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Brief an assistant to reassign appointments on a sick day
- For Small business owners
- You practice Setting limits and rules
- Time about 5 minutes
About this exercise
Your stylist Jo is out sick Saturday, and you want an AI assistant to reassign her appointments. Write its brief: keep every client at the same time, give color services (color, balayage) only to Mia, give cuts to whoever is free at that exact time, send any appointment that can't fit to you with ASK_HUMAN, and never cancel anything. Output exactly 6 numbered plain-text lines: one per appointment in time order, then 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."
- Not keeping times fixed. The AI shuffles clients to new times to make things fit, and they never got a say. Try: Add: "Keep every client at the same time."
- Not giving the color rule. The AI takes Sam up on his offer and books color with him. Try: Add: "Color and balayage only with Mia. If it doesn't fit, ASK_HUMAN."
- Letting it cancel. When something won't fit, the AI cancels it. Try: Add: "Never cancel. End with DONE."
What a strong prompt includes
- Keeps times fixed
- Gives the color rule
- Forbids cancelling
- Makes it ask before anything risky
- Shows the action-log format
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