Do not paste confidential or personal data. If your organisation has rules about which services you may use, follow them. Try these on material that would not matter if it leaked.
Writing
Say no without burning it
Use it when: You want to decline but keep the relationship.
Patterns
I need to decline the request below. Write the reply. What matters - I want to keep working with them in future - Be honest about the reason, without blaming them - Offer one thing I can do instead --- (paste the request here)
The trickKeep the "one thing I can do instead" line. It turns a refusal into an offer.
Turn notes into minutes
Use it when: You have scribbled notes or a raw transcript and need something readable.
Patterns
Below are my notes from a meeting. Turn them into minutes. Structure - Decided - Actions (who, what, by when) - Left open Do not add anything that is not in the notes. Mark anything ambiguous with "needs checking". --- (paste the notes here)
The trick"Do not add anything that is not in the notes" is the line that matters. Without it, plausible inventions slip in quietly.
Digesting
Summarise in order to decide
Use it when: You have no time to read the document but still have to make the call.
Patterns
Read the document below and give me only these three things. 1. What does the reader have to decide? 2. What is missing that they would need in order to decide it? 3. What is not stated here but worth checking? Skip the summary. --- (paste the document here)
The trickAsking for a summary gets you the whole thing, thinner. Say what you are reading for and you get something you can act on.
Sort open-ended survey answers
Use it when: There are hundreds of free-text responses and nobody has touched them.
Patterns
Below are free-text responses from a survey. 1. Group them by theme and name each group (do not decide the groups in advance — let them come out of the answers) 2. For each group, give the count and two representative responses 3. Separately, flag any view that is rare but should not be missed --- (paste the responses here)
The trickPoint three is the one that earns its keep. Watch only the majority and you lose the single response that mattered.
Thinking
Take stock of your own work
Use it when: Someone has asked you to "do something with AI" and you do not know where to look.
Patterns
Help me take stock of my work. Ask me one question at a time. Wait for my answer before asking the next one. What we are looking for - What do I repeat every week? - Which of those need no judgement from me? - Which take real time without moving anything forward? After about ten questions, put it in a table.
The trickThe "one question at a time" instruction is the whole trick. Asked all at once, you answer badly and get a shallow result.
Work out what you can hand over
Use it when: You have the list of tasks and now have to choose what goes to AI.
Patterns
Sort the tasks below into three groups. A: Can be handed to AI as it stands B: Could be, once the process is tidied up (say what needs tidying) C: Should stay with a person (say why) Judge by asking who gets hurt when it goes wrong. --- (paste the task list here)
The trickMake it be honest about group C. Anything that tells you everything belongs in A is not worth listening to.
Building
Ask for a program
Use it when: You want to automate something by hand and cannot write it yourself.
Patterns
I want to build something that runs in Google Sheets. Please write the Google Apps Script. What it should do (describe it in plain words — no technical terms needed) Conditions - Comment every line in plain language - Tell me where to paste it and how to run it - I have never written a program before. Explain it assuming no prior knowledge.
The trickKeep that last line. It changes how generous the explanation is more than anything else you can add.
Ask how to fix an error
Use it when: It will not run and you cannot tell what is wrong.
Patterns
Running the code below gave me an error. 1. Explain what is happening, without technical terms 2. Give me the corrected code in full, not just the changed part 3. Give me one thing to watch for so I avoid this next time Code: (paste here) Error: (paste here)
The trickWithout "in full", you get a fragment and no idea where it goes.
Have it explain what you built
Use it when: It works, and now somebody else has to take it over.
Patterns
Write handover notes for the code below. Audience: a colleague who has never written a program Cover - What this does, in three lines - How to use it - What must not be touched, and why - Where to look first when it stops working --- (paste the code here)
The trickWrite these the day you build it. The person it saves is you, six months from now.
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