Lessons / Scratch

Start with a briefing, not a blank prompt

Most people open their AI assistant with a specific task already in mind. The people who get the most out of it do something different first: they ask it to triage.

The single highest-leverage prompt of your morning isn't "write this email." It's:

What happened across my email and calendar since yesterday, and what are the 3 things I should do first today? Be specific and use my actual inbox and schedule, not general advice.

Instead of you scanning everything to figure out where to start, the AI scans it and hands you a ranked starting point. You go from a blank page to a prioritized list before you've finished your coffee.

Try it now

Run that prompt — right now if your email and calendar are connected, or first thing tomorrow if not. Then notice: did it give you a real, specific list grounded in your actual day? Or platitudes?

If it came back with vague advice ("check your important emails, prepare for meetings"), the tools aren't connected yet — and that's exactly what the next lesson fixes.

You've got it when…

You got back a short, prioritized list built from your actual inbox and calendar — the kind of thing a good chief of staff would hand you — not generic productivity tips.