You are a calm, fast executive assistant who has triaged thousands of email inboxes. I'm going to paste a batch of unread emails below. Sort them for me so I can clear my inbox in 15 minutes.
Context:
- My role: [YOUR ROLE OR JOB TITLE]
- Today's top priority: [ONE-SENTENCE FOCUS FOR THE DAY]
- People I always reply to fast: [2-4 NAMES OR ROLES]
- Things I almost never need to read: [NEWSLETTERS, AUTOMATED ALERTS, ETC.]
Output a single triage table with these columns: Sender, Subject (shortened), Category, Suggested action, Time to handle.
Use these 4 categories only: Reply now, Reply later, Read only, Archive. Be ruthless — most emails should land in "Read only" or "Archive."
Then, under the table, draft 1-2 sentence reply suggestions for everything in "Reply now." Keep replies friendly but short. No filler.
EMAILS:
[PASTE SUBJECT + SENDER + 1-2 LINE PREVIEW FOR EACH]
Why this works
Forcing four exact categories stops the AI from inventing fuzzy labels like "maybe later" or "follow up if needed." The "be ruthless" instruction pushes the model to actually archive instead of hedging — which is the whole point of triage.
You are a chief of staff who turns messy meeting notes into clean, useful summaries. I'll paste raw notes from a meeting below. Produce a structured summary I can share with the team in under five minutes of editing.
Meeting context:
- Meeting type: [1:1 / TEAM SYNC / CUSTOMER CALL / PROJECT REVIEW / OTHER]
- Attendees and roles: [LIST]
- The reason this meeting happened: [ONE SENTENCE]
Produce the following sections, in this order:
1. TL;DR — 3 sentences max
2. Decisions made — bulleted, each tied to who decided
3. Action items — table with: owner, action, due date, status (not started)
4. Open questions — anything unresolved
5. Next meeting prep — what we should bring or decide before next time
Do not invent action items that weren't discussed. If a section has nothing in it, write "None" rather than padding. Keep the whole summary under 350 words.
RAW NOTES:
[PASTE YOUR NOTES HERE]
Why this works
"Do not invent action items" is the secret line. Most meeting summarizers hallucinate confident next steps that nobody actually committed to. Forcing "None" for empty sections also keeps your summaries honest — silence is a real signal in meetings.
Act as a thoughtful productivity coach helping me run a 20-minute weekly review. I'll paste a brain-dump of what happened this week below. Help me close the loop on the past week and plan the next one.
Context:
- My role: [ROLE OR JOB TITLE]
- My current top 3 goals: [LIST 3]
- This week's intended focus: [WHAT I PLANNED TO PROTECT TIME FOR]
Produce:
1. Wins — 3-5 things I should genuinely be proud of, even small
2. Drag — 2-3 things that ate time, energy, or attention without much return
3. Lessons — 2 plain-English lessons to carry forward
4. Status of my top 3 goals — short progress note for each
5. Next week — 3 priorities (not 10), written as outcomes not tasks
6. One thing I'll deliberately stop doing next week
Keep tone warm, direct, and unsentimental. Don't praise me; observe me. If patterns repeat from last week, name them.
THIS WEEK'S BRAIN DUMP:
[PASTE FREE-FORM NOTES, CALENDAR EVENTS, JOURNAL ENTRIES]
Why this works
Capping next week to "3 priorities, not 10" forces real prioritization instead of an over-ambitious list you'll abandon by Wednesday. Asking the AI to "observe, not praise" stops the cheerleading mode that most coaching prompts default to.
You are a no-nonsense productivity coach. Take my raw task list and sort it into an Eisenhower matrix so I can stop reacting and start choosing.
Context:
- My role: [ROLE OR JOB TITLE]
- My single most important goal this month: [ONE SENTENCE]
- Hours I realistically have for focused work this week: [NUMBER]
Sort every task into one of four quadrants:
- Q1: Urgent + Important → Do today
- Q2: Important, Not Urgent → Schedule a calendar block
- Q3: Urgent, Not Important → Delegate or batch
- Q4: Not Urgent, Not Important → Drop or defer to a "someday" list
Output a table with columns: Task, Quadrant, Reasoning (1 sentence), Suggested action.
After the table, give me three observations: which quadrant my list is most overloaded in, what that pattern says about how I'm working, and the one Q2 task you'd protect time for first.
TASKS:
[PASTE OR LIST YOUR TASKS, ONE PER LINE]
Why this works
Most people technically know the Eisenhower matrix and still don't use it, because applying it to a real list feels tedious. Outsourcing the sort to AI removes the friction. Asking for a pattern observation at the end turns a sorting exercise into a real coaching moment.
Act as a clear-headed decision coach. I'm stuck between a few options and I want to make this decision in the next 30 minutes, not the next two weeks.
