Skill-Preservation AI Use Audit
Use with What Deteriorates When You Outsource Thinking.
Before you start: the four questions
- Is this a skill I am actively building, or a task I just need finished?
- What does an honest, unaided attempt look like, and can I timebox it (5-15 minutes)?
- What does the assisted phase add that the unaided attempt could not?
- How will I check, later, that I can still do the unaided version?
If you cannot name the specific skill you are protecting, this task probably belongs in “delegate freely” rather than this audit.
Your tracking table
| Task | Baseline (unaided attempt, dated) | Assisted phase — what AI added | Independent check (date + result) | Review cadence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Suggested review cadences
- Weekly — for skills you use almost daily (a language you’re learning, a tool you use constantly).
- Monthly — for skills you use regularly but not daily (persuasive writing, estimation, structured arguments).
- Quarterly — for skills you use occasionally but want sharp when needed (debugging an unfamiliar system, a rarely used calculation).
The order-of-operations rule
Attempt unaided first, even briefly and even badly, before opening an AI tool for a task you are building the skill on. Research on essay writing with LLMs found that participants who attempted a task unaided before getting AI help retained more and re-engaged more of the brain regions associated with the task than those who started with AI assistance from the beginning. Order matters more than total effort.
Not for high-stakes first attempts
Do not apply “unaided first” to tasks with real safety, legal, medical, or financial consequences if your unaided attempt is not yet reliable. Practice on low-stakes reps; verify high-stakes work regardless of who or what produced the first draft.
Review this audit
Revisit your tracking table at each scheduled check-in. If an independent check shows real decline in a skill you care about, increase the frequency of unaided reps before increasing assisted ones.