Turn internship HR emails into your first-week checklist

About this exercise

You start a winter internship at a city planning office in January and have a pile of emails. You want exactly 5 numbered lines, one per day of your first week, each starting with the day and what you do, under 80 words, plain text. Use the corrected location for your badge photo, and leave out tasks meant for your supervisor. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

• Missing the correction. City Hall is in the first email. Try: Add: "Badge photo moved to the Annex front desk."
• Including supervisor tasks. The cc'd note looks like part of the plan. Try: Add: "Only what I do. Skip the supervisor note."
• Not giving the line shape. The AI writes a paragraph or table. Try: Add: "One line per day, starting with the day."
• Letting the AI pick the layout. The AI adds headings and tips for interns. Try: Be exact: "Exactly 5 numbered lines, plain text."
• Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for "under 80 words" and it often lands well over. Try: Cap each part instead: "each line under 11 words."

What a strong prompt includes

• Says how many lines
• Uses the correction
• Only my tasks
• One line per day
• Sets a word limit

Practice this now ↑

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