How to Use AI for Focused Work

You don't need more hours. You need more effective AI prompts: Use these 21 ChatGPT prompts to save yourself 10 hours next week - 1) Inbox Zero ↳Prompt: "Act as an executive assistant. Here are 10 emails I don't know how to respond to. Draft quick, professional replies I can send or edit." 2) Delegation Help ↳Prompt: "Here are 5 things on my plate. Act like a manager and help me decide what to delegate, and how to frame each task for handoff." 3) Shorter Meetings ↳Prompt: "Act as a meeting consultant. Here's an agenda. Help me trim it by 30% while keeping the outcomes strong and the flow efficient." 4) Daily Focus ↳Prompt: "Act as a productivity coach. Here's my to-do list for tomorrow. Help me pick the 3 highest-impact tasks and create a simple plan to protect time for them." 5) Smarter Scheduling ↳Prompt: "Here's my calendar for the week. Act as a time management expert and help me batch similar tasks, reduce context switching, and free up focus time." 6) Weekly Reset ↳Prompt: "Act like a performance coach. Give me a 15-minute Sunday reset ritual to review the past week, plan the next, and start Monday focused." 7) Automated Systems ↳Prompt: "Act as a workflow expert. Here's a process I repeat every week. Suggest simple ways to automate or streamline it using basic tools." 8) Decision Clarity ↳Prompt: "Here's a decision I'm stuck on. Act like a coach and walk me through a step-by-step framework to decide with more clarity and speed." 9) First Draft Faster ↳Prompt: "Act as a writing assistant. Here's the topic. Help me outline and rough-draft a clear, structured blog post in 15 minutes or less." 10) One-Touch Tasks ↳Prompt: "Here are 10 small tasks I've been putting off. Help me write a quick plan to knock them out in one focused 30-minute sprint." 11) Rapid Research ↳Prompt: "Act as a research assistant. I need to understand this topic fast. Give me 5 reliable sources, a 2-sentence summary, and what I should read first." 12) Pomodoro Plan ↳Prompt: "Act as a productivity coach. Here's a task I've been avoiding. Help me break it into 25-minute sprints with clear goals for each one." 13) Cleaner Docs ↳Prompt: "Act as an editor. Here's a messy doc or note. Clean it up, make it scannable, and pull out a bullet list of key action items." 14) Thinking Partner ↳Prompt: "Act like a thinking partner. Here's a challenge I'm facing. Help me explore 3 different angles or mental models to reframe it." 15) Info Compression ↳Prompt: "Here's a long article or transcript. Summarize the key ideas in 5 bullet points, and give me one actionable takeaway." [Check out the sheet for 6 more] If you're not using AI to help you be more productive, You're wasting hours you could be spending on the things that matter most. Put this sheet to work. You won't regret it. --- ♻️ Repost to help others be more productive. And follow me George Stern for more content like this.

How AI Helps Me Create Better Content: My Writing Partnership with Claude I've been using AI as a thought partner in my writing process, and it's transformed how I develop content. Here's my approach: First, I give Claude context - existing materials, interview transcripts, or data sets relevant to what I'm creating. This ensures the AI understands the depth and nuance of the subject. Then I define clear communication goals - who the audience is and what we're trying to accomplish. But the magic happens in step three: I have Claude ask me probing questions about my ideas. This forces me to articulate my thoughts more clearly and often reveals gaps in my thinking. Once I've thoroughly explored the concept, Claude creates an initial draft incorporating my insights. Having this "strawman" to respond to dramatically accelerates my process - I can quickly identify what works and what needs refinement. The critical step: fact-checking. I review everything carefully, looking for assertions that might not be backed by evidence. Several times I've asked Claude where it got a statistic only to receive an apology for making it up! Finally, I move the draft to collaborative tools where colleagues provide additional feedback. This approach has dramatically increased not just my productivity and writing quality, but the depth of my thinking itself. The AI doesn't replace my expertise - it amplifies it by challenging assumptions and helping clarify complex ideas. Want to know more about how I'm using AI to improve my product leadership? Full article link in the comments.

Are you using AI in the most productive way? Many people use AI for quick wins—like drafting emails or summarizing meetings. That’s good, but there’s a better way. Instead of just tossing tasks at AI, have a conversation with it. Delegate, don't abdicate. Here's what I mean:  ✔️ Good: Ask AI to conduct a search.  ✅ Better: Have AI do an in-depth review of studies, summarize key takeaways, and provide source links.  ✔️ Good: Use AI to draft an email or report.  ✅ Better: Write a rough version yourself, then tell AI what you don’t like about it so it can suggest improvements in the exact tone and style you need.  ✔️ Good: Ask AI to summarize a meeting.  ✅ Better: Have AI extract key action items, assign them to team members, and suggest next steps.  ✔️ Good: Use AI to brainstorm ideas.  ✅ Better: Give AI constraints like budget, audience, and timeline so it generates realistic, actionable ideas instead of generic ones. It’s not about replacing what you do—it’s about making space for your most valuable work. The stuff you do best! What’s another tip you'd suggest to improve the way we use AI? #productivity #success #bestadvice #davecrenshaw