AI Productivity for Busy Professionals

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Module 5 – Planning & Projects

Overview

Projects fail when they are too big, vague, or under-planned. In this module, you’ll use AI to break projects into phases and tasks, estimate time and priority, and design simple weekly plans.

What you’ll learn

  • How to break work into clear phases and tasks.
  • How to estimate time and priority with AI’s help.
  • How to create weekly checklists that move projects forward.

1. Project breakdown

You are my project planning assistant. I want to complete the following project:

[DESCRIBE PROJECT]

Please:
1) Ask up to 5 questions to clarify scope, deadline, and constraints.
2) Break the project into major phases.
3) For each phase, list the key tasks.
4) Mark tasks that depend on others.

Present the result in a table with columns:
Phase | Task | Depends on | Notes

2. Real-life scenarios

Scenario A – Launching a new service

You are my launch planner. I want to launch a new service called <NAME>
by <DATE>.

Please:
1) Break the launch into phases (e.g. research, preparation, marketing, delivery).
2) List key tasks for each phase.
3) Suggest a realistic timeline working backwards from the launch date.

Here is what I know so far:
[PASTE NOTES]

Scenario B – Internal process improvement project

You are my operations planner. I want to improve the process for <PROCESS>.

Please:
1) Suggest key steps to analyse the current process.
2) Suggest experiments or changes to test.
3) Outline how to measure whether the changes worked.

Here is the context:
[PASTE NOTES]

3. Time and priority estimates

You are my planning assistant. I will paste a list of tasks.

For each task, please:
- Suggest a rough time estimate in hours
- Assign a priority: High / Medium / Low
- Suggest whether I should do it myself or delegate it, assuming I am a <ROLE>

Return the result as a table:
Task | Time estimate (h) | Priority | Do / Delegate | Notes

Here are the tasks:
[PASTE TASK LIST]

4. Weekly checklist generator

You are my weekly planning assistant.

I will paste:
- My main goals for this project
- A list of tasks with estimates

Please create a weekly plan for the next <NUMBER> weeks that:
- Lists 3–5 key tasks per week
- Highlights any dependencies
- Suggests what to do if I fall behind

Here is the information:
[PASTE GOALS AND TASKS]

5. Mini exercises

  1. Choose a current project and run it through the project breakdown prompt.
  2. Use the time and priority prompt on the resulting task list.
  3. Generate a weekly plan for the next 2–4 weeks and paste it into your calendar or task manager.

6. Advanced techniques

  • Scenario planning: ask AI for best-case, likely, and worst-case timelines.
  • Risk lists: ask AI to list possible risks and mitigation ideas.
  • Post-mortems: after a project, paste notes and ask AI what could be improved next time.

Today’s action

  1. Pick one meaningful project and fully break it down with AI.
  2. Commit to following the weekly plan for at least the next 2 weeks.
  3. Capture your favourite planning prompts in your AI Playbook.