Practical AI

5 AI prompts for your
daily work life.

By Tom Paisley, Founder & Strategic Director, The Avenella Agency  ·  April 2026

5 AI Prompts for Your Daily Work Life
WEEKLY PLAN COPY HARD CONVOS COPY UNSTUCK COPY PERF REVIEW COPY DECISION COPY 5 PROMPTS  •  EACH ASKS YOU QUESTIONS BACK  •  OUTPUTS UNIQUE TO YOUR SITUATION

Most people use AI like a slightly faster search engine. They type a vague question, get a smooth but generic answer, and wonder why it does not feel useful. The issue is almost never the tool. It is the brief. The prompts below are structured to give AI enough context to ask you clarifying questions before producing output — which consistently changes the quality of what comes back. Five situations. Five prompts. Each one designed to be filled in with your actual situation and used directly.

Jump to a prompt
01 Weekly Priorities Reset 02 Difficult Conversation Prep 03 Stuck Project Unsticker 04 Performance Review Prep 05 Clear-Headed Decision Audit

These prompts work best when you treat the follow-up questions as part of the process. The output you get after answering two or three clarifying questions is consistently more useful than any first response. Do not skip that step.

01
Strategic Thinking

The Weekly Priorities Reset

Before committing to a week, this prompt stress-tests your task list against your actual goals. It catches the busy work that feels productive but moves nothing forward, and asks you the questions that change your priorities before you have already committed to the wrong ones.

Why this works

Planning in your head means planning in a vacuum. By externalising your workload and goals in one prompt, you give AI enough context to identify the misalignments you are too close to see. The questions it asks back are the ones a good senior colleague would ask before your Monday morning meeting.

The prompt — fill in the brackets, then copy
You are a strategic thinking partner. My job title is [your role] and I work in [your industry]. My three most important goals this month are: [goal 1], [goal 2], [goal 3]. This week I am planning to work on: [list 5 to 8 tasks or projects]. Before you say anything else, I want you to do three things. First, tell me which tasks on my list most directly move the needle on my monthly goals. Second, identify any tasks that feel like defensive or habitual busy work rather than real progress. Third, ask me up to four clarifying questions whose answers would change your assessment. Do not give me a revised plan or any recommendations until I have answered those questions.
Questions this prompt is designed to ask you back
  • ?Which of your three monthly goals is currently most at risk of not being achieved, and why?
  • ?Are there hard deadlines on any of these tasks, or are most of them self-imposed timelines?
  • ?Is there something significant you know you should be doing this week that is not on this list?
  • ?What would need to go wrong for this week to feel like a failure, even if you completed everything on the list?
02
Communication

The Difficult Conversation Prep

For performance issues, salary negotiations, client disagreements, or any conversation where the stakes are high and the outcome is uncertain. This prompt forces you to think through the other person's position before you open your mouth.

Why this works

Most difficult conversations go badly because one or both people have only prepared their own side. This prompt forces you to articulate the strongest version of the other person's argument before you build yours. It also identifies the fear underneath your stated concern, which is usually what is driving the conversation going off the rails.

The prompt — fill in the brackets, then copy
I need to prepare for a difficult conversation and I want to do this properly. The conversation is with [describe the person by role or relationship, not name]. The core issue I need to address is: [describe the situation in three to four sentences]. What I want to achieve from this conversation is: [your specific desired outcome]. What I am most worried about is: [your main fear about how this goes]. Before you help me prepare, I want you to do four things. First, articulate the strongest possible version of their position, the best case they could make. Second, tell me what their underlying interest probably is, which may be different from what they will say out loud. Third, identify the thing I might be avoiding saying that is actually the most important thing to say. Fourth, ask me the questions that would change how you advise me to open the conversation. Do not give me scripts or talking points until I have answered those questions.
Questions this prompt is designed to ask you back
  • ?What is the relationship like outside of this specific issue? Is there goodwill to draw on or is this coming into a strained context?
  • ?What is the cost of this conversation going badly compared to the cost of not having it at all?
  • ?Is there anything you have not told me about this situation that might be relevant to how I advise you?
  • ?What would a good outcome actually look like in practice, six months from now?
03
Problem Solving

The Stuck Project Unsticker

Every project has a moment where it stalls. This prompt does not give you a generic list of things to try. It challenges your framing of the blocker first, because the thing you are calling the problem is often not the real problem.

Why this works

When you are too close to a problem, you tend to describe the symptom, not the cause. The most valuable thing AI can do here is not suggest solutions but reframe the problem. Once the framing shifts, the path forward often becomes obvious. This prompt forces that reframe before it goes anywhere near solutions.

