Your Business Doesn't Have to Keep You Chained to a Chair

I have a perfectly good executive chair in my office. Comfortable. Nothing wrong with it.

I just don’t want to spend my whole working life sitting in it.

For years, getting work done meant going to the computer. Sit down, open the software, start typing. You could have an idea somewhere else, but putting it into action often had to wait until you got back to your desk.

That connection is starting to loosen.

I can sit on the sofa, go into the backyard, or take a walk and have a conversation with AI that moves my business forward. We might work through a project, prepare for a meeting, develop an article, or figure out how to hand off a recurring task.

That is work. And increasingly, it doesn’t require a keyboard.

We made the computer portable. We kept the desk habit.

Think of the old image of the executive with a support staff: someone took dictation, someone typed the correspondence, someone handled the filing. The boss supplied direction and made decisions.

As computers arrived on more desks, they gave people the ability to do more of that work themselves. For an owner, that could also mean taking on tasks they might once have delegated. The tools became more capable, and we became their operators.

Early terminals and desktop computers kept that work in a particular place. Laptops, smartphones, and better internet brought far more flexibility.

But look at how many of us still work. We have an office, a desk, a keyboard, and a screen or two. Even when the office moves into our home, the routine often follows us there.

I know that routine well. I also know how tiring it can feel to spend hours in the same place. Sometimes I want to get outside, but there’s that familiar thought: I should be working.

Learning to work through conversation has given me more choice about that.

A conversation can move the work forward

People have been taking business calls while walking for years. Dictation isn’t new either.

What feels different to me is having a back-and-forth conversation with AI about the work itself.

I can bring an unfinished idea. Explain what I’m trying to accomplish. Get a question that makes me reconsider something. Explore another approach. Change my mind halfway through.

Sometimes I begin with a task to delegate. Other times, I discover what the task should be through the conversation.

That sounding-board role matters. It helps me make something of thoughts that might otherwise remain loose ends until I find time to sit down and sort them out.

This article is an example. It began as a conversation about feeling chained to a chair. I had experiences, fragments, and a collection of notes. Talking them through helped me find the connection between them.

For suitable tasks, the conversation can also lead into execution. An AI agent with the right tools and access can prepare a draft, update a record, or carry out an agreed workflow. The setup matters: a voice conversation alone doesn’t give an AI access to your business systems.

But once those connections and boundaries are in place, more work becomes possible from your phone.

Give the work somewhere to go

There’s familiar advice for business owners: document your systems, delegate daily tasks, automate repetitive work, and spend more time leading.

Good advice. It also takes effort to put into practice, especially when the person who needs to document everything is already busy doing everything.

Conversation can help you begin.

Take one recurring task and explain how you handle it. What starts the process? What information do you need? What happens next? What exceptions come up? What tells you it’s finished properly?

AI can help turn that explanation into a procedure you can review and improve. You still need to check that it reflects reality. But you have something concrete to work with instead of a blank page.

From there, decide who or what can handle it. Some work belongs with a person. Some suits an automated workflow. Some can be assigned to an AI agent, with clear instructions and checks.

You don’t have to redesign the entire business at once. Start with a task you understand well and repeat often. Establish what a good result looks like, test the handoff, and see how much attention it still needs.

Each reliable handoff reduces the number of things that require you personally to operate a tool.

Your judgment still has a job

One idea I keep coming back to is becoming the approval layer.

In the workflow I’m working toward, AI does the preparation, and I review what is going to a client before it goes out. A draft waits for my attention. An invoice waits for approval. I can ask for changes before anything is sent.

That review is meaningful work. I know the client, the context, and what I’ve promised. I’m responsible for deciding whether the result is ready.

Reviewing can take less time than assembling everything from scratch, although some work still needs substantial correction or close attention. The benefit depends on the task and the quality of the result.

The aim is to make better use of the experience, wisdom, and vision I bring to the business. Those qualities can guide the work even when I’m away from my desk.

Get the business out of your head

Freedom also depends on having reliable records.

Tasks, decisions, commitments, and project history need somewhere to live. Otherwise, you’re still carrying the business around in your memory, wherever you happen to be sitting.

A shared system gives both you and your AI something to refer to. When it’s current and connected, questions become more useful: What needs my attention today? What are we waiting on? I’ve got ten minutes—what could I move forward?

That doesn’t guarantee nothing will be missed. The records need maintaining, and important details still need checking. But it reduces the burden of trying to remember every loose end yourself.

Keep the desk for the work that benefits from it

I still use my desktop computer. Sometimes I need to see a design, content, or video on a large screen. Sometimes my desktop setup gives me better access to the connection, storage, or files I need.

Those are useful reasons to sit down there.

I’m learning to be more deliberate about which tasks need that setup. If something benefits from a big screen and sustained attention, I can make time for it. If it’s a planning conversation I could have while walking, I have another option.

The phone becomes a way into the same work: the same project information, the same conversations, the same items awaiting review. Making those systems accessible across your computer, tablet, and phone is part of making this practical.

For the client, the result still matters: work that meets the brief, arrives when promised, and has been checked. Where I sat while planning it adds little to that value.

Start with one piece of your day

I’ve been learning to work this way for close to a year. I’m still learning every day.

It takes practice to explain what you need, build useful systems, and learn which tasks you can confidently hand off. Some days the technology helps enormously. Other days you have to stop, correct something, and improve the process.

But you can start small.

Choose one piece of work you could explore through conversation. Prepare for a meeting. Explain a recurring process. Talk through an idea you haven’t had time to develop. Take a short walk and see whether you can move it forward.

Of course, you can also take a walk simply to take a walk. Having more freedom should include being able to switch off.

The change I’m interested in is having a choice. Being able to contribute experience, make decisions, and get useful work underway without automatically heading back to the keyboard.

My chair is still there when I need it.

I’m just spending less of my life chained to it.