How to use these
Paste a prompt into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot and swap the [brackets]. Use the tool your employer has approved, and take names and confidential details out first.
Diaries and travel
Prompt 1
Solve a scheduling puzzle
Five people, three time zones, one hour.
I need to find a one-hour meeting slot next week. People and their free times: [list each person, their time zone and when they're free]. Suggest the three best slots, shown in each person's local time, and tell me who each one suits least.
Prompt 2
Build a travel itinerary
A two-day trip with four meetings.
Turn these details into a clear travel itinerary: [travel bookings, hotel, meetings with times and places]. Show it day by day in time order, with travel time between each item as a gap for me to check, plus what to bring.
Tip: Check every time, address and journey yourself. AI can't see live timetables unless it has web search, and can get them wrong even then.
Meetings
Prompt 3
Agenda and briefing in one go
Your manager has a meeting in the morning.
Write an agenda for a [length] meeting about [topic], and a half-page briefing for my manager: the background, what needs deciding, who's attending by role, and likely questions. Background notes: [paste, with confidential details removed].
Prompt 4
Minutes from rough notes
Straight after the meeting.
Turn these rough notes into minutes: [paste, with names as roles or initials]. Include decisions, actions with an owner and date, and open questions. Only use what's in my notes.
Keeping things running
Prompt 5
Write a how-to for a task only you know
You're going on holiday and nobody else knows how.
Turn these rough notes into a step-by-step procedure for [task]: [your notes]. Numbered steps, what to do if something goes wrong, and who to ask. Write it for someone doing it for the first time.
Prompt 6
Design a simple tracker
Things are being tracked in emails and heads.
Design a simple spreadsheet tracker for [what you're tracking, e.g. office supplies / contracts and renewal dates / visitor bookings]. Tell me which columns to have, what goes in each, and any useful formulas or colour rules, explained step by step for [Excel / Google Sheets].
Prompt 7
Compare suppliers
Three quotes and a decision to recommend.
Compare these supplier quotes: [paste the key details of each: price, what's included, contract length, notice period, extras]. Put them in a table, point out what isn't like-for-like, list the questions to ask each, and suggest which is best value and why.
Prompt 8
Write a firm, polite supplier email
The cleaner didn't come, again.
Write an email to a supplier about [the problem] which has happened [how often]. Our agreement says [what was agreed]. I want [what you want] by [date]. Firm, courteous, under 110 words.
Communication
Prompt 9
Write an all-staff notice
The office is closed, the fire drill is Tuesday, the fridge needs emptying.
Write a short all-staff notice about [what]. Key facts: [what, when, what people need to do]. Put the action in the first line, friendly, under 80 words, with a clear subject line.
Prompt 10
Plan an event
The away day has landed on your desk.
Help me plan [event] for [number] people on [date] with a budget of [budget]. Give me a checklist by week from now until the day, questions to ask venues, a draft running order, and the things people usually forget.