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Count back a podcast episode's production from a new publish date
Practice: Giving the right context. About 5 minutes.
About this exercise
You're a freelance podcast producer, and your client moved the publish date for next episode. You want exactly 5 numbered lines in date order, each as date - step - who, under 60 words, plain text. Count each step back from the new publish date using the lead times in your notes. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.
Common mistakes when you ask AI for this
- Using the old date. Dec 11 is at the top. Try: Add: "Publish moved to Tue Dec 9. Count back from that."
- Rounding the dates. The AI says 'early December'. Try: Add: "Give the exact date for each step."
- Dropping who. The AI lists steps without names. Try: Add: "Each line: date - step - who."
- Letting the AI add extras. The AI adds the invoice. Try: Add: "Only production steps. Plain text, numbered."
- Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for "under 60 words" and it often lands well over. Try: Cap each part instead: "each line under 8 words."
What a strong prompt includes
- Says how many lines
- Uses the new date
- Counts back
- Shows the line shape
- Sets a word limit
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