Planning and productivity prompts

You have a jumble of tasks, worries, and half-commitments in your head or a notes app and Monday is coming. Use this to convert the mess into a ranked plan that fits the hours you actually have.

Act as an experienced chief of staff who is ruthless about priorities and realistic about time.

Here is everything on my plate right now, in no particular order:
[PASTE YOUR BRAIN DUMP]

Context:
- My role: [YOUR ROLE]
- My top priorities this quarter: [TOP 3 PRIORITIES THIS QUARTER]
- Hours I realistically have for focused work this week: [HOURS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK]
- Fixed commitments I cannot move: [FIXED COMMITMENTS]

Do this:
1. Ask me up to three clarifying questions if anything above is missing or ambiguous, then wait for my answers.
2. Group every item into Must do this week, Should do this week, and Later or never. Tie each Must to one of my quarterly priorities; if it does not connect to any, say so.
3. Estimate hours per item and show the running total against my available hours. If I am over capacity, tell me plainly what to drop, delegate, or shrink.
4. Suggest a first task for Monday morning that is small enough to finish before lunch.

Format: a table with columns Item, Bucket, Priority it serves, Estimated hours, Notes. Then a five-line summary I can paste into a note to myself. Do not soften the cuts.

Tip: Give the real number of focused hours, not the number on your contract. Most people with a full meeting calendar have 10 to 15 hours of real focus time, and the plan is only useful if it respects that.

You have been handed a goal and a deadline but no plan. Use this to get a phased plan with owners, dependencies, and risks you can refine with your team.

Act as a senior project manager who has delivered projects like this before and knows where they slip.

Project goal: [PROJECT GOAL]
Deadline: [DEADLINE]
People available and their roles: [TEAM MEMBERS AND ROLES]
Known constraints (budget, tools, approvals, other work competing for time): [KNOWN CONSTRAINTS]
What done looks like: [DEFINITION OF DONE]

Before planning, ask me the three questions whose answers would most change the plan. Wait for my answers.

Then produce:
1. Phases with a one-sentence purpose each.
2. Milestones with target dates, working backward from the deadline, including a buffer before the final date.
3. Tasks per milestone with an owner, an effort estimate in days, and dependencies on other tasks.
4. The critical path: which tasks, if late, push the deadline.
5. Five risks with an early warning sign and a response for each.
6. A weekly check-in agenda of five questions.

Format everything as tables I can paste into a spreadsheet. Flag any date that assumes people work more than four focused hours a day.

Tip: Take the effort estimates to the people who will do the work before you publish dates. The AI cannot see your team's other commitments, and its estimates skew optimistic.

Your day has scattered meetings and a task list longer than the gaps between them. Use this each morning to get a schedule that protects one real block of focus.

Act as a productivity coach who builds realistic daily schedules, not aspirational ones.

Today's meetings with times: [TODAY'S CALENDAR]
Tasks I want to make progress on: [TASK LIST]
My working hours: [START TIME] to [END TIME]
When I do my best focused work: [BEST FOCUS HOURS]
Anything else that matters today (deadlines, commute, lunch plans, energy level): [OTHER CONTEXT]

Build an hour-by-hour plan that:
- Puts my hardest task in my best focus hours and protects that block from smaller tasks.
- Adds a ten-minute buffer after every meeting for notes and follow-ups.
- Batches email and messages into two fixed slots rather than letting them float.
- Includes a real lunch break.
- Ends with a fifteen-minute wrap-up to plan tomorrow.

If the tasks do not fit, say which ones to move to tomorrow and why, rather than squeezing them in.

Format: a simple two-column table (time, what I am doing), then three sentences on the single most important thing to finish today.

Tip: Paste your calendar as plain text (copy from the day view). If you use this daily, keep the same conversation open and just paste tomorrow's calendar; the AI keeps your preferences.

You keep doing a task yourself because explaining it feels slower than doing it. Use this to write a brief clear enough that a capable colleague can run with it and know when to check in.

Act as an operations lead who writes delegation briefs that people can act on without a follow-up meeting.

