Invisible Work on Christa Burger

Unnamed Work Becomes Weather

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Unnamed work becomes weather.

It just happens.

People feel it. People complain about it. People plan around it. Nobody owns it.

This is true in teams, households, operations, governance, and AI workflows.

The first act of control is often naming.

Name the recurring burden
Name the decision point
Name the review
Name the handoff
Name the risk
Name the evidence trail

Once something has a name, it can have an owner.

Invisible Work Is Still Work, and AI Can Help Reveal It

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A lot of work does not look like work.

Remembering is work. Noticing is work. Checking is work. Sequencing is work. Following up is work. Reconciling is work.

Holding the whole thing in your head so nothing explodes is definitely work.

It is just badly marketed.

AI gives us a way to make that labor visible.

Once visible, it can be structured.

Once structured, it can be assigned.

Once assigned, it can be improved.

AI Is Best at the Work Before the Work

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Most of the burden is not the task.

It is the work before the task.

Finding the context. Reading the history. Checking the numbers. Remembering what happened last time. Figuring out who needs to care. Deciding what decision is actually needed.

By the time you start the “real” work, half your energy has already been mugged in the parking lot.

AI is very good at this layer.

It can:

Gather context
Summarize history
Compare versions
Surface changes
Draft the starting point
Identify the decision

This is not glamorous.

The Task Is Never the Task: AI and Hidden Workflows

Fri, 01 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

One of the most annoying things AI has taught me is that the task is almost never the task.

In fact, much of my journey with AI has been analogous to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

I will ask for something simple.

A grocery list. A summary. A draft. A checklist. A content idea.

Very reasonable.

Then, unfortunately, the system reveals that this “simple task” is actually attached to a much larger creature.