How Will They Read This?
Don't ask AI if your email is good. Make it read the message as the person getting it, and name the line that lands wrong.
- Useful thing
- The pre-send read prompt
- Work moment
- Cursor on Send, something feels off
Shift Library
Start with the work in front of you.
Each issue starts with a real work moment and leaves behind one useful move: a prompt, a check, or a sharper way to think about it.
The Shift Library
Every issue is one small AI-assisted change.
Read any one in a couple of minutes. Each ends with something you can use before your next meeting, message, or decision.
Point Your AI at the Boring Task
Two new models just launched. The move that pays off isn't picking one, it's aiming the AI you have at the task you repeat.
- Useful thing
- The match-power-to-stakes rule
- Work moment
- Model-launch overwhelm, "which one?"
You're Not Behind in the Way You Think
Every third post says someone automated their whole job. You're grading your rough cut against their final cut.
- Useful thing
- The capability-audit prompt
- Work moment
- Sunday-night scroll, feeling a step behind
Stop typing at AI
A sharper dictation model just landed in ChatGPT. The real win is what it pulls out of you.
- Useful thing
- The 30-second voice brief
- Work moment
- A one-line prompt, a generic answer
Vague In, Average Out
"Make it more compelling" changes nothing. When AI output is flat, add nouns, not adjectives.
- Useful thing
- The specificity fix
- Work moment
- A flat, generic answer
The Pre-Mortem Prompt
"Is this plan good?" gets you flattery. "Why did it fail?" gets you the risks.
- Useful thing
- The pre-mortem prompt
- Work moment
- About to commit to a plan
Give AI a Permanent Job: Set Up Your First Project
You've briefed AI the same way forty times. Here's how to make it stick, once.
- Useful thing
- The reusable Project
- Work moment
- Re-briefing AI every morning
Ask What It's Missing
AI answers with only what you gave it, and sounds just as sure either way. Ask what it's missing.
- Useful thing
- The what's-missing prompt
- Work moment
- A confident AI answer
Give AI a job, not a question
A generic answer isn't the model's ceiling. It's the ceiling of what you asked. Hand AI a job, not a question.
- Useful thing
- The job brief
- Work moment
- A bland answer on real work
Show AI what good looks like
AI doesn't know your bar. Skip the rubric you'll never write, show it five calls you've already made, and it picks up your standard.
- Useful thing
- The five-examples prompt
- Work moment
- A judgment call you make by hand
The Mistake That Sounds Right
The dangerous AI errors aren't the fabrications you catch. They're the plausible ones, wrong only on the clause your decision rests on.
- Useful thing
- The load-bearing-claim check
- Work moment
- Trusting a clean AI summary
Your Judgment Is the Appreciating Asset
AI made raw horsepower nearly free. The same flood reprices the one thing it can't make, your judgment, upward.
- Useful thing
- The predict-then-compare prompt
- Work moment
- Someone junior out-produces you with AI
Project or Custom GPT? The One-Line Rule
A custom GPT is a worker you build once and hand out. A Project is a workspace where one area's context accumulates. Match the tool to what you're reusing.
- Useful thing
- The worker-vs-workspace rule
- Work moment
- Setting up AI for a task you repeat
Build a Custom GPT for the Task You Do Every Week
Stop rebuilding the same prompt every week. Package the task into a tool, and build it to interview you for the inputs.
- Useful thing
- The custom GPT that interviews you
- Work moment
- Redoing a weekly task from a blank chat
Hand AI the Mess: Merge Everyone's Inputs
The slow part of merging inputs isn't the merging, it's translating five formats by hand. Hand over the mess unedited and let one prompt flag the clashes.
- Useful thing
- The merge prompt
- Work moment
- Hand-stitching everyone's replies
The Document You Dread Is Now Your Blueprint
A dense requirements doc is a perfect spec for AI. Hand it over whole with a prompt that drafts against every requirement and shows coverage.
- Useful thing
- The requirements-to-draft prompt
- Work moment
- A dense doc to turn into a deliverable
Your Presentation Is a Vending Machine
A talk loses the room because it's predictable, not underprepared. Open on the stakes and keep a gap open the whole way.
- Useful thing
- The talk restructure prompt
- Work moment
- Losing the room mid-presentation
The Two Jobs You Can't Hand to AI
AI can build the work. The part you most want to offload, checking it, is the part they pay you for.
- Useful thing
- The pre-ship check
- Work moment
- Shipping AI-drafted work
Before You Call It a Win
A speed win can quietly remove the check, not just the effort. The slow step was where problems got caught.
- Useful thing
- The speed-win check
- Work moment
- Right after an AI-assisted task
The Tasks Living in Your Head
When a project's next steps live only in your memory, you are the single point of failure. Give AI the standing context.
- Useful thing
- The project context card
- Work moment
- Juggling too many projects
Argue With Your AI
The win isn't the first output. It's the third, after you push back and your standard becomes visible.
- Useful thing
- The redirect prompt
- Work moment
- A weak first draft
Use AI to Take On Less, Not More
AI raises the ceiling on how much you take on. The real skill is refusing to fill the space it clears.
- Useful thing
- The capacity-protection check
- Work moment
- An end-of-day speed win
Why Your Judgment Is Worth More Now
The ability you fear AI is dulling was never your durable edge. Pattern recognition is, and it compounds.
- Useful thing
- The predict-before-you-peek prompt
- Work moment
- Leaning on AI to think for you
Next step