The task I want to hand off: [TASK TO DELEGATE]
Who will do it and their experience with this kind of work: [WHO WILL DO IT AND THEIR EXPERIENCE]
What a finished result looks like: [DEFINITION OF DONE]
Deadline and why it matters: [DEADLINE]
Things that commonly go wrong or that I would do differently from an outsider: [KNOWN PITFALLS]

Ask me anything that is unclear before drafting.

Write a brief with these sections:
1. Why this matters (two sentences of context, including who uses the output).
2. The outcome, stated as a result rather than a list of activities.
3. Constraints: budget, tools, people to involve, anything they must not do.
4. Decisions they can make alone versus decisions to bring to me.
5. Check-in points: when to show a rough version, and when it is final.
6. Resources and examples to look at first.

Keep it under 300 words, addressed directly to the person, in a warm and direct tone. Then list two questions they are likely to ask so I can answer them upfront.

Tip: The 'decisions they can make alone' section is the one people skip and the one that saves the most interruptions. Be generous there and the task actually leaves your plate.

A process lives in one person's head and you need it written down so others can follow it and results stay consistent. Use this after you have dumped the steps as you remember them.

Act as a process documentation specialist who writes procedures that a new hire can follow on their first day without asking questions.

Process name: [PROCESS NAME]
My rough notes on the steps, in the order I remember them: [PASTE YOUR ROUGH STEPS]
Who will follow this procedure and their experience level: [WHO WILL FOLLOW IT]
Systems and tools involved: [TOOLS INVOLVED]
How often it runs and what triggers it: [TRIGGER AND FREQUENCY]

First, list any gaps you see: steps that seem to be missing, decisions that are not spelled out, or places where two people could reasonably do different things. Ask me to fill them in before you write the final version.

Then write the SOP with:
- Purpose and trigger (when to start this).
- Roles: who does each part.
- Numbered steps, one action per step, with the exact screen, button, file, or field named where I gave it.
- Decision points written as 'If X, then Y'.
- Common mistakes and how to catch them.
- A completion checklist.

Use plain language and short sentences. Put a version date at the top.

Tip: Hand the draft to someone who has never done the process and watch them follow it. Every place they pause is a step to rewrite. Store the SOP where the work happens, not in a folder nobody opens.

You need to set team goals for the quarter and want them to be measurable, connected to what the company cares about, and few enough to remember.

Act as a seasoned operator who has run quarterly planning for teams of this size and knows how goals go wrong: too many, unmeasurable, or disconnected from what the company needs.

Team or function: [TEAM OR FUNCTION]
Company priorities this year: [COMPANY PRIORITIES]
What we achieved and missed last quarter: [LAST QUARTER'S RESULTS]
Team size and capacity notes: [TEAM SIZE AND CAPACITY]
Anything already committed for next quarter: [EXISTING COMMITMENTS]

Ask me clarifying questions if you cannot tell what the company most needs from this team. Then draft:
1. Three objectives at most, each a qualitative statement of what will be different by quarter end.
2. Two to four key results per objective, each with a number, a baseline, and a target. Mark each as a leading or lagging indicator.
3. For each key result, the single weekly activity most likely to move it.
4. What we should stop doing to make room.
5. Risks to hitting these and what would tell us early.

Format as a one-page plan. Challenge me where a goal sounds like an activity rather than a result.

Tip: Real baselines matter more than clever targets. If you do not know the current number for a key result, your first key result is to measure it.

You said yes to too many things and something has to give. Use this to decide what to renegotiate, drop, or delegate, and to draft the messages you have been avoiding.

Act as a calm, experienced manager helping me get out from under too many commitments without burning bridges.

Everything I have committed to, with deadlines and who I promised: [PASTE YOUR COMMITMENTS WITH DEADLINES AND STAKEHOLDERS]
Hours I actually have available before the nearest deadlines: [HOURS YOU ACTUALLY HAVE]
What my manager or key stakeholders care about most right now: [WHAT MATTERS MOST TO STAKEHOLDERS]
Anything I am worried about (reputation, a specific person, a promise I made publicly): [WORRIES]

Do this:
1. Estimate the hours each commitment needs and compare against what I have. Show me the gap in numbers.
2. Sort every commitment into Keep as is, Renegotiate the deadline or scope, Delegate, or Drop, with a one-line reason tied to what stakeholders care about.
3. For each Renegotiate and Drop item, draft a short message to the person I promised: honest, no excuses, offers a specific alternative, and asks for a quick reply.
4. Tell me which conversation to have first and why.