The decision: [WHAT YOU NEED TO DECIDE]
Options I'm considering: [LIST 2-4 OPTIONS]
Why this matters: [WHAT'S AT STAKE]
Constraints: [BUDGET, TIME, ENERGY, RELATIONSHIPS, ETC.]
What "good" looks like 6 months from now: [ONE SENTENCE]
Produce:
1. A weighted decision matrix as a table — rows are my options, columns are 4-6 criteria you choose based on what I said matters. Score each option 1-5 and total the column.
2. The criterion I'm probably underweighting and why
3. The criterion I'm probably overweighting and why
4. A clear recommendation in one paragraph, written like a friend who has watched me make decisions before
5. The smallest reversible test I could run this week to validate the recommendation
Avoid both extremes: don't be wishy-washy ("it depends!") and don't pretend more certainty than the inputs deserve.
Why this works
Asking the AI to surface what you're under- and over-weighting is the part that actually unblocks people. The "smallest reversible test" line keeps the answer concrete instead of abstract — most decisions get easier when you stop trying to be 100% right and just plan a cheap way to learn.
You are a thoughtful executive coach who specializes in calendar design. I'll paste last week's calendar below. Audit how I actually spent my time and build a better template for next week.
Context:
- My role: [ROLE OR JOB TITLE]
- The work I should be doing more of: [ONE SENTENCE]
- The work I should be doing less of: [ONE SENTENCE]
- Hard constraints: [SCHOOL PICKUP, CUSTOMER TIMEZONES, RECURRING MEETINGS I CAN'T MOVE]
Produce:
1. A breakdown of last week by category — meetings, focused work, admin, breaks, interruptions — as percentages
2. Three honest observations about how my time was actually used
3. The 1-2 recurring meetings I should consider canceling, declining, or shortening, with a reason
4. A proposed weekly template (Mon-Fri) with named blocks: Deep Work, Meetings, Admin, Buffer, End-of-day Shutdown
5. One specific protected block I should defend hardest, and how to explain it to colleagues
Be direct. If my calendar looks like reactive chaos, say that.
LAST WEEK'S CALENDAR:
[PASTE BLOCK BY BLOCK, OR EXPORT FROM YOUR CALENDAR APP]
Why this works
Most calendar advice is generic ("block deep work in the morning!") and ignores the actual shape of your week. Pasting your real calendar grounds the advice in reality. The "reactive chaos" line is a permission slip — it tells the AI it doesn't have to be polite about a broken schedule.
You are a senior project lead who has shipped dozens of complex projects on time. Take a vague, big project and break it down into a tight execution plan I can actually start tomorrow.
Project: [PROJECT NAME AND ONE-SENTENCE DESCRIPTION]
Definition of done: [WHAT "FINISHED" LOOKS LIKE]
Target completion date: [DATE]
Resources I have: [TIME, PEOPLE, BUDGET]
Known unknowns: [WHAT I'M NOT SURE ABOUT YET]
Produce: a milestone-based plan with phases, the smallest possible "first move" I can make in 30 minutes, dependencies between tasks, and the two riskiest assumptions to validate first...
Act as a senior IC who writes the cleanest weekly status updates on the team. Turn my messy week-in-review notes into a tight Slack-or-email update my manager will actually read.
Audience: [MANAGER, SKIP-LEVEL, CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TEAM]
Tone: [PROFESSIONAL / CASUAL / FORMAL]
Length target: [SHORT / MEDIUM]
Required sections: shipped, in progress, blocked, next week, asks. No fluff, no humble-bragging, no over-apologizing for blockers...
You are a manager who delegates cleanly and never has to redo work. Help me write a delegation brief that's specific enough that the person doing the work doesn't need to come back with five clarifying questions.
The task: [WHAT YOU'RE HANDING OFF]
Who's owning it: [ROLE]
Why it matters: [BUSINESS OR PROJECT CONTEXT]
Definition of done: [WHAT GOOD LOOKS LIKE]
Decision authority: [WHAT THEY CAN DECIDE WITHOUT ASKING ME]
Produce a structured brief: context, outcome, constraints, examples of good and bad output, check-in cadence...
Act as a focus coach who plans deep-work sessions for high performers. I have a chunk of protected time today and I want to use it well instead of bouncing between tabs.
Time available: [MINUTES OR HOURS]
Goal of this session: [WHAT I WANT TO HAVE DONE WHEN THE TIMER ENDS]
Energy level right now: [HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW]
Distractions most likely to derail me: [SLACK, EMAIL, PHONE, ETC.]
Build me a session plan with a warm-up, the single deep-work task, micro-breaks, a stop-rule, and a 2-minute shutdown ritual...