I Copy-Paste ChatGPT 40 Times a Day as a VA. This Trick Saved Me 2 Hours.
I tracked my time last week. The results were painful. Here's what I found—and the 10-second fix that changed everything.
Want to skip to the solution?
DeGPT is a free Chrome extension that cleans ChatGPT text in one click.
The Time Tracking Experiment
Last week, I decided to track exactly where my time went. I'm a VA working with 4 clients—handling emails, Slack messages, client communications, and documentation.
I use ChatGPT constantly. It's how I keep up with the workload. Draft an email? ChatGPT. Write a status update? ChatGPT. Respond to a client question? ChatGPT.
But here's what I discovered: I wasn't spending my time writing. I was spending it cleaning.
What 'Cleanup' Actually Means
Every time I copied text from ChatGPT, I had to:
- Delete the opening phrase — "I'd be happy to help you with that!" (Nobody talks like this)
- Delete the closing phrase — "I hope this helps! Let me know if you need anything else."
- Fix the formatting — Bullets breaking, weird spacing, random bold text
- Remove markdown — Asterisks showing up instead of bold, hashtags for headers
- Adjust the tone — ChatGPT sounds generic, each client has a different voice
Each cleanup took 3-5 minutes. Sometimes longer if the formatting was really broken.
"It's just a few minutes," I told myself. Until I added it up.
The Brutal Math
My Actual Time Breakdown:
I was spending more than a full work week PER MONTH just copying text from ChatGPT and making it usable.
Why This Is Worse for VAs
If you work a normal job, wasting 2 hours on formatting is annoying. For VAs, it's a real problem:
Your time is tracked
If you use Time Doctor, Hubstaff, or any time tracking software, your client sees "2 hours on email formatting." That doesn't look good.
You're paid hourly (or by deliverable)
Every minute on cleanup is a minute not billing—or a minute that makes your hourly rate effectively lower.
You can't scale
Want to take on another client? You'd need to find more hours. But you're already spending 2+ hours on cleanup.
The Dollar Cost
Let's make this real:
At $8/hour
$424/mo
lost to cleanup
At $12/hour
$636/mo
lost to cleanup
At $15/hour
$795/mo
lost to cleanup
That's money you're leaving on the table—or time you could use to take on another client.
The extension that changed my math
DeGPT reduces 4-minute cleanups to 10 seconds. One click, done. And it's free.
Install Free Chrome ExtensionThe Solution: One Click Instead of Four Minutes
I found DeGPT through another VA in a Facebook group. She mentioned it saved her "hours every week." I was skeptical.
But it's free, so I installed it. Here's what changed:
- The extension adds a button inside ChatGPT
Right where you need it. No switching tabs or tools.
- One click cleans the entire response
Removes AI phrases, fixes formatting, strips markdown—automatically.
- I choose my destination
Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Notion—it optimizes for each platform.
- Copy, paste, done
No more fixing bullets. No more deleting "I'd be happy to help."
The New Math
After DeGPT:
2 hours and 33 minutes saved every single day.
12+ hours saved every week.
That's enough time to take on another part-time client—or just stop working at midnight.
What I Do With the Extra Time
- Actually took on a 5th client (10 hours/week)
- Finish work by 6pm instead of 9pm
- Time tracking shows productive work, not "email formatting"
- Less stress, fewer late nights
A free Chrome extension shouldn't make this much difference. But when you're copying from ChatGPT 40 times a day, every second adds up.
The Extension Is Free. The Math Is Obvious.
If you copy from ChatGPT more than a few times a day, you're wasting hours on cleanup. Install DeGPT and get that time back.