Use AI for the Things That Don't Require Your Head or Your Heart
Based on Juliana McMillan-Wilhoit's talk at the National Maternal and Child Health Conference
Jump to tool promptsSomething needs to change
Last fall, Juliana McMillan-Wilhoit was doing what many working parents have done. She was sitting in a chair, holding her baby Judah, rocking him to sleep, phone in hand, trying to brain-dump everything floating in her head and communicate it to the people who needed it. Work tasks. Messages for her husband. One-on-one agenda items. Things for the kids.
She was present nowhere. Not with the coworkers who needed her input. Not with her husband, who was getting sporadic half-formed messages. Not with her child, who needed her fully. Her mental health was suffering.
She sat there and decided: something needs to change. Not a tool decision. A life decision. She started asking: where are my pain points? What keeps falling through the cracks? What am I carrying in my brain that I don't actually need to carry?
Everyone carries tension points like these. Things that keep you from showing up how you want to show up. For MCH professionals, they take specific shapes: scheduling meetings with fifteen external partners who all use different calendar systems, searching through WIC guidance documents, entering the same home visit notes into three different systems, keeping up with grant reporting requirements while also trying to do the direct work you trained to do.
Trace the process. Find where it breaks.
Here's what Juliana did in that chair. She traced the process. She had information in her head. She needed to get it to other people. The way she was communicating it wasn't working. It was broken. So she mentally mapped out how she was currently sharing information: sporadically in a Teams message if she could remember, verbally dumping on her husband when she saw him. Once she could see the process, she could find the bottleneck.
That became the framework. Four steps:
- Start from the pain point
- Trace the actual process
- Find where it breaks
- Ask: head or heart?
The last step is the filter. Does this broken part require your professional judgment, your relationships, your expertise? Or is it mechanical? If it doesn't require your head or your heart, it's a candidate for offloading.
Offloading doesn't have to mean AI. It doesn't even have to mean technology.
That's not technology. It's a system rooted in understanding the problem and asking that one question. The same logic applies to a Thursday 9 PM phone reminder to take out the trash. The point is that her brain isn't holding the task anymore. The bottleneck didn't require her head or her heart.
Where does your process break down? Hold onto that. Everything that follows started from exactly that kind of question. (If you want to go deeper on process mapping, read Why Process Mapping Is Your Secret Weapon for AI Success.)
Tools Juliana built, and prompts to build your own
Each of these started with a friction point. Juliana traced the process, found the bottleneck, and confirmed it didn't require her head or her heart. None of these tools do the work. All of them create space.
Juliana has ADHD and loses physical notebooks. While holding a baby, she couldn't write. She needed a way to capture thoughts instantly, from anywhere, without it feeling like another task.
An Apple Shortcuts automation she can trigger from her Apple Watch, phone, or computer. One tap opens a dictation box. The thought goes into a synced note. No AI. Just capture.
I want to build a quick-capture automation on my [iPhone / Android phone / computer] that lets me speak a thought and have it saved to a note I can review later. Here's what I need: - One tap to start (no navigating through menus) - Voice dictation (I can't type while holding a baby / driving / cooking) - Saves to [Apple Notes / Google Keep / OneNote / a text file — pick yours] - Syncs across my devices so I can review the list later I'm on [Mac / Windows / iPhone / Android — list yours]. I have [Apple Shortcuts / Tasker / Power Automate — or say "I don't know what I have"]. Please walk me through building this step by step. If you need more info about my setup, ask before you start.
Paste this into your AI of choice. If you work in public health and need a HIPAA-compliant option, PH360 is built for exactly this.
She had the capture tool, but the notes still needed to go somewhere. A thought for her husband. A one-on-one agenda item. A work task. Routing them manually was its own friction.
She gave her AI a set of reusable instructions: who her teammates are, where agendas live, what her project boards are. The AI reads her brain dump and suggests where each item should go: "This looks like a task for Project X. This looks like a note for your 1:1 with [person]." Nothing gets added until she approves it. That approval step is non-negotiable.
MCP (Model Context Protocol) gives AI tools structured access to your other apps and systems. Instead of copying and pasting between tools, your AI can read from and write to them directly. Think of it as giving your AI a specific set of keys to specific rooms, rather than handing it the whole building.
If you're using Claude or PH360, you can use MCP to connect your AI to tools like Jira, so it can actually add tasks to your task list. The non-MCP version of this system still works: you copy the brain dump, paste it in, the AI tells you what to do with each item, and you do it manually. MCP just removes that last step.
