Happy Thursday!
Welcome back to HOW TO // AI.
I have a Notion doc called "prompts." It is a mess. Hundreds of clever one-liners I saved because a thread told me they would change my life. I have used almost none of them twice.
Then there is a much shorter list. Maybe twenty prompts I actually reach for, week after week, without thinking. They are not clever. They are load-bearing. They are the ones that turned AI from a party trick into something that quietly does about an hour of my work every day.
So I pulled the whole list out and cleaned it up for you. That is today's issue. No theory, no fluff. Each one sits in its own box so you can copy it straight into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini.
Ten of them are in this email, in full. The other ten are in the free swipe file — which also has all twenty on one page you can save and paste from.
✍️ Writing and email (5 prompts) — in this email
🗺️ Planning your day and week (5 prompts) — in this email
🧠 Thinking clearly and deciding (5 prompts) — in the swipe file
🛠️ Getting unstuck at work (5 prompts) — in the swipe file
Bookmark this one. Let's get into it!
🎁 Want all 20 now? The free swipe file has every prompt on one page — including the ten that are not in this email.
✍️ Writing and email
The stuff I used to dread. Now it is a paste and a nudge.
1. The reply drafter
Here is an email I received. Draft a reply that is warm, clear, and under 120 words. Match a professional but human tone. Give me two versions: one friendly, one more direct. Here is the email: [paste]Use it when: an email has been sitting in your inbox for two days because you do not know how to start.
2. The tone fixer
Rewrite the text below so it stays polite but firm. I do not want to sound apologetic or wishy-washy. Keep my meaning, cut the hedging words. Text: [paste]Use it when: you wrote something honest and then softened it into mush.
3. The one-line shortener
Take this and cut it in half without losing anything that matters. Then show me the cut version and tell me what you removed. Text: [paste]Use it when: you know it is too long but you cannot see what to remove.
4. The "explain it to a human" pass
Rewrite this so a smart 12-year-old could follow it. No jargon. Short sentences. Keep it accurate. Text: [paste]Use it when: you understand something and still cannot explain it to a colleague.
5. The blank-page breaker
I need to write [thing]. Do not write it for me. Ask me five quick questions that will pull the content out of my head, then wait for my answers.Use it when: staring at an empty document is the actual problem.
🗺️ Planning your day and week
These are the ones that changed the most for me. Small prompts, big difference.
6. The Monday reset
Here is everything on my plate this week: [dump it all in, messy is fine]. Group these into themes, flag what is actually urgent versus what just feels urgent, and tell me the three things that would make this a good week if I finished them.Use it when: Sunday-night dread, or a Monday that already feels behind.
7. The daily top three
Here is my to-do list and my calendar for today: [paste]. Pick the three tasks that matter most and tell me why. Be honest if I am fooling myself with busywork.Use it when: you have twelve things to do and will do the easiest four.
8. The time-block builder
Turn this task list into a realistic time-blocked day between [start] and [end]. Build in breaks. Assume I am a normal human, not a machine. Tasks: [paste]Use it when: your list has no sense of how many hours actually exist.
9. The meeting prep
I have a meeting about [topic] with [who]. Give me: the one outcome I should aim for, three questions I should ask, and one thing I should NOT say.Use it when: thirty seconds before you walk in and you have not thought about it once.
10. The weekly review
Ask me five questions, one at a time, that will help me review my week honestly: what worked, what I avoided, and what I should carry into next week. Wait for each answer before the next question.Use it when: Friday afternoon, before the week just evaporates.
🧠 The other ten
That is prompts 1 through 10. The remaining ten live in the swipe file, in full, ready to copy. Here is exactly what you are getting so you can decide whether it is worth the click:
🧠 Thinking clearly and deciding — where AI is genuinely underused. Not for answers. For better questions.
11. The devil's advocate — when you have already decided and want to be sure you are not kidding yourself
12. The pros, cons, and gut check — when you keep going in circles in your own head
13. The "what am I missing" prompt — when something feels off and you cannot name it
14. The explain-both-sides — when everyone online is yelling and you want to actually understand it
15. The five whys — when you keep fixing the same problem and it keeps coming back
🛠️ Getting unstuck at work — the paste-in-and-go ones for when you are just stuck.
16. The summarizer — when a long thread or transcript stands between you and knowing what to do
17. The document interrogator — when you need one specific thing out of a forty-page PDF
18. The first draft of anything — when editing is easy for you but starting is not
19. The "turn my mess into a list" — when you brain-dumped into a note and now it is unreadable
20. The teach-me-fast — when you have to sound competent about something you learned five minutes ago
Free, no form, nothing to sign up for. You are already a subscriber.
🎁 Prompts 11–20, written out in full, plus all twenty on one page you can save.
🧰 Two things I made, in case you're new here
A lot of you joined in the last few weeks, so here's the short tour of the shelf:
📕 Amplified is my book on getting real work out of AI without becoming a prompt engineer. Everything in this newsletter grew out of it. Get the book →
🤖 HOW TO // AI - CERT is practice exams and an AI tutor for 11 AI certifications: AWS, Azure, Google, NVIDIA and more. 3,301 original questions, timed mocks, plain-English explanations. On the web and on your iPhone. Free to start. Take a free practice exam → · Get the iPhone app →
🎁 Share this newsletter, unlock every kit I've made
Know one person who'd actually use this swipe file? Forward it their way. You're a third of the way to the first reward:
🎁 3 referrals → you unlock the Complete Kit Vault: every kit I've ever made, in one organized hub, with every future kit added automatically.
📕 10 referrals → I send you my book, Amplified, in PDF and EPUB. The whole thing. Free.
Your unique link and progress tracker are right here:
🎯 Try this today: Do not try all twenty. Pick one. From this email I would start with #6, the Monday reset. From the swipe file it is #11, the devil's advocate — that one changed how I make decisions more than any clever prompt ever did. Paste one in this week. Then hit reply and tell me which one earned its place in your own short list. I read every email, and yes, I reply to all of them myself.
🎁 Last call: all 20 on one page, free. Save it once, paste from it all year.
📬 In case you missed our last few issues
What does AI actually know about you?
The one prompt that shows you exactly what your AI has quietly stored about you, and how to clean it up.
The prompt I run before every meeting
Thirty seconds before you walk in, and the hour goes differently. Plus the free Meeting Kit.
The 3 prompts I actually reuse
The editor, the extractor, and the explainer. Long on purpose, plus the free Paste-In Prompt Pack.
🤔 Got questions?
Have a question you want answered? What's the meeting on your calendar you'd delete forever if you could? Email [email protected] and you just might be featured in an upcoming issue!
This newsletter is your starter kit for mastering AI with confidence. We keep things simple, show real examples, and focus on quick wins you can repeat.
Stay curious, stick with it, and watch your skills grow week by week!
Until next time :)
-David
P.S. If your day job is enterprise IT - VMware, cloud, storage, infrastructure - I write a second newsletter that decodes that world in ten minutes a week: Subscribe to Enterprise Techie →
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