The Take 5 Rule

We all have those tasks. 

There is an email that needs to be written. The spreadsheet needs to be cleaned up. Monthly report that needs to be summarized. Projects need starting points. summarized. 

And sometimes, we just dive in. But what if you stopped first? 

At OneSource, we’re trying something simple: Take 5. 

If a task is going to take more than five minutes, spend five minutes asking yourself: Could AI help me with this?

Maybe AI can give you a starting point. Maybe it can organize information, summarize a document, brainstorm ideas, or help you get unstuck. Maybe you have a task you do every week that could be made easier with a little help from AI. 

You don’t need to have the perfect prompt ready. Start by describing what you’re trying to accomplish and asking for help. See what comes back. You might discover a better way to approach the task, or you might decide AI isn’t the right tool at all. 

Either way, the point isn’t to use AI for everything. The point is to take five minutes to consider whether AI could make the work easier, faster, or better. 

Over the next few weeks, we’ll show you what Take 5 looks like in the real world. We’ll share examples from our own team and clients: what they tried, what AI produced, what surprised them, and where the human still mattered. Because the real value isn’t just what AI can generate. It’s what people can accomplish when they use it thoughtfully. 

AI adoption doesn’t have to start with a massive transformation. Sometimes, it starts with five minutes. 

One more thing: Don’t forget the guardrails. 

Finding ways to use AI is exciting, but responsible adoption means knowing where the boundaries are. Before you open an AI tool and start experimenting, take a moment to understand your organization’s AI policies and the tools you’re approved to use. 

That means knowing what information you can safely share, what needs to stay private, and whether the tool you’re using is appropriate for the task. Customer information, employee records, financial details, passwords, and confidential business documents may require special care. An AI tool that works well for brainstorming a blog outline may not be appropriate for processing sensitive client information. 

It also means remembering that AI can make mistakes. Check its work, verify important facts, and use your own judgment before sharing the results or putting them into practice. AI can be a helpful assistant, but the responsibility for the final result still belongs to the person using it. 

We talked about these guardrails earlier this year. Now we’re putting them into practice. If your organization hasn’t established clear guidelines or started conversations about responsible AI adoption, OneSource can help you figure out where to begin.