Be direct. If I am fooling myself about how long something takes, say so.

Tip: Send the renegotiation messages the same day. The longer a slipping commitment stays silent, the more it costs you, and the drafts are easiest to send while the plan is fresh.

Your manager wants a status update and you have a week of scattered notes, messages, and half-finished tasks. Use this to produce a short update that says what matters and asks for what you need.

Act as a chief of staff who writes status updates that busy executives actually read.

My raw notes from the week (messy is fine): [PASTE YOUR NOTES FROM THE WEEK]
Project or team this update covers: [PROJECT OR TEAM]
Who reads it and what they care about: [AUDIENCE AND WHAT THEY CARE ABOUT]
Decisions or help I need from them: [WHAT YOU NEED FROM THEM]

Write an update with these sections, in this order:
- Headline: one sentence on overall status (on track, at risk, or off track) and why.
- Done this week: three to five bullets, results not activities.
- In progress: what ships next week, with dates.
- Blocked or at risk: what, since when, and what would resolve it.
- Asks: the decisions or resources I need, each as a yes/no question with my recommendation.

Rules: under 200 words, no jargon, no adjectives like 'great progress'. Lead with the thing they would be most upset to learn later. If my notes suggest a problem I have not called out, point it out to me separately before finalizing.

Tip: Keep a running note during the week (one line per thing that happened) and paste it in on Friday. Ten seconds a day beats reconstructing the week from memory.

The same task has rolled over on your list for a week and you cannot make yourself start. Use this to shrink it into steps small enough that starting feels easy.

Act as a practical coach who helps people start things they have been avoiding, without lectures about discipline.

The task I keep putting off: [THE TASK YOU KEEP AVOIDING]
Why I think I am avoiding it (honest guess): [WHY YOU THINK YOU ARE AVOIDING IT]
Deadline and what happens if I miss it: [DEADLINE AND CONSEQUENCES]
What a good-enough finished version looks like: [WHAT DONE LOOKS LIKE]

Do this:
1. Reflect back in one or two sentences what seems to be the real blocker: unclear scope, fear of a judgment, a missing piece of information, boredom, or something else. Ask me one question if you are unsure.
2. Break the task into steps of fifteen minutes or less, each starting with a verb and ending in something visible.
3. Give me a first action that takes under two minutes and requires no decisions.
4. Tell me what I can skip or do badly without hurting the result.
5. Suggest what to say to whoever is waiting on this if I need more time.

Format: a numbered list I can paste into my task manager, followed by the two-minute first action in bold.

Tip: Do the two-minute action while the conversation is still open. Then paste what you did and ask for the next step. Momentum is the whole point.

You want a Friday ritual that closes open loops and sets up next week, but left to yourself you skip it. Use this to have the AI walk you through it one question at a time.

Act as a thoughtful executive coach running my weekly review. Ask me one question at a time and wait for my answer before asking the next. Keep your comments brief; this is my thinking time, not yours.

Context:
- My role: [YOUR ROLE]
- My goals for this quarter: [QUARTERLY GOALS]
- This week's calendar and task list: [PASTE THIS WEEK'S CALENDAR AND TASK LIST]

Walk me through, in order:
1. What actually got done this week, and which of those things moved a quarterly goal.
2. What I planned but did not do, and the honest reason for each.
3. Open loops: promises I made, replies I owe, decisions I am delaying.
4. One thing that went better than expected and why.
5. What would make next week a success if only one thing happened.
6. My top three for next week, with a rough day for each.

At the end, give me a summary under 150 words in the format: Wins, Lessons, Open loops, Next week's top three. Point out any pattern you notice across my answers, gently and once.

Tip: Save the summary in the same note every week. After a month, paste all four summaries back in and ask what patterns show up; that is where the useful insight lives.