Stop Chatting With AI Put It to Work

Most people use AI like a smarter search bar. Here are 5 no-code automations that do real work: your inbox, a daily brief, long documents, messy data, and meeting notes. Plus 3 rules that keep them from embarrassing you. Every test was run for real on a general-purpose AI model, with fictional data. Chapters 0:00 The same Monday, twice 1:55 Chat Is Not Automation 3:55 Instructions That Never Forget 6:33 Automation 1: The Inbox 8:46 Automation 2: The Morning Brief 11:14 Automation 3: Long Documents 13:27 Automation 4: Messy Data 15:50 Automation 5: Chains 18:43 When the Machine Lies 21:41 Lock It 24:33 Put It to Work THE 8 TEMPLATES (copy, then fill the [brackets]) P1 · The 5 boxes ROLE: You are my [executive assistant]. You handle [my inbox]. CONTEXT: I work as [job]. Important people: [names + who they are]. A normal week: [short description]. TASK: Every time I give you [an email / a document / notes], you [what to do]. FORMAT: Always answer with: [headings, in this order]. No intro, no outro. RULES: Never invent dates, names or numbers. If something is not in the text, write "not stated". If you are not sure, say so. [Paste your style card here.] P2 · Style card Here are 10 emails I wrote. Describe my writing style as a list of 8–10 rules someone could follow to write exactly like me: length, greetings, sign-offs, punctuation, tone, words I use and words I never use. Only describe what you can see in these emails. P3 · Inbox triage For each email or thread: 1) one line: what it is about. 2) a table: Action | Owner | Deadline | Source quote (exact sentence). 3) one label: ACT, REPLY, WAITING or FYI. If there are no actions, write "No actions". Never invent a deadline. If a reply is needed, draft it in my style. Never send anything. P4 · Morning brief Every morning at 7:00, read the emails labeled "Reading" from the last 24 hours. Give me: the 3 most important stories (one sentence each), 1 thing I should actually act on, and the links. Under 200 words. If nothing important happened, say "Quiet day" and stop. P5 · Contract checklist Using only this document, list: key dates and deadlines, all money amounts and fees, automatic renewals, how to cancel and the notice period, penalties, and anything unusual. For each item, quote the exact sentence and give its section number. If something is not in the document, write NOT FOUND. This is a first read, not legal advice. P6 · Extract to a table Extract one row per invoice with exactly these columns: Date (YYYY-MM-DD) | Vendor | Invoice number | Subtotal | Tax | Total. Numbers only, no currency symbols. If a value is unreadable, write UNREADABLE. Do not calculate anything. Do not guess. P7 · Meeting notes (the AI step of a chain) From this transcript, list: 1) decisions made, 2) action items as Owner | Task | Deadline | Quote, 3) open questions. Use only what was said. If a deadline was not said, write "no deadline". Then draft a short follow-up email to the attendees with the decisions and action items. Do not send it. P8 · The checker (second step) Here is a SOURCE and an ANSWER based on it. List every claim in the ANSWER that is not directly supported by the SOURCE, and explain why. If every claim is supported, write only: VERIFIED. Tools mentioned: Gemini Notebook, formerly NotebookLM (https://notebooklm.google.com) · Zapier (https://zapier.com) · Make (https://www.make.com) · Gmail filters (https://support.google.com/mail/answe...) · Sheets AI function (https://support.google.com/docs/answe...) ⚡ Wiredeep — the tech you use every day, explained. 👉 Subscribe for more! #aiautomation #productivity #nocode