# AI for Real Life

A small library of life skills for the things that actually matter, with AI as a quiet helper where it earns its place (and left out where it doesn't). No app to live inside, no productivity religion, no shame. Add one small skill at a time until your life mostly runs itself — starting with the one almost everyone neglects: **keeping up with the people you love.**

I'm Mick. This is the calm, do-less version of getting organized. Learn one skill this week. That's the whole method. [Who's Mick? →](#whos-mick)

## Start here
1. **[Start With One Skill](skills/start-with-one.md)** — why one-at-a-time beats a life overhaul, and how to pick your first.
2. **[Keep in Touch](tool/index.html)** — the flagship tool. Open it in any browser (works offline, saves nothing to any server). Add the people you keep losing touch with, give each a rhythm, and it tells you who you're overdue to reach out to.
3. **[The Skills](skills/README.md)** — the whole library, grouped by what each one buys you.

## The idea
Most "get organized" advice hands you a fifty-step system and a guilt complex. This is the opposite.

A **skill** here is a small, learnable way of handling one recurring part of life. You run each skill as a **system** — a decision you make once so you stop re-deciding it forever. Autopay is a system. A weekly meal plan is a system. "Text one old friend every Sunday" is a system. You do not need all of them. You need a few good ones, added slowly. And AI only shows up in a skill where it genuinely saves you time, and stays out of the rest.

## What each skill buys you
The library is grouped by payoff, not by life category. Reach for the one you're short on:
- **Closeness** — the people you love, starting with [Keep in Touch](skills/keep-in-touch.md).
- **Peace of mind** — money and admin off your back, like [autopay](skills/autopay.md).
- **Time back** — the daily tax paid once, like a [weekly meal plan](skills/meal-plan.md).
- **Steadiness** — showing up for yourself, like the [minimum viable workout](skills/minimum-workout.md).

Browse them all in **[The Skills](skills/README.md)**, steal what fits, ignore the rest.

> The one conviction underneath all of it: relationships come first. Staying in touch is the skill almost everyone neglects, and it is the one that quietly makes or breaks a life.

## What this is (and isn't)
- **Is:** free, calm, one-small-thing-at-a-time. For real people with full lives.
- **Isn't:** a second-brain to maintain, a subscription, or a promise that a system will fix you. Add one skill. See if life gets a little easier.

## Who's Mick
I'm Mick. I build simple things that work and write about doing more with less — the tool in this repo is one of them. Warm, practical, on your side, nothing to prove to you. [More about Mick →](https://mpacarroll.github.io/mick/#about)

## License
MIT — see [LICENSE](LICENSE).