Tips & tricks

A docking station: one cable and you're working

Monitor, keyboard, network, charging — all through a single USB-C cable. Connecting your laptop stops being a five-minute ritual.

A checklist for anything you do a second time

Client onboarding, publishing an article, the monthly close — a repeated process without a checklist means forgetting something, every time.

The weekly review: 30 minutes that run your whole week

On Friday or Sunday, go through your calendar, tasks, and notes — close out loose ends, plan three priorities. Monday starts with clarity.

Three tasks for the day: pick in the morning, check in the evening

Not a list of twenty items, but three things that absolutely must get done today. Everything else is a bonus.

Timeboxing: put your tasks straight into the calendar

A task with no time attached is just a wish. Drag your tasks into concrete calendar slots — and give your day a budget, like money.

The shutdown ritual: close the day so it doesn't follow you

Five minutes at the end of work: write down loose ends, glance at tomorrow, close the laptop. Work stays at work — even in your head.

Batch similar tasks: emails with emails, calls with calls

Switching between types of work costs energy. Grouping similar tasks into blocks saves dozens of minutes a day.

No agenda, no meeting

One simple rule that erases half your meetings: whoever calls the meeting sends an agenda and expected outcome in advance.

1:1s with a standing document

A shared document both sides keep adding to between meetings. The meeting has structure, and the history is easy to find.

Delegate the outcome, not the process

A good assignment has four parts: what needs to exist, why, by when, and how you'll know it's done. Leave the process to the person doing it.

A written status instead of a status meeting

Three questions in a form on Friday: what went well, what's in progress, what's stuck. Suddenly the 45-minute status meeting is unnecessary.

Widgets: information without opening apps

Calendar, tasks, and weather on your home screen mean you open your phone, glance, and close it — instead of a tour through your apps.

Office hours: availability with boundaries

Two hours a day when anyone can come to you with anything — and the rest of the day belongs to your own work. The team adjusts within a week.

Set up swipe gestures in mail: archive with one flick

In mobile Gmail and Outlook, set swipe right to archive, swipe left to snooze. Clear your inbox while waiting in line for coffee.

iPhone search: swipe down to find anything

Swiping down on the home screen opens search — apps, contacts, messages, and calculations. Faster than hunting for icons.

Dictate messages on the go

The microphone on your keyboard writes what you say — reliably. A reply on the move doesn't have to wait for the keyboard.

Android: two apps on screen at the same time

Notes next to your browser, or a calendar next to email — split screen is genuinely usable on bigger phones.

Batched notifications: a summary instead of a drip

iOS and Android can both hold non-urgent notifications and deliver them as a summary at times you choose. Your phone stops yanking at your attention.

Hold the space bar: your keyboard turns into a trackpad

Landing a finger right in the middle of a word is a lottery. Holding the space bar turns your keyboard into a touchpad for precise cursor movement.

In-depth guide · 20 min

A prompt library: don't rewrite what already works

A complete guide with prompts: where to keep a library, how to version and improve prompts, how to share them in a team — and ten every library needs.

In-depth guide · 19 min

Data Analysis with AI: From CSV to a Conclusion You Can Defend

A guide with prompts: why a language model must not do the math in chat, how to turn a table into a script that recalculates, and how not to overreach.

In-depth guide · 18 min

Your first conversation with AI: the complete guide for absolute beginners

A complete guide with copy-paste prompts: how to pick a tool, what to type into the first empty box, and telling a good answer from plausible nonsense.

In-depth guide · 17 min

Prepping for a negotiation in twenty minutes: research, arguments, BATNA, and rehearsal

A guide with prompts: research the other side in twenty minutes, build arguments and a walk-away point, rehearse the hardest part, and get a one-pager.

In-depth guide · 17 min

Let AI find the holes in your proposal

A complete guide with prompts for hard critique: untraining AI from agreeing with you, decision premortems, red-teaming a proposal — and when to ignore it.

In-depth guide · 17 min

Custom instructions: set up AI once, it applies forever

A complete guide to standing instructions: what belongs in them, how they differ from a Project, testing them — and ready sets for common professions.

In-depth guide · 20 min

Projects in AI: upload context once, not every time

A complete guide with prompts: what to upload to a Project, how to write its instructions, when to start a new one, and maintenance so it doesn't lie.

In-depth guide · 19 min

AI voice mode: think out loud while you walk

A complete guide with prompts: when talking to AI beats typing, how to run a conversation that resolves something, and where voice mode hits hard limits.

In-depth guide · 14 min

Excel and Sheets with AI: Formulas, Errors, Structure, and Macros

A complete guide with prompts: describe a formula in plain words and get a working fix, debug errors, design a table that holds, and when to use a macro.

In-depth guide · 19 min

From a meeting recording to notes with tasks in a minute

A complete guide with prompts: from recording consent to notes that separate decisions from discussion, list who-what-by-when tasks, and admit what's open.

In-depth guide · 17 min

Show AI a sample: the complete guide to working with examples

A complete guide with prompts: why one example beats a thousand words of instructions, when one or three, ready templates, and your own style bank.