The worst part of financial recovery isn't the math; it's the 3 AM brain spin. When you are under pressure, your brain treats "I need to pay the electric bill" and "What if the economy collapses in 2027?" with the exact same level of adrenaline.
I decided to use AI as a cognitive filter. I opened a notes app and brain-dumped every single scary thought I had—rational or irrational. Then, I fed that chaotic list into an LLM with a specific set of instructions.
"Here is a raw list of my current worries. Acting as a stoic project manager, categorize them into three buckets:
1. Solvable Today (Immediate Actions)
2. Solvable in 30 Days (Projects/Habits)
3. Out of My Control (Noise)
Constraint: Be ruthless. If I cannot physically act on it, it goes in Bucket 3."
The Output: Sorting the Mail
The result was immediate clarity. The AI didn't offer sympathy; it offered sorting. It stripped the emotion away from the data points.
Bucket 1: Solvable Today
"Call the Electric Company."
This is actionable. It has a phone number. It has a binary outcome (they extend the due date or they don't). This is where energy should be spent.
Bucket 2: Solvable in 30 Days
"Increase Income."
This is not a task; it is a project. Worrying about it today achieves nothing. It requires a plan (e.g., update resume, apply to 3 gigs), not panic.
Bucket 3: Out of Control
"Will a Recession hit?"
This is pure noise. No amount of thinking at 3 AM will change macroeconomic trends. The AI correctly identified this as a waste of bandwidth.
The Analysis: The "Cold-Blooded Secretary"
The AI acted like a cold-blooded secretary. It didn't care about my feelings, which was exactly what I needed. By seeing "Will I be homeless?" categorized next to "Global Warming" in the "Out of Control" bucket, I realized I was suffering from future-tripping rather than solving present problems.
It forced me to focus exclusively on Bucket 1. Once I made the phone call to the electric company, the list was done. I could go back to sleep.
The Verdict
This is "Stoicism as a Service."
This is perhaps the best use of AI for mental health I have found. It creates an external "Second Brain" to hold your anxiety so you don't have to carry it. It validates that your problems are real, but it refuses to let you drown in problems you cannot solve today.
Action Your "Bucket 1"
Once you have filtered the noise, you need to execute on the solvable tasks.
Use the Executive Function Experiment