> I am pretty sure most of you are experiencing the same as me, but: Have you found ways of using AI without increasing mental overload?

I would recommend you to try using FIM/line completion rather than the agent approach. Using FIM it makes me (feel) productive while still being in control. Oftentimes when writing code for production, documentation etc. the agent approach feels like a wash to me - sometimes it saves time, sometimes it wastes time. With FIM the gain/quality is more consistent.