Daily-Use Prompt Pack

Twenty prompts for the things you actually do every week. Copy one, replace the text in [SQUARE BRACKETS], and send.

These are written to be edited. The bracketed parts are where your specific situation goes — the more concrete you are there, the better the output.

Writing and email

1. Reply to a difficult email

Here is an email I received:
[PASTE EMAIL]

I want to reply with this outcome: [WHAT YOU WANT TO HAPPEN]
My relationship with them: [COLLEAGUE / CLIENT / MANAGER / SUPPLIER]
Tone: professional, warm, not defensive.

Draft a reply under 150 words. Do not apologise unless I am actually at fault.
Then list anything in my position that is weak, so I can decide whether to address it.

2. Shorten without losing meaning

Cut this to [NUMBER] words. Keep every concrete fact and number.
Remove hedging, throat-clearing and repetition. Do not add anything new.

[PASTE TEXT]

3. Say no politely

I need to decline this: [WHAT YOU ARE DECLINING]
Reason I can share: [REASON]
Reason I cannot share: [CONTEXT FOR THE AI, NOT FOR THEM]
Relationship I want to preserve: [DESCRIBE]

Write three versions: warm, neutral, and firm. Under 80 words each.

4. Turn notes into a message

These are my rough notes from [MEETING / CALL / EVENT]:
[PASTE NOTES]

Write a message to [WHO] covering: what was decided, what happens next,
who owns each item, and the deadline. Flag anything my notes leave ambiguous
rather than guessing.

Thinking and deciding

5. Pressure-test a decision

I am deciding whether to [DECISION].
What I know: [FACTS]
What I am assuming: [ASSUMPTIONS]

List the assumptions most likely to be wrong, in order of how much damage
each would cause if wrong. For the top three, tell me the cheapest way to
check before I commit.

6. The pre-mortem

It is [TIMEFRAME] from now and [PROJECT] has failed badly.
Write the three most plausible stories of how that happened.
For each, name the earliest signal I could have noticed.

7. Steelman the other side

I believe [YOUR POSITION].
Make the strongest honest case against it — the version a smart person who
disagrees with me would actually make, not a weak version.
Then tell me which part of it I should take most seriously.

Learning and research

8. Explain at the right level

Explain [TOPIC] to me. I already understand [WHAT YOU KNOW].
I do not have a background in [WHAT YOU LACK].
Use one analogy, then drop the analogy and be precise.
End with the thing most people get wrong about this.

9. Turn a document into understanding

Here is a document:
[PASTE]

1. Summarise the argument in five sentences.
2. List the three claims it depends on most.
3. Tell me what it does not address that I should be asking about.

10. Build a study plan

I want to learn [SKILL] well enough to [SPECIFIC GOAL].
I have [HOURS] per week for [NUMBER] weeks.
I currently know: [CURRENT LEVEL]

Give me a week-by-week plan. Each week needs one thing to learn and one
thing to produce. Front-load whatever unlocks the most later.

11. Quiz me

Ask me ten questions on [TOPIC], one at a time, starting easy.
After each answer tell me what I got right, what I missed, and ask the next.
Do not give me the next question until I answer.

Planning and organising

12. Turn a vague task into steps

I need to [VAGUE GOAL] by [DATE].
Break it into concrete steps. For each: what "done" looks like, rough time,
and what it depends on. Mark the one step that blocks the most others.

13. Weekly planning

Here is everything on my plate this week:
[DUMP EVERYTHING]

Sort into: must happen this week, would be good, and can wait.
Flag anything that looks urgent but is not important.
Then propose a realistic order given I have [HOURS] of focused time.

14. Meeting prep

I have a meeting about [TOPIC] with [WHO].
My goal: [WHAT YOU WANT]
What I know about their position: [CONTEXT]

Give me: three questions that would move this forward, two objections I
should expect, and the one thing I should not say.

Documents and data

15. Draft a document from a brief

Write a [DOCUMENT TYPE] for [AUDIENCE].
Purpose: [WHAT IT NEEDS TO ACHIEVE]
Must include: [POINTS]
Must not: [CONSTRAINTS]
Length: [LENGTH]

Give me an outline first. Wait for my approval before writing it.

16. Explain a spreadsheet formula

Explain what this does, step by step, in plain English:
[PASTE FORMULA]

Then tell me how it breaks — what input would give a wrong answer silently.

17. Clean messy data

Here is messy data:
[PASTE]

Convert to a clean table with these columns: [COLUMNS].
Where a value is missing or ambiguous, write UNCLEAR rather than guessing.
List every row you had to interpret.

Quality control

18. Check your own work

Here is something I wrote:
[PASTE]

Review it as [ROLE — e.g. "the client receiving it"].
What is unclear? What would they push back on? What did I leave out?
Do not rewrite it. Just tell me what to fix.

19. Find the weak sentence

Read this and point to the single weakest sentence — the one doing the least
work or making the biggest unsupported claim.
Explain why, then suggest a replacement.

[PASTE]

20. The fact-check pass

List every factual claim in the text below as a numbered list — every number,
date, name, and statement presented as fact.
For each, say whether it is: verifiable, unverifiable, or likely wrong.
Do not fix anything. I will check them myself.

[PASTE]

Making these yours

Save the five you use most somewhere you can reach in two seconds. A note app, a text-expander snippet, a pinned document — the tool matters less than the reach time.

When a prompt gives you a bad result, do not abandon it. Add one line saying what was wrong with the output, and keep the improved version. That is how a prompt pack becomes a prompt library.