Five Settings That Let Me Work With AI All Day Without Burning Out
A 45-year-old who can't code, on the setup that made three months of near-daily AI sessions survivable.
A quick intro first.
I can’t write a single line of code. Even so, I spent three months building a game with AI, almost every day, and shipped it on Steam.
On workdays, I’d put in 10 to 12 hours. On days off, I’d go 24 hours straight. A few times, I kept going past 30.
Let me be honest: it’s tiring. There’s no way it wouldn’t be. But after a few changes to my setup, it got a lot easier to keep going. Same hours, less wear. My eyes and hands stopped paying for it the way they used to.
Here are the five settings that did it.
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■ 1. Play a sound when the task finishes
When you ask AI to do something, you wait. Sometimes 30 seconds, sometimes a few minutes. Staring at the screen the whole time is quietly exhausting.
So I set it to play a Windows sound when the work is done.
Until it beeps, I can look away. Make coffee. Look out the window. Just not having to watch the screen took a real load off my eyes, and my head.
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■ 2. Kill every “Are you sure?” prompt
When you let AI work, it keeps asking. “Can I run this command?” Hundreds of times a day. Clicking through those is more draining than it sounds.
So I made it all automatic. No prompts. The AI just keeps moving.
A warning: this runs commands without asking first. Only do it once you understand what’s happening. When you’re starting out, approving each step is safer.
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■ 3. Have the AI read its replies out loud
Following long replies with your eyes wears them out.
So I had the responses read aloud.
Instead of reading the screen, I listen. My eyes rest. I can take it in while I’m making tea.
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■ 4. (Almost) quit the keyboard
Typing every instruction by hand wrecks your wrists.
So I added voice input. A tool called Aqua Voice.
You talk, it turns into text. It handles technical terms pretty well, too.
It’s $8/month on the annual plan ($96/year), or $10 month to month. There’s a free tier (1,000 words) to try it. (As of June 2026.)
One more thing: voice input needs a mic. A better mic means better accuracy, and fewer misreads means less re-doing. I use a Logitech (Blue) mic. New, it runs over $70, but I picked mine up used for around $25. Used is plenty.
Once this was in, I barely touched the keyboard.
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■ 5. Move everything onto the mouse
Since I’d stopped typing, I shifted the controls onto the mouse.
I use a Logitech G600. It has 12 buttons right under your thumb.
And holding the G-Shift button swaps those 12 for a second set, so you effectively get 24.
One honest note: the G600 is discontinued now, and used ones go for a premium. If you’re buying today, any mouse with 12 thumb buttons works just as well. The usual picks are the Razer Naga V2 Pro and the Corsair Scimitar RGB Elite. On a budget, a Redragon MMO mouse (the 12-button kind) does the job too. What matters isn’t the model. It’s having a lot of buttons under your thumb.
With G HUB, I moved nearly everything I’d normally type onto those 24 buttons. Copy, paste. Enter, Escape. Screenshot, region screenshot. The phrases I type a lot.
Most of it gets done with just my thumb.
I’ll be honest: the first few days were rough. Dropping the habits you know and switching to a new layout actually slowed me down at first. But once your body learns it, there’s no going back. Move your hands as little as you can. That alone cuts the strain of a long session way down.
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■ The result
The fatigue didn’t vanish. Work long enough and you still get tired.
But I last far longer now. Dry eyes, sore wrists, all lighter. I can go 24 hours on a day off and not fall over.
If I managed to build a game in three months, it’s probably because I built an environment I could keep showing up to. Not willpower. Settings.
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One last thing.
How did I actually build the game? Someone with no game-dev experience, who can’t code, used Claude Code to write 120,000 lines in three months. Subtitles in 95 languages, dubbing in 70, 100 achievements, almost all automated. And I shipped it on Steam, in early access, under the name Fire Field.
I’m writing the whole three-month story as a series, from the start. If you’re curious, come take a look.
📖 The series (from Chapter 1): [Substack 連載第1章のURLを貼る]
🛒 Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4527100/Firefield
🐦 X: https://x.com/Fnao32978420
🌐 Site: https://firefield.netlify.app/
▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RobeofFireGame
💬 Discord: https://discord.gg/dtPJM7zEXW
☕ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/roboffire