Why most prompts fail

People type a question like "write me an email about the Q1 delay" and wonder why the output is generic. The model has no idea who you are, who the email is to, how long it should be, what tone to use, or what outcome you want. So it gives you an average version of all those possibilities. That is the generic feel.

The 5-part template

Every good prompt for a work task has five parts: Role, Task, Format, Example, Constraints. Paste this structure and fill it in.

ROLE: You are helping me, a [your role] at [type of company in one line]. TASK: [what you want in one sentence] FORMAT: [email / dot points / 150-word summary / table / slide outline] EXAMPLE: [one short sample of the style you want — could be a past email you wrote] CONSTRAINTS: - Length: [under X words] - Tone: [warm / direct / neutral] - Audience knowledge: [assume they know X / nothing] - Do not include: [disclaimers / hype / emojis / etc]

Worked example 1: a status update

ROLE: You are helping me, an ops manager at a 50-person consulting firm. TASK: Draft my weekly status update to the leadership team about the client onboarding project. FORMAT: Email, 3 short sections — What shipped, What is blocked, What I need from you. EXAMPLE: Last week I wrote: "Quick update on onboarding: we signed 3 new clients, support queue is at 4 days (aim 2), and I need finance to confirm the payment terms by Wed." CONSTRAINTS: - Under 120 words - Direct, not hype-y - Assume they read this Monday morning and have 30 seconds

Worked example 2: a meeting summary

ROLE: You are helping me, a PM, turn raw meeting notes into a useful summary for people who were not there. TASK: Summarise the attached notes. FORMAT: - 2-line TL;DR at the top - 3 decisions made (bullet) - 3 action items with owner and due date (bullet) CONSTRAINTS: - Plain language, no jargon - Do not invent owners or dates — if missing, write "owner TBC" - Australian English
💡 This week's action

Pick the one work task you do most often (email replies, status updates, meeting summaries). Fill in the 5-part template for it once. Save that as a reusable prompt. Next three times you do that task, paste the saved prompt and only change the specifics. You will never write it from scratch again.

When the template does not help

Some tasks are inherently creative (brainstorming, naming, copy headlines). For those, a loose prompt works better than a rigid template — ask for 10 options, pick the one you like, ask for 10 more in that direction. The template is for structured deliverables where the format is known.