The prompt — fill in the brackets, then copy
I am stuck on a project and I need help thinking through it differently. The project is: [describe what it is and why it matters in two to three sentences]. The current status is: [where things stand right now]. The specific place I am stuck is: [describe the blocker as precisely as you can]. Things I have already tried include: [list what you have attempted]. Before you suggest solutions, I want you to do four things. First, challenge whether what I am calling the blocker is actually the real problem or a symptom of something else. Second, give me two completely different ways to frame this situation that I have probably not considered. Third, tell me what the easiest possible version of moving this forward would look like, even if it feels like a compromise. Fourth, ask me any questions that would significantly change your analysis. Do not give me a list of next steps until I have responded to your questions.
Questions this prompt is designed to ask you back
  • ?What would need to be true for this project to move easily? What is specifically preventing that from being true right now?
  • ?Who else is involved and do they share your definition of what success looks like?
  • ?If you had 48 hours and no additional resources, what is the smallest possible step that would constitute genuine progress?
  • ?Is there a decision you have been avoiding making that is quietly blocking everything else?
04
Career Development

The Performance Review Prep

Most people walk into performance reviews and speak in generalities about effort. The ones who get what they want speak in specifics about outcomes. This prompt builds the commercial case for your contribution before you are sitting in the room.

Why this works

Managers and senior leaders respond to impact, not effort. The challenge is that most people describe their work in terms of what they did, not what happened because of what they did. This prompt finds those gaps before the review and gives you time to fill them with actual evidence.

The prompt — fill in the brackets, then copy
I have a performance review coming up and I want to make the strongest case for my contribution. My role is [your job title], my team is [team or department], and this review covers [the time period]. My stated goals or KPIs going into this period were: [list what you were officially measured against]. Here are the main things I worked on or delivered: [list five to eight projects, initiatives, or results]. Before you help me build my narrative, I want you to do four things. First, identify where my descriptions are vague or describe activity rather than impact. Second, flag any gaps in my story that a manager or HR reviewer would notice. Third, tell me which of my contributions is the weakest and most likely to be questioned. Fourth, ask me the specific questions that would turn my general points into concrete, measurable outcomes. Do not write a review narrative until I have answered those questions.
Questions this prompt is designed to ask you back
  • ?For each contribution you listed, what specifically would not have happened or would have gone worse without your direct involvement?
  • ?Can you put a number on any of these results, even approximately? Revenue, time saved, cost reduced, people influenced, error rate reduced?
  • ?Is there anything significant you delivered this period that is not on this list because you were unsure if it counted?
  • ?What is the one thing you want your manager to remember about this period after the meeting ends?
05
Decision Making

The Clear-Headed Decision Audit

For any significant decision you keep circling without committing to. This prompt surfaces what you actually know, what you are assuming without realising it, and what fear is disguising itself as caution. Better decisions start with better questions about the decision itself.

Why this works

Most indecision is not a lack of information. It is a lack of clarity about what you actually value, what you are genuinely afraid of, and which assumptions you are treating as facts. This prompt forces all three to surface before it offers any framework. The output changes substantially based on your answers.

The prompt — fill in the brackets, then copy
I need to make a decision and I keep avoiding it. The decision is: [describe the choice clearly, including the main options you are aware of]. The context is: [why this decision matters, what triggered it, and what is genuinely at stake]. I am currently leaning towards [your current lean and a brief reason why]. What is giving me pause is: [describe what is holding you back as specifically as you can]. Before you help me think through this, I want you to do four things. First, identify any assumptions I am treating as facts that could actually be tested or questioned. Second, tell me what you think my real underlying concern is, which may be different from what I described. Third, identify whether there is a version of this decision I am not seeing at all. Fourth, ask me the questions whose answers would most change your analysis. Do not give me a recommendation or a decision framework until I have answered those questions.
Questions this prompt is designed to ask you back
  • ?If you picture yourself one year from now having made each option, which version of you looks back with more regret and why?
  • ?Is there a version of this decision that feels like a reasonable middle path but is actually just a way of avoiding the harder choice?
  • ?Who else is affected by this decision and have you weighted their position honestly in your thinking so far?
  • ?What would you advise a close friend to do if they described this exact situation to you?

Use these prompts with Claude, ChatGPT, or any capable AI model. The placeholders in brackets are yours to fill in. The more specific and honest you are, the more useful the output. Vague input produces generic output. That is true every time.

Tom Paisley
About the Author

Tom Paisley

Founder & Strategic Director, The Avenella Agency

Tom has 15+ years of senior marketing experience, including building the EMEA escalation framework at Google and YouTube, and directing social strategy for DWTC, Petronas, Dubai Duty Free, Sony PlayStation, and the NBA Abu Dhabi. These prompts are drawn from the frameworks he uses daily with clients across the UAE and UK.

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