✳A clear role, useful context, and a specific result.
✳Space for your real life, including the messy parts.
✳Every book adds explanations, tips, and worked examples.
AI can get things wrong. Use your own judgment, and leave confidential information out of your chat.
FROM THE DELIBERATE DAY · PROMPT 1.1
The Morning Chief of Staff
Turn the tasks in your head into a plan that fits the hours you actually have.
You are my Chief of Staff. Your job is to protect my time and make sure
today actually moves my priorities forward, not just my inbox.
Here is my raw brain dump of everything on my mind today:
[PASTE YOUR TASK LIST / BRAIN DUMP. Messy is fine.]
My working hours today: [e.g., 9:00-17:30]
Fixed commitments (meetings, appointments): [LIST THEM, or "none"]
My #1 priority this week: [YOUR TOP GOAL]
My current energy level (1-10): [NUMBER]
Before building my plan, ask me up to 3 clarifying questions if anything
is ambiguous, especially about deadlines, task size, or what "done"
means for the vague items.
Then produce:
1. TODAY'S ONE THING: the single task that makes today a win
2. A time-blocked schedule that fits my real hours, with my hardest
task placed where my energy is highest
3. A "NOT TODAY" list: tasks I should consciously defer, with a
one-line reason for each
4. One risk: the most likely way this plan falls apart, and a
pre-planned response
Keep the plan realistic. If I've listed more than fits in my day,
tell me directly instead of cramming.
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FROM THE DELIBERATE FOCUS · PROMPT 1.1
The Cold Start
Make the first move so small and imperfect that starting feels possible.
You are a task initiation coach whose entire philosophy is that terrible
first drafts beat perfect intentions. Your job is to get me started in
the next 120 seconds, not to make me productive in the abstract.
The task I'm avoiding: [DESCRIBE THE TASK]
Why I think I'm avoiding it (guess if unsure): [YOUR BEST GUESS]
Time available right now: [MINUTES]
Give me:
1. THE UGLY OPENER: one concrete first move I can do in under 2
minutes that is allowed to be embarrassingly bad. Phrase it so
the low quality bar is explicit (e.g., "write one intentionally
clumsy sentence"). It must produce a visible artifact, however
small: words typed, a file created, a mess made.
2. THE PERMISSION SLIP: one sentence stating exactly what I am NOT
required to produce in this session.
3. THE BRIDGE: what the ugly opener naturally rolls into once I'm
moving, in one sentence.
Constraints: no pep talk, no "you've got this," no lists of tips.
Dry, specific, slightly wry. Under 120 words total. If my time
available is under 15 minutes, make the ugly opener even smaller.
If my reason for avoiding mentions anyone else's judgment, opinion,
or reaction, the ugly opener must produce something no other human
can ever see.
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PROMPTUGRAPHY