, outlining a quarterly report, or planning a team budget. The work itself? Manageable. The starting? Brutal. That blank page, empty spreadsheet, or blinking cursor felt like a wall. My brain would freeze. I’d find any excuse to avoid it — check Slack, make a coffee, reorganise my desktop. Sound familiar?

The problem wasn’t ability. It was friction. The first step felt annoying, unclear, or mentally heavy. I’d waste energy just trying to figure out where to begin. Then I started using a local AI agent — I call it Hermes Agent — as a daily assistant. And honestly, it changed how I tackle those avoid-at-all-costs tasks. Not by doing the work for me, but by making the starting part nearly painless.

How Hermes Agent Unsticks Me

Hermes Agent sits on my machine. It’s not some cloud-based mystery box. I can ask it to do things like “draft an email to the finance team about the new expense policy” or “create an outline for a blog post on payment trends”. It doesn’t need five rounds of prompt engineering. I just talk to it like I would a junior colleague who’s keen but needs direction. And the best part? It gives me something concrete to work with. A first draft. A list. A starting point. Suddenly the blank page isn’t blank anymore. My brain can relax. I can edit, adjust, or throw it out and start fresh — but at least I’ve started.

Real Examples From My Week

Let me give you a few specific ways Hermes Agent helps me start tasks I used to avoid.

• Writing a tricky email. I had to email a vendor about a delayed payment — always a delicate conversation. I asked Hermes to “draft a polite but firm email to a vendor explaining a 3-day payment delay due to a bank processing error, and offer a discount on our next invoice as goodwill.” It spat out a draft in ten seconds. I tweaked the tone a bit, added the specific invoice number, and hit send. Without that start, I’d have stared at the compose box for twenty minutes.
• Creating a monthly performance report. I used to dread pulling together data for the board. It’s not hard — just tedious. I gave Hermes a rough list of metrics (revenue, churn, support tickets, etc.) and asked it to “write a one-page executive summary in bullet points, highlighting the top three wins and top three concerns.” It got me 80% of the way there. I added context and numbers from our dashboard. The report took half the usual time.
• Planning a team budget. Budgets are my least favourite task. So many categories, so much guesswork. I told Hermes: “List the typical line items for a small fintech team’s quarterly budget, include marketing, engineering, operations, and travel, and note any common hidden costs.” It gave me a structured list. From there, I just filled in the numbers. It turned a headache into a checklist.
• Drafting a social media post. I manage our company LinkedIn. Coming up with fresh content each week felt like pulling teeth. Now I say, “Write three short LinkedIn post ideas about how AI helps small businesses with cash flow, using a conversational tone.” I pick one, polish it, and schedule. No more staring at a blank post box.
• Reviewing a long document. I’m not a lawyer, but I still need to read terms or policy documents. Hermes can summarise a 20-page PDF in a few paragraphs, highlight key sections, and list questions I should ask. That starting point makes the whole thing less daunting. I dive into the details knowing the big picture.

Why It Works: Removing the Mental Load

The common thread in all those examples? The first step stopped being a barrier. When you give your brain a half-finished structure — a draft, a list, an outline — it’s easier to engage. You’re not creating from nothing. You’re editing. You’re improving. That’s a fundamentally different cognitive task. And because Hermes Agent runs locally, I don’t worry about privacy. My drafts, budgets, and reports stay on my machine. That trust makes me more willing to use it for sensitive stuff like vendor emails or internal policies.

Of course, the output isn’t perfect. I never use it without a careful read. Sometimes it misunderstands the context or writes in a too-formal voice. But that’s fine. The point isn’t perfection — it’s momentum. I can fix a draft way faster than I can write one from scratch. And honestly, fixing someone else’s work (even if that someone is an AI) feels less intimidating than facing a blank page alone.

Practical Tips for Using Your Own AI Assistant

If you want to try this for yourself, here’s what I’ve learned:

• Be specific about the outcome. Instead of “write an email”, say “write a short email to confirm a meeting next Tuesday at 2pm, including an agenda.”
• Use it for the boring stuff first. That’s where the time savings really show. Emails, outlines, summaries, lists.
• Don’t over-edit. Accept a rough start. You can polish later. The goal is to start, not to get a perfect first version.
• Keep it local if you can. I sleep better knowing my draft budget isn’t being used to train some faraway model.

I’m not saying an AI agent will solve all your procrastination. Some tasks just suck and you have to push through. But for the ones where the only blocker is that first blank page, Hermes Agent has been a game-changer. It’s like having a co-pilot who’s happy to do the boring first draft while you handle the real thinking.

Need help setting up your own AI assistant? Feel free to contact me at [email protected].