The Hyperproductivity Trap: How AI May Reshape Our Expectations, and Ourselves
Where I explore how AI’s time-bending efficiency could rewrite the rules of legal work and our well-being
Welcome back, time-bending barristers and warp-speed legal voyagers! ⏳⚖️ Today we’re orbiting the gravity well of generative AI, the productivity hack that promises to stretch every billable hour into an infinity of output, even as it steals real minutes from our lived day.
Strap on your relativity goggles, prime that quantum-roasted coffee, and mind the event horizon: once expectations cross it, deadlines red-shift toward “ASAP” and the calendar collapses into a single, unending now. Let’s chart this strange spacetime together, where machine velocity dilates time in theory, yet leaves us paradoxically poorer in the moments that matter.
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If you’ve spent any time scrolling through legal tech newsletters or tinkering with the latest AI chatbot, you already sense the thrill, and perhaps the dread, of artificial intelligence in the legal profession. From reviewing mountains of discovery documents with a single click to generating first drafts of briefs at lightning speed, generative AI promises to reshape our day-to-day work in ways that feel as magical as they are unsettling.
But there’s a shadow to this bright promise: what happens when new efficiencies birth new expectations of hyperproductivity? In other words, if your partner or client knows you have a virtual “associate” who can pour through thousands of cases overnight, will they start expecting near-immediate turnaround on every research memo and pleading? And, as we hurtle toward a future where AI becomes as ubiquitous as email, how might this new standard of instant output recalibrate the very culture of lawyering (and work) across the country?
If you’re ready to see how this newfound expectation of omnipresent productivity may affect you, please read on…
The Hidden Costs of Magical Tools
Once upon a time (read: a few months ago), a mid-level associate at a prestigious firm in Manhattan named Morgan decided to test the waters of a generative AI platform for drafting legal research memos. Morgan quickly realized that the platform could produce neat, logically structured outlines of obscure legal arguments in minutes. It wasn’t perfect, of course: some sections needed heavy editing, citations required thorough vetting, and certain nuances fell flat without human interpretation.
But still, the tool was a “game-changer” (and who amongst us hasn’t become jaded to that term), freeing Morgan to tackle high-level strategic work, or, dare we say, even slip away from the desk before midnight. When Morgan’s supervising partner discovered the “miracle memos,” she was thrilled. So thrilled, in fact, that she began looping Morgan in on more cases under impossibly tight timelines.
Within a few weeks, Morgan went from finishing early twice a month to being busier than ever. Why? Because suddenly, what previously took days (basic, grunt-level research) could now, in the partner’s mind, be done in a couple of hours. The partner also began expecting additional deliverables, such as cross-referencing different precedents and exploring innovative angles, that were never in the initial scope of her request.
In a paradox of progress, Morgan’s success with AI ushered in an onslaught of new work. Yes, the AI tool reduced mundane busywork, but the new slack in Morgan’s schedule quickly got filled with ever-higher expectations and an ever-longer to-do list. Here we see a classic case of the “Hyperproductivity Trap.”
A Tale as Old as the Blackberry
Before we go any further, it’s worth remembering a time when the Blackberry was the most coveted gadget in any attorney’s arsenal. The promise of mobile email was irresistible: you could respond to urgent client messages while hailing a cab, reading in a bookstore, or sipping a latte. The early adopters who carried the sleek devices suddenly found themselves able to “work” anywhere. Firms proudly championed the new era of responsiveness.
But as the novelty wore off, the convenience morphed into an expectation of 24/7 availability. The polite request “Could you get back to me ASAP?” gained new meaning when “ASAP” (oh, that dreaded word) became code for “within the hour, day or night.” Lawyers felt tethered to their tiny keyboards, checking messages at dinner with family, on vacation, or in bed, or in the washroom. What started as a competitive advantage became an industry norm.
The same cycle appears to be unfolding with AI: what begins as a cutting-edge tool to outperform the competition can quickly become table stakes: an invisible standard that influences how much work we assign, how we judge productivity, and how we define “reasonable” turnaround times.
Parkinson’s Law in the AI Era
We are no strangers to Parkinson’s Law: the adage that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” As lawyers, we see this play out whenever an ambitious attorney begins drafting a motion weeks ahead of the deadline, yet still ends up working until 2:00 a.m. the night before it’s due. Time is malleable in the legal world, and our workloads manage to fill every crevice of the day.
But AI might invert or even amplify Parkinson’s Law. Instead of work slowly expanding to fill the day, our expectations might expand to fill the new opportunities for speed. If a research memo used to take you ten hours and now you can generate a half-decent first draft in two, you might find that your partner (or client, or judge) starts expecting two other projects to fill the “freed” eight hours. “With AI, that should be simple, right?” Or 80% of that time might be repurposed to refine and iterate on the AI’s output, making the end product more polished, but also piling on more versions and greater complexity.
