Club Benefits
After spending the past year testing AI tools across productivity, creativity and daily decision-making, I’ve learned that the best ChatGPT prompts don’t just generate better answers. They create better filters.
I’ve used ChatGPT to pressure-test routines, rethink my schedule and turn abstract productivity advice into practical systems I can actually use. Some prompts have helped me organize my mornings. Others have sharpened how I prioritize work, manage distractions and decide what deserves my attention.
For this experiment, I wanted to go beyond another generic productivity hack. I used ChatGPT to apply high-performance coach Brendon Burchard’s “empty calories” mindset to my own life, a framework built around identifying the habits, obligations and distractions that consume energy without giving much back.
The result wasn’t a basic to-do list or a recycled motivational pep talk. It gave me a clearer way to separate what looks productive from what actually moves my life forward. Here’s the prompt I used and how it helped me rethink where my time, attention and energy are really going.
Defining “empty-calorie activities”
Burchard’s “empty calories” concept works as a productivity metaphor: just as empty-calorie foods can fill you up without giving your body much nourishment, empty-calorie activities can fill your day without giving your life or work much momentum.
These are the tasks, habits and distractions that create the feeling of progress without producing much value. They keep you occupied, but they don’t necessarily move you closer to your goals, sharpen your thinking or support your best work. In Burchard’s framework, that can include busywork, low-leverage tasks, constant context-switching or anything that drains time and energy without a meaningful return.
The simplest way to think about it is this: empty calories are the things that make you feel active without making you more effective.
With that in mind, I asked ChatGPT to apply Burchard’s empty calories concept to my own life. I wanted it to help me identify what was taking up too much space, what needed to go and which activities were actually worth protecting because they made me feel productive, focused and fulfilled.
Eliminating unfulfilling activities and refocusing on the crucial ones
I presented this prompt to ChatGPT to kickoff this productivity boosting process: “Using Brendon Burchard's ‘empty calories’ framework, help me find and eliminate the ‘empty-calorie activities’ in my life.”
The chatbot initially offered up a summary of what that framework entails: Using Brendon Burchard's "empty calories" framework, the idea is to treat your time, attention, and energy the same way you treat nutrition. Just as empty-calorie foods fill you up without nourishing you, empty-calorie activities consume time and mental bandwidth without moving your life forward, deepening relationships, improving your well-being, or creating meaningful results.
The steps it presented to me to start weeding out those worthless activities included:
- Step 1: Audit Your Last 7 Days
- Step 2: Find Your Personal Empty Calories
- Step 3: Use the "Return on Life" Test
- Step 4: Replace, Don't Just Remove
- Step 5: Find the Top 3 Offenders
- Step 6: Create an "Energy Budget"
The first step helped me sort my activities into three categories: the ones that create long-term value, like completing meaningful work; the ones that are necessary for basic maintenance, like paying bills; and the ones that fall into the “empty-calorie” category, like doomscrolling.
The second step pushed me to identify my own empty-calorie activities more honestly. These were the things that stole the most attention, made me feel productive without producing meaningful results, took up too much mental space or had become habits I repeated automatically rather than choices I made intentionally.
The third step gave me the clearest test: “If I did twice as much of this for the next year, would my life improve significantly?” That question quickly separated the activities that were actually valuable from the ones that were simply familiar.
The fourth step made another important point clear: it isn’t enough to eliminate a low-value habit. I also needed to replace it with something more substantial. Otherwise, the same empty space would eventually get filled by another distraction.
By step five, ChatGPT had helped me identify my three biggest empty-calorie activities: mindlessly scrolling through social media in bed when I should be getting up, rearranging my room during the workday out of boredom and getting pulled into ragebait that seemed designed to make me angry.
The final step shifted the exercise from subtraction to intention. Instead of focusing only on what needed to go, I listed the five activities that add the most value to my life: writing for a living, reading consistently, helping friends discover books, shows, music and games they might love, seeking out new artists and staying engaged with the latest titles in gaming.
The takeaway
Brendon Burchard’s empty calories philosophy worked so well within the confines of ChatGPT’s application as it pertains to my life. It made me recognize the less important aspects of my day-to-day living, find what’s most important and apply those learnings to my daily processes.
Burchard said it best in his book, "High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way," when he states that, “Be more intentional about who you want to become. Have vision beyond your current circumstances. Imagine your best future self, and start acting like that person today.”
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