Use AI without leaving your workflow

The real cost of asking

Count the steps in the usual way of asking an assistant something: leave the application, find the window or tab, wait for it to load, copy the relevant text in, type the question, read the answer, copy it back, find your place again.

That is not a five-second interaction, and the real damage is not the seconds. It is that you stopped doing the thing you were doing. The practical consequence is that you stop asking for small things, which is exactly where an assistant is most useful.

The setup

1. Learn the summon shortcutCtrl+Shift+Space by default, changeable to anything comfortable in Settings, Keyboard. It works from any application, which is the whole point.
2. Turn on the right-edge drawerOn by default for new installations. The assistant docks to the edge and retracts to a slim leash rather than disappearing, so it is always one click away without occupying screen space.
3. Assign one selected-text actionAsk SideNote is the best first choice. Select text anywhere, press the shortcut, and the text is already captured.
4. Set transparency if you overlay reference material0 to 50 percent window transparency lets you keep a document readable behind the assistant. Text brightness is separate, from 70 to 100 percent.
5. Enable start with WindowsA silent startup puts the leash on the edge without stealing focus. The assistant is available from the first minute of the day rather than being something you remember to launch.

Patterns that keep you in flow

• Select first, then ask. If the text is on screen, select it and use an action. Never copy and paste into the composer.
• Capture instead of describing. A region screenshot of an error takes two seconds and carries more than a paragraph of description.
• Keep the thread open. Follow-ups keep the context, the attached folder and the draft. Retracting the drawer does not end the conversation.
• Use the drawer, not minimise. Esc retracts to the leash. One click brings back the size and position you left.
• Let a draft sit. Drafts are saved automatically, so a half-written question survives a retraction or a restart.
• Pause shortcuts before a demo. The tray menu releases every binding without ending the process, and re-registers them on resume.

What becomes worth asking

When asking costs one keystroke, the threshold for what is worth asking drops, and that changes which questions you ask more than it changes how many.

• *Is this sentence ambiguous?* on a line of a specification you are about to send.
• *What does this flag actually do?* on a command you half-remember.
• *Give me three shorter versions of this* on a heading that is not working.
• *What is this error really saying?* on a message you would otherwise have skimmed past.
• *Does this paragraph contradict the one above it?* while editing.

None of these justify a context switch. All of them are worth eight seconds, and collectively they matter more than the occasional large question.

Keeping it quiet

An assistant that is always present should not be always demanding. Two settings help: focus-loss retraction, off by default, makes it disappear when you click elsewhere; and always-on-top for the leash without the expanded window, so a small tab stays reachable without a full window floating over everything.

There is no notification, no badge, no proactive suggestion and no background activity. SideNote Pro does nothing until you press something, which is what makes it tolerable to leave running.