Jack Krawczyk

You might have heard of Google’s AI chatbot, Gemini. Well, that chatbot has a teacher: product director Jack Krawczyk. Here’s how he gets things done – with a little AI assistance

2024-05-01 - ILLUSTRATION BY JASON RAISH

6.30am

Skim And Bob

After a quick skim for overnight emails, I use morning as my sacred time to put my phone away, collect my thoughts and connect with family – sometimes over Bob Marley. When my kids, aged five and two, get up, we pick a record to listen to and that’s a current favourite.

8am

Get Clarity

Gemini helps me set the tone for the day. I tend to think in unstructured ways, so I’ll open the mic and record myself thinking out loud for two to three minutes. Then I’ll ask Gemini to synthesise my thoughts into three to four bullet points and use that to set my priorities.

11am

Say Yes...Ish

I ruthlessly prioritise by constantly thinking about trade-offs. For example, I’ll make it clear that ‘I can support X, but I need to trade off Y to do it.’ This forces me to frame my work in terms of priorities and to share those priorities with others.

1pm

Find Harmony

Everyone says you need work/life balance, but

I prefer the notion of harmony. I get energy from my work. I feel more energised towards the end of the day than at the beginning, especially on a day when I feel like we made a breakthrough, like the first time I got to demo Gemini transforming an image into text.

3pm

Run It Out

I hate indoor exercise, so I try to move my feet outdoors as much as I can. On work-from-home days, I’ll take any one-hour break I find and do a five-mile run. If I throw on a podcast – a rotation of Armchair Expert, SmartLess and

Lex Fridman Podcast – it serves double time as my meditation.

7pm

Date Night

My wife and I have a standing Thursday date. We make an effort to bring unique conversation topics to the table – it’s so easy to default to talking about the kids and work. But instead, we use this time to discuss other topics, such as books, music, pop culture or fashion trends.

8pm

Tell A Story

Bedtime is my ideal time with my sons. Sometimes I’ll use Gemini to cocreate bedtime stories it reads aloud to them. I’ve learned there are never-ending ways to tell stories about construction vehicles.