I'm going to paste a messy brain dump of tasks, notes, and thoughts below. I need you to help me sort them into the right places. Here's how my work is organized: - My tasks live in [Jira / Asana / Todoist / a notebook — say yours] - My 1:1 meeting agendas are in [Google Docs / OneNote / Notion — say yours] - My team includes [list 2-3 people and what you work with them on] - Personal/household items go to [a shared list / my spouse / a notes app] Rules: 1. Sort each item into one of those categories 2. Suggest what action to take (create a task, add to agenda, send a message) 3. DO NOT take any action until I approve each one 4. Flag anything you're unsure about and ask me Here's my brain dump: [paste your raw notes here]
Paste this into your AI of choice. If you work in public health and need a HIPAA-compliant option, PH360 is built for exactly this.
Juliana writes in Markdown (the formatting language used in many AI tools and note apps). Pasting it into Word or email produces a mess of asterisks and pound signs instead of real formatting.
A browser-based tool: a single HTML file she double-clicks to open. Paste in AI-generated Markdown, click Format, and get clean output — properly structured headings, bold, bullet lists — ready to paste directly into Microsoft Word or Outlook with no cleanup. No account, no upload, nothing stored.
Build me a single HTML file I can save to my desktop and double-click to open in my browser. No installation, no internet connection required. What it should do: - Show a large text area where I can paste text from AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Notion - The pasted text will have Markdown formatting: **bold**, # headings, - bullet lists, [links](url), etc. - Convert all of that into clean, properly formatted text - Show the formatted result below the input - Include a "Copy" button that copies the clean version so I can paste it into Word, Outlook, or Google Docs Design preferences: - Clean and simple, not cluttered - [Add your color preferences, e.g., "Use our brand colors: navy and white" or "warm earth tones" or just "keep it minimal"] - Large enough text areas that I can see what I'm working with Build the complete HTML file. I'll save it and use it directly.
Paste this into your AI of choice. If you work in public health and need a HIPAA-compliant option, PH360 is built for exactly this.
Tasks in one system, meetings in another, no way to see the week as a whole. She was context-switching between apps just to figure out what to do when.
A browser-based interactive calendar: single HTML file, double-click to open. Pre-loaded with her recurring meetings. Task sidebar on the right. Drag tasks onto time slots. Export as a single ICS file that imports directly into Outlook or Google Calendar. Nothing uploaded, nothing stored.
Before you build anything, I need you to ask me a few questions so the tool actually fits my workflow. Please ask me: 1. What week do you want to start with? (I'll update it each week, so just need the first date.) 2. What are your working hours? (e.g., 7 AM–6 PM) 3. What recurring meetings do you have each week? For each one, tell me: the day, start time, duration, and title. 4. Do you have a list of tasks to pre-load? If so, paste them in — even a rough list is fine. Include the task name, rough priority (high / medium / low), and due date if you have one. 5. If you have a screenshot of your current calendar or task list, share it — I can pull the meetings and tasks directly from that. 6. What does your organization look like? (Just the project areas or team names you work across — I'll use these to color-code tasks.) 7. Design preferences: do you want a specific color scheme, font style, or brand colors? Once I have your answers, I'll build a single self-contained HTML file you can double-click to open in any browser. It will include: - A drag-and-drop weekly calendar with your recurring meetings pre-loaded - A task sidebar you can drag items from onto time slots - Duration controls on each block (30 min, 1 hr, 2 hr, etc.) - A notes field on each block (double-click to edit) - A single Export ICS button that downloads one .ics file with all your blocks — import it into Outlook or Google Calendar in one click - Nothing is uploaded or stored anywhere; everything runs locally
Paste this into your AI of choice. If you work in public health and need a HIPAA-compliant option, PH360 is built for exactly this.
Where does your process break down?
Use these questions to start mapping your own friction. You don't need to answer all of them. Just notice what surfaces.
- What do you find yourself searching for repeatedly? Map the steps: where do you start, what do you click through, how long until you find it?
- What tasks do you do the same way every week that feel rote? Walk through each step. Which one is the bottleneck?
- What keeps falling through the cracks? Trace where the breakdown happens. Is it capture? Handoff? Follow-up?
- What information are you holding in your head that would be better somewhere else?
- Where do you spend time on logistics that pulls you away from the work you actually trained to do?
- What do you dread at the start of each week, not because it's hard, but because it's tedious?
- What would you do with an extra hour each week if one of these things were handled?
Hold onto whatever surfaced. That's your starting point. Not a tool, not a prompt. A real friction point you've now started to map.
Make it feel like you
Every tool in this post reflects Juliana's specific workflow. Her capture system routes to her specific project boards. Her reformatter solves her specific Markdown-to-Word problem. Your tools should reflect yours. When you adapt the prompts below:
- Tell it your operating system and what you can or can't install.
- Describe your aesthetic: "warm and earthy, like a nature journal" or "match our org's brand: navy blue, white, clean sans-serif."
