Turn a crowded week into three finished priorities
A weekly plan with three outcomes, a first action, and a finish line for each.
What to bring
- Fixed meetings and deadlines
- Available focused hours
- Tasks and the consequences of delaying them
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Where AI fits, step by step
- Human
1. Choose the result
Write the outcome that would make this week worthwhile. Mark fixed commitments and identify decisions only you can make.
- AI
2. Reduce and sequence the work
Ask for three priorities, estimated effort ranges, dependencies, and a stop-doing list. Label estimates as guesses.
- Human
3. Check capacity
Compare the proposed hours with your actual calendar. Leave room for interruptions and move or remove work that does not fit.
- AI + human
4. Prepare the first task
Ask AI to draft a brief or checklist for one priority. Review it, schedule the next action, and record what finished means.
A worked example
A consultant has eight focused hours, a proposal due Friday, an overdue client update, and an unfinished website. The goal is to protect the client relationship and submit the proposal.
An illustrative plan allocates four hours to the proposal, one to the update, one to reviewing both, and two to interruptions. The website redesign moves to next week. These are planning estimates, not measured productivity gains.
The human check catches a missing price approval. That approval becomes the first action, before AI drafts the proposal. At Friday review, compare planned and actual effort and carry forward only the work that still matters.
A prompt to adapt
Turn the supplied commitments and task list into at most three weekly outcomes. For each, give a first action, an effort range, dependencies, and a finish line. Include a stop-doing list and a buffer. Flag conflicts instead of assuming unlimited time.
Add your goal, context, constraints, and finish line in the free workflow planner.
The human review
- Does the work fit available hours?
- Are deadlines and dependencies verified?
- Does each priority end in an observable result?
Use the AI output review worksheet to record these checks and build a revision brief.
Choose the tool after the task
Use a general assistant for the plan and your existing calendar or task manager to act on it. A new planning subscription is optional.
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What to measure
Track completed priorities and actual focused hours for two weeks. Do not treat a longer task list as progress.
For repeated work, use the workflow value calculator to include review time and setup effort. Its result is an estimate, not a promise of savings.
Go deeper
Read the full productivity field guide.
Make this fit your work.
Build a useful brief, then take it into the AI tool you already use. No signup is required.
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