Library › Agents & Automation AI › Parents and households

Brief an assistant to turn school emails into calendar entries

  • For Parents and households
  • You practice Giving the right context
  • Time about 5 minutes

About this exercise

You want an AI assistant to go through this week's school emails. Write its brief: you have two kids, Maya (grade 4, Ms. Lin) and Leo (grade 1, Mr. Ortiz), so it should act only on emails about them or the whole school; add dated events to the family calendar; send anything needing payment or a signature to you with ASK_HUMAN; and archive everything else. Output a plain-text numbered action log of at most 8 lines, under 160 words, ending with DONE.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • Not showing the log format. Left alone, the AI writes a friendly report with headings instead of a checkable action log. Try: Show it literally: "Format every line like 1. ACTION: tool(args), then ASK_HUMAN: and DONE: lines. Plain text."
  • Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting and runs long, especially when it explains each step. Try: Cap each line instead: "each line under 20 words, no explanations."
  • Not saying who your kids are. The AI adds every class event, including grade 2 picture day. Try: Add: "My kids are Maya (grade 4, Ms. Lin) and Leo (grade 1, Mr. Ortiz)."
  • Letting it pay or sign. Given pay and sign actions, the AI completes the permission slip for you. Try: Add: "Anything needing payment or a signature goes to ASK_HUMAN."

What a strong prompt includes

  • Names your kids
  • Adds dated events
  • Holds payments and signatures
  • Archives the rest
  • Shows the action-log format

Practice this now ↑

Related exercises