Write the job before you ask

Don’t start from the tool’s name

If the first line is “Write me a plan”, the tool does not know who it is for, where it will be used, or which part you already have. The draft will look complete, and say very little.

Put four things in the same note

1. 01What the job is, and who will use the result.
2. 02The material you already have: notes, an old draft, constraints.
3. 03What done looks like: length, tone, what must be in, and what must stay out.
4. 04The part you will decide yourself.

Paste the material. Don’t only describe it.

“We care about quality” is harder to use than a real message. Paste what you can. Remove names, account numbers, and unpublished figures that must not leave the company.

If your company says it must not leave, do not paste it in to try a tool.

Ask three questions of the first draft

• Did it use your material, or generic sentences?
• Did it add facts you never gave it?
• Can you revise it, soon, into something the next person can use?

If you cannot, change the question. Don’t press generate again. Add the missing material, or make done narrower.