Instead of a breather, you get a busier day with an even higher bar for quality. Parkinson’s Law gets a 21st-century twist: “Work expands to fill your new capacity generated by AI.” Your life, only busier, now with AI!
The Psychological Tug-of-War
This hyperproductivity trap isn’t just a scheduling problem; it’s also a psychological one. Psychologists have long studied “cognitive load” and “overcommitment.” We have a limited amount of focused mental energy each day, and contrary to the illusions of multitasking, our brains can only handle so much high-level complexity before reaching diminishing returns.
When hyperproductivity becomes the new baseline, lawyers might find themselves grappling with:
Constant Pressure: The feeling that if we’re not optimizing every minute, we’re leaving potential AI-driven efficiency on the table.
Imposter Syndrome: The fear that if we can’t keep pace with new expectations, especially when we have an AI “helper,” we’re somehow inadequate.
Burnout: The reality that mental and emotional resources deplete quickly when we’re expected to match a machine’s round-the-clock capability.
Moreover, the ubiquity of AI could erode the healthy boundaries that once protected at least some of our personal time. I know that I personally have been drawn into the gravity well of my own increased expectations because of what AI empowers me to accomplish. If a device (or software) can do half our job in a fraction of the time, why not turn up the heat and take on twice as many assignments?
Lessons from the Blackberry Saga
So, will generative AI become the next Blackberry? A game-changer that promised liberation from drudgery, only to lock us into a perpetual cycle of work? Possibly. But there’s reason for optimism. We can shape the conversation early, and perhaps shift the cultural narratives that took hold during the era of smartphones.
Here are a few strategies for heading off the hyperproductivity trap:
Redefine Success: Rather than simply measuring productivity by turnaround time or volume of output, we can redefine success to include critical thinking, creativity, strategic insight, and time for ourselves.
Set Realistic Boundaries: If partners, clients, or colleagues start expecting machine-fast results, it’s crucial to respectfully manage their expectations. Remind them that legal analysis often requires nuance and that AI outputs still demand human supervision.
Adopt “Focus Windows”: Borrowing from the concept of “Focus Fridays” or “No-Meeting Wednesdays,” firms might experiment with AI-off hours, encouraging associates and partners to carve out uninterrupted thinking time, with no chatbots allowed.
Leverage AI for Quality, Not Just Quantity: AI should be a tool to enable deeper insights and sharper strategy, not just cranking out more pages. We must keep an eye on how to use AI for improvement rather than mere speed.
The Road Ahead
Legal tech visionaries, including those of you reading this, have a unique vantage point. You’re among the first to experiment with generative AI in your law practices and to directly experience its benefits, pitfalls, and quirks. Colleagues may follow your lead. Your experiences now (how you choose to balance, innovate, and set boundaries) will ripple outward through the profession.
The story of Morgan, our beleaguered Manhattan associate, may be fiction, but it’s already coming to life in countless offices as AI rapidly joins the mainstream. If we’re not careful, we might find ourselves living in a new era of lawyering that’s eerily reminiscent of the Blackberry mania, only this time, the expectations could be even more extreme.
Yet there’s also the possibility of a better balance. AI can liberate us from some of the drudgery of legal research and paperwork, allowing us to invest our creative and intellectual energies into strategy, empathy with clients, and forging true legal innovations. Maybe even time to ourselves to read the novel we always wanted to get to, but didn’t have the time for, or take up painting, or playing the guitar.
If we collectively resist the urge to fill every spare moment with more and more tasks, we might just end up with a profession that values both the gains from technology and the inherent worth of human ingenuity and rest.
Closing Thoughts
Productivity can be an alluring myth: the promise that we might overcome the basic constraints of human time and attention through technological wizardry. But while AI can ease certain aspects of our work, it won’t change the number of hours in a day or our capacity for deep, focused effort. It’s still up to us to decide how we spend those hours, and how we deploy that focus.
Much like the Blackberry, the emergence of AI in the legal field will change how we work. The question is whether we’ll let AI become an engine of unrelenting expectations or a genuinely transformative tool that grants us the freedom to be better attorneys, more thoughtful counselors, and happier human beings.
To paraphrase Father John Culkin (with a modern twist): we prompt AI, and afterward, AI prompts us. As generative AI continues its meteoric ascent, let’s remember that the heart of the legal profession is not speed alone, but the wisdom and discernment of the human mind, and the human heart, behind every brief, negotiation, and verdict.
So, take care of yourself and each other: close the laptop, go for a walk, and give yourself time to smell the roses. I think I’ll do that now myself.
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Cheers,
Tom Martin
CEO and Founder, LawDroid