Productive— faster every day
For your professionTeachersStudentsManagersMarketingDevelopersFreelancersParents

Prompt library · AI · 11 prompts

Prompts from the guide

AI voice mode: think out loud while you walk

11 prompts from this guide. Fill in whatever sits in [square brackets] — your own context, the document text or the name of your tool. That context is exactly what separates a generic answer from a usable one.

Read the full guide →

The first thirty seconds decide everything

We'll be talking for about twenty minutes, I'm walking while
we do it, and I won't be looking at the screen.

Please set yourself to this mode:
- answer briefly, three to four sentences at most
- don't summarize what I just said
- don't give me lists or bullet points, this is a conversation
- after each of your answers, ask me one question, not three
- if I say something that contradicts what I said earlier,
  point it out
- if I go quiet for a while, don't comment on it, just wait

Topic: [what I want to talk about]. Goal: by the end I want
[sorted-out arguments / a decision / an outline].

Where exactly it fits into your week

I'll describe my typical work week. Find the spots in it
where it's worth thinking out loud with AI instead of
writing.

My week: [regular blocks, meetings, commuting, moving
between places, recurring tasks, when I walk or drive].
The types of work that slow me down the most: [description].

Return a table: situation | how many minutes | what's worth
tackling with voice in it | what comes out of it (an outline,
a decision, notes).

Rules:
- only suggest windows that genuinely exist in my
  description, don't invent free time
- for each situation, say why it specifically suits voice
- at the end, list three things from my work where voice
  mode is a bad fit, and why

Let yourself be pressed

I'm going to describe something that's on my mind, and I
want you to interrogate me about it.

Rules:
- don't advise, don't summarize, don't propose solutions
- ask one question at a time and wait for my answer
- ask mainly about what I SKIPPED — assumptions I never
  stated, and claims I have no basis for
- if I answer evasively, ask again in different words
- after ten questions, tell me what you understood from my
  answers, and let me correct it

Topic: [description]. Go.

The closing summary: the most important step

Let's wrap up. Write me a text summary of our conversation,
I'll be reading it at my computer. Split it into five parts:

1. Where we landed — the main ideas, not a re-narration of
   the whole conversation
2. Decisions I made out loud during the conversation
   (only ones I actually stated)
3. What stayed open and what to do about it next
4. Arguments where I admitted I don't have anything backing
   them up — quote them verbatim
5. An outline it can all be organized into: headings, with
   two bullet points under each on what it should cover

Don't add anything that wasn't said in the conversation.
Where you're not sure whether something was my idea or
yours, say so.

When you don't know what's bothering you

Something's bothering me and I can't name it. I'm going to
describe it to you indirectly, through what's happening and
how it feels.

Your role: don't try to solve it right away. Help me name
it first.
- listen for what I keep coming back to
- if I return to the same thing twice, point it out
- after a while, offer me three different framings of what
  the real problem might be, and let me pick one or reject
  them
- only once we agree on a framing do we talk about solutions

Starting point: [describe the situation].

Deciding between options

I'm deciding between [option A] and [option B]. I don't
want a recommendation from you, I want you to walk me
through the decision.

Process, stick to it:
1. First, ask me for criteria — what should this decision
   be based on. Keep asking until I've named at least four,
   and make me rank them by importance.
2. Then go through option A against every criterion, ask
   me how it holds up on each, and don't rate it for me.
3. Same with option B.
4. Ask whether there's an option C I haven't considered.
5. Only at the very end: ask which option feels right to me
   after this conversation, and why. Don't comment on it.

I'm talking while walking, so keep your answers short.

Rehearsing a hard conversation

Play the other side of the conversation. You are [role, e.g.
a client asking for a discount / a colleague I need to tell
about an unwelcome decision]. I am [my role].

Context you know: [the situation, the history of the
relationship, what's at stake].
Your position: [what you're pushing for].
Your style: [matter-of-fact and firm / emotional / evasive].

Rules of the game:
- stay in character until I say “stop”
- don't be accommodating, push back on me like a real
  counterpart would
- react to what I actually say, don't assume anything I
  didn't say
- if I use a weak argument, use it against me

Once we're done, step out of the role and tell me: where I
was persuasive, where I gave ground unnecessarily, and two
sentences I should have ready for the real conversation.

Explain it out loud and see where the gap is

I'm going to explain the topic of [topic] out loud, as if
teaching it to you. Play a student who knows nothing about
it but is sharp and attentive.

What to do:
- if I use a term I haven't explained yet, ask what it means
- if I make a jump in my reasoning, ask how I got from
  point A to point B
- if I say something imprecise, don't correct me right
  away — ask a question that lets me notice the imprecision
  myself
- ask one question at a time

Once I'm done, tell me: which three parts of my explanation
were unclear, and what I skipped entirely.

Oral quizzing while walking

Quiz me on [subject / topic area]. You have twenty minutes,
I'm walking while we do it.

How to run it:
- ask like an examiner, not a quiz app: open-ended questions
  that need a coherent answer, not a one-word one
- after my answer, ask one follow-up question that goes a
  level deeper
- if I get it wrong, don't give the correct answer right
  away — steer me toward it with a question
- if I get it right but superficially, ask for an example
  or an exception

At the end, tell me: what I know well, what I only know
superficially, and what I still need to study. Be honest,
don't go easy on me.

Setting up the conversation so it actually pushes you forward

From now on we only talk in [language]. My level is roughly
[A2 / B1 / B2], I understand better than I speak.

Conversation setup:
- speak a bit slower than a native speaker and use
  vocabulary about one level above mine
- if I use a word wrong or make a grammar mistake that
  changes the meaning, correct me right away — briefly,
  one sentence, then continue the conversation
- keep track of small mistakes that don't change the
  meaning and tell me about them only at the end
- if I get stuck and don't know a word, don't give it to
  me right away: ask if I can describe it another way, and
  only then tell me
- ask me things, so that I do most of the talking

Today's conversation topic: [topic].

Scenarios instead of free-form chat

Let's act out a situation in [language]. You are [role, e.g.
a hotel receptionist dealing with an overbooked hotel]. I am
[role, e.g. a guest whose reservation isn't in the system].

Rules:
- stay in character and speak realistically, including not
  accommodating me on the first ask
- use expressions that would actually come up in this
  situation, not textbook sentences
- if I don't understand, I'll say “say that more simply”
  and you rephrase it, but stay in character

Once we're done: give me a text list of 10 useful phrases
from this situation that I didn't use and should know, and
5 mistakes I made, with corrections.

All prompts