AI for Work Productivity

The mindset shift

Most people use AI as a magic answer machine. That's the least valuable way to use it. The highest-leverage move is using AI as a first-draft machine: AI writes the 6/10 version, you polish it to 9/10 in a quarter of the time it would have taken to write from scratch.

Your new workflow for anything written: AI drafts → you edit → done. Not "AI writes, I publish" (dangerous). Not "I write from scratch" (slow). The middle path.

Task 1: Emails

Paste this into ChatGPT:
"Draft a reply to this email. Tone: professional, warm, 80-120 words. I want to [what you want]."

Then paste the email.

A draft arrives in seconds. Edit it, then send. Time yourself: for many short emails this is faster than writing from scratch.

Task 2: Meeting summaries

Option A, if the meeting was recorded/transcribed: paste the transcript to Claude and ask for "a 150-word summary with decisions, action items, and owners."
Option B, if you took rough notes: paste them to Claude and ask the same. Even messy bullet-point notes become clean summaries.

Task 3: Status updates

Dreaded weekly status report? Paste a brain-dump of everything you did this week, then prompt: "Turn this into a professional weekly status report with sections for: Completed, In Progress, Blockers, Next Week. 200 words max."

Task 4: Research summaries

Use Perplexity for research with citations. For a topic you need to understand quickly:
"Give me a 500-word briefing on [topic]. Include key people, recent developments, and 3 sources I should read for more depth."

In a minute you have a starting briefing. Open the sources yourself before you rely on it.

Task 5: Spreadsheets

ChatGPT and Claude both understand Excel/Google Sheets formulas. Paste your data structure and ask for a formula.
Example: "I have a column A with dates and column B with sales amounts. Give me a formula that sums sales only for the current month."

They'll give you `=SUMIFS(B:B, A:A, ">="&EOMONTH(TODAY(),-1)+1, A:A, "<="&EOMONTH(TODAY(),0))` and explain how it works.

Task 6: Document review

Got a 40-page contract to review? Upload to NotebookLM or Claude and ask specific questions:
- "What are the payment terms?"
- "Are there any penalties for early termination?"
- "List all the dates/deadlines mentioned."

You still read the full document for final sign-off, but now you know where to look.

Task 7: Writing long-form content

Blog post, report, article. Don't ask for it all at once. This workflow works:
1. "Draft an outline for a 1,500-word article on [topic] for [audience]."
2. Edit the outline to match your brain.
3. "Now draft section 1 based on this outline."
4. Polish section 1.
5. "Now draft section 2 using the same voice as section 1."

Section-by-section, the quality is dramatically better than one-shot.

Task 8: Pre-meeting prep

Before a meeting you're dreading: "I have a meeting with [person] about [topic]. Their likely position is [X]. Give me 5 questions I should ask, 3 objections they might raise, and my best responses to each."

It takes a minute and helps you walk in prepared.

15 ready-to-use work templates

We built a companion library of 15 copy-paste prompts covering everything above, emails, meeting summaries, status reports, research briefings, 1-on-1 agendas, performance reviews, even "turn my rant into constructive feedback." Organised by category with a copy button next to every template.

Your weekly audit

At the end of each week, ask yourself: "Which tasks did I do this week that I could have had AI draft first?" Write them down. Next week, try AI-first on those specific tasks. Track the time saved.

Do not trust a number you read online about hours saved. Time the task before and with AI, keep a log (the action kit below has one), and you will know the truth for your own work.

Draft a reply to the email I paste below. Tone: professional and warm. Length: 80 to 120 words. I want to [what you want]. Do not invent facts. If you are not sure, say so.

Summarise these notes in 150 words with three headings: Decisions, Action items (with the owner), Open questions. Use only what is in the notes.

Turn this list of what I did this week into a status report with Completed, In progress, Blockers and Next week. 200 words maximum. Do not add anything I did not write.

Give me a 300-word briefing on [topic] for [audience]. List 3 sources I should open myself. If you are not sure of something, say so.

I have dates in column A and amounts in column B in Google Sheets. Give me a formula that [what you want]. Explain it in one line and show one test example.

Here is a document. List the payment terms, all dates and deadlines, and any penalty. Quote the line each one comes from.

Draft an outline for a [number]-word article on [topic] for [audience]. Wait for my edits before you write any section.

I have a meeting with [person] about [topic]. Their likely position is [X]. Give me 5 questions to ask, 3 objections they may raise, and a calm reply to each.