- Say what you're willing to maintain. A Python script you run from a terminal is different from an HTML file you double-click.
- Expect to iterate. Your first version will work but won't be quite right. Say "this is close but [specific thing is off]" and go again.
- Got a tool someone else built? Paste it in and say: "I got this from someone else. Help me adapt it for my situation." That's a completely valid starting point.
Not sure where to begin? Start here.
If you know you have friction and you've started to trace the process, describe the problem and let an AI tool ask you questions before jumping to a solution. This matters: jumping straight to "build me a tool" before you've thought through your constraints usually produces something that doesn't quite fit.
I have a recurring task that's creating friction in my work, and I want to explore whether a simple tool or automation could help. Here's what I'm trying to do: [describe the task or the friction point in plain language] Before you suggest anything, please ask me questions about: - My operating system (Mac, Windows, Chromebook, etc.) - What apps and tools I already use day to day - What I can and can't install on my work computer - How comfortable I am with technology (be honest, there's no wrong answer) - Whether this involves any sensitive or protected data Then suggest the simplest possible solution that fits my actual situation.
Paste this into your AI of choice. Let it interview you before jumping to a solution. If you work in public health and need a HIPAA-compliant option, PH360 is built for exactly this.
A lot of people assume "code" means something complicated to install and run. HTML isn't like that. It's what every web page is built on. If someone gives you an HTML file, you can double-click it and it opens right in your browser. Everything runs locally on your computer. Nothing is sent anywhere. You'll see examples of what HTML actually looks like in the tools below.
The same patterns show up in health departments
Juliana was building these personal systems while simultaneously watching the same challenges play out at health departments. Staff carrying everything in their heads. Spending time searching instead of doing the work they trained to do. Entering the same information into multiple systems. Being asked to do so much with so little.
AI could help some of those workflows. In many cases, though, commercial AI tools aren't appropriate. The data is personally identifiable. In local government, there are requirements around chats being part of the public record. There's a clear need for AI that is HIPAA-compliant and purpose-built for public health. If your organization is still figuring out its AI policy, here are 12 things it needs to cover. F&T Labs also works directly with health departments on AI policy development — from initial assessment through an adoptable policy your team can actually use.
MCH professionals are already stretched thin. The work that requires their head and their heart (sitting with a family after a difficult diagnosis, supporting a new parent, navigating complex referral systems) is the work that can't be offloaded. When staff spend hours searching through guidance documents or entering data into redundant systems, that's time taken directly from families.
What this looks like inside a health department
In Wisconsin, environmental health inspectors in Sauk County were spending significant time searching through thousands of pages of food code PDFs to find citations, especially for uncommon violations. F&T Labs did the same thing Juliana did in her personal life: talked with staff, understood their pain points, and found the bottleneck.
The team built them a tool on PH360, F&T Labs' HIPAA-compliant AI platform for public health. The tool uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), which constrains the AI's response to only what's in its approved document set. When you upload a document to ChatGPT or Claude, the information gets mixed with everything else the AI "knows." RAG keeps it separate. The PH360 tool answers questions about the food code and provides the citation. Staff can go back and check the source.
PH360 food code citation lookup. The tool returns the answer and the source citation.
Citation lookup time dropped from thirty minutes to under five. Once inspectors had the tool, they started using it for things nobody anticipated: drafting follow-up emails, corrective action plans, better communication with the establishments they inspect.
What the tool created was space. Space for on-site coaching. Space for relationships. Space for actually crafting better communication. Space for the work that requires their head and their heart.
How much time do you or your staff spend searching through guidance, protocols, or reporting requirements? What if you could get an answer from your approved documents, with a full audit trail? Whatever tool you use needs to meet your organization's AI policy, security requirements, and records retention rules. PH360 was built for exactly that.
Read the full story: AI for Environmental Health — the PH360 food code chat →
None of these tools do your work for you
That's the point.
AI cannot sit with a parent who just received a difficult diagnosis. It can't help someone figure out how to properly latch a baby. It can't read the room during a home visit. It can't replace the relationships your staff build with families. It can't exercise the professional judgment that comes from years of experience.
These tools consume real energy, real water, real resources. That deserves honest acknowledgment. (For more on this, read 5 Uncomfortable Truths About AI in Public Health.)
A burned-out workforce leaving public health has its own cost. Communities lose experienced staff. Institutional knowledge walks out the door. Families lose continuity of care.
When you put something down that didn't require your head or your heart, you create space. Space to show up more fully for the work and the people that matter most. You don't need to become an AI expert. Start with the tension point you identified while reading this post. Trace the process. Find where it breaks. Ask: does it require my head or my heart? If not, there's a way to put it down.
Start there.
