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Cut a rambling voicemail into three whiteboard priorities

  • For Managers and team leads
  • You practice Setting limits and rules
  • Time about 5 minutes
  • Level Beginner

About this exercise

The plant manager left a long voicemail and the team needs this week's priorities on the whiteboard. Write a prompt for a first line exactly "THIS WEEK" followed by at most 3 bullets, each starting with "- " and written as owner, task and due date separated by " - ". Leave out anything that isn't a work priority. Plain text, under 60 words.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • Including the lunch and repaving. The AI lists everything the manager said. Try: Say: "Work priorities only; leave out lunch, repaving and line status."
  • Missing owner or due date. The AI writes tasks without who and when. Try: Say: "Format: - Owner - task - due".
  • Too many bullets. The AI writes 5 bullets. Try: Say: "At most 3 bullets."
  • Getting markdown back. AI adds bold, headings and bullets by default, which show up as stray symbols where this is pasted. Try: Say "plain text, no bold, no headings, no asterisks".
  • Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting and usually runs long, so a vague "keep it short" lands over the limit. Try: Cap each part instead of the total, for example "each line under 15 words".

What a strong prompt includes

  • Caps the bullets
  • Gives the format
  • Says what to leave out
  • Sets length
  • Asks for plain text

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