Week 3 · Lab

Lab: Your AI Workflow Sprint

This will take about 20 minutes. Set a timer if you want. By the end, you'll have one real AI workflow set up and working, one you'll actually reuse, not just something you tried once.

This is the most practical lab we've done. Everything you've learned recently, writing, analysis, thinking, meetings, toolkit, comes together here. Let's go.

Step 1: List your five biggest time sinks (3 min)

Think about last week. What took the most time? Not the deep thinking work. The repetitive stuff. The assembly work.

Write down five tasks. Be specific. Not "email" but "writing weekly client update emails." Not "meetings" but "writing follow-up notes after leadership syncs."

Here are some common ones if you need a push:

  • Writing weekly status updates
  • Prepping for recurring meetings
  • Summarizing reports or articles for your team
  • Drafting responses to common client questions
  • Creating first drafts of proposals or briefs

Write your five down somewhere. Paper, notes app, whatever.

Step 2: Score them (2 min)

For each task, ask yourself: could AI do 80% of this? Be honest. Some tasks need your judgment from the start. Others are mostly assembly work where AI can get you a first draft fast.

Mark each one: Yes, Maybe, or No.

Pick the one that's a clear Yes and eats the most time. That's your target.

Step 3: Do the task with AI right now (10 min)

Open your preferred tool:

Now do the task. For real. Not a hypothetical. Use actual context from your work.

Use everything you've learned:

  • Give it a role (the persona trick from Day 8)
  • Front-load context (paste in real documents, details, constraints)
  • Be specific about format and length
  • Ask it to think step by step if the task is complex (chain of thought from Day 9)
  • Iterate. Don't accept the first draft. Push it. "Make it shorter." "The tone is too formal." "You missed the part about timeline."

Time yourself. Note how long it takes from opening the tool to having a usable output.

Step 4: Make it permanent (5 min)

This is the step most people skip, and it's the one that matters most.

Take what you just did and turn it into something reusable. You have a few options:

Option A: Save a prompt template. Copy the prompt that worked best. Save it in a note or document where you can grab it every week. Include placeholders for the parts that change. Example:

"You are a [role]. I need to write a [document type] for [audience]. Here's the context: [paste context]. Format: [specify]. Tone: [specify]. Length: [specify]."

Option B: Set up Custom Instructions (ChatGPT). Go to Settings > Personalization > Custom Instructions. Add your role, your typical writing style, the kind of work you do. Now every conversation starts with that context built in.

Option C: Create a Claude Project. In Claude, create a new Project. Give it a name like "Weekly Client Updates" or "Meeting Follow-ups." Add your standard context, templates, and instructions to the project knowledge. Now every time you open that project, Claude already knows the setup.

Option D: Use Perplexity or NotebookLM if your task is research-heavy.

Pick one option. Set it up now. Not later. Now.

Reflection

Take a minute and think about these:

  1. How long did the task take with AI vs how long it normally takes you?
  2. Was the output good enough to use (with light editing), or did it need heavy rework?
  3. If you used this workflow every week, how much time would you save over a month?
  4. What's one thing you'd adjust about your prompt or setup to make it even better next time?

Write your answers down. Not because this is homework. Because the people who reflect on what worked are the ones who actually build lasting habits with these tools.

You now have a working AI workflow. One that's set up, tested, and ready to use first thing tomorrow. That's not theoretical knowledge. That's an operational advantage.

See you in the next lesson for the final stretch.

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