Your first day with an AI assistant

BEFORE YOU START: 15 MINUTES
- [ ] You've picked one assistant to start with (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or another; see the Tools section). Don't try to learn three at once
- [ ] Your account is created with your email, and two-factor authentication is on for that email
- [ ] You've checked the setting for using your chats for training (see the "What never to send to AI" checklist)
- [ ] If the assistant has a phone app, it's installed: handy for dictating by voice

THE FIRST HOUR: 5 PRACTICE TASKS
- [ ] Ask it to explain a term from your own work that you know well, so you can see right away where AI makes mistakes
- [ ] Give it a draft email and ask it to make it shorter and more polite
- [ ] Ask it to build a plan for your day or week from a list of your to-dos
- [ ] Paste in a long text (an article, instructions) and ask for a summary in 5 bullet points
- [ ] Ask a question by voice, as if you were talking to a person

HOW TO GIVE A TASK
- [ ] Say who you are and why you need the result
- [ ] Give an example or a sample, if you have one
- [ ] Name the format: a list, a table, an email, up to N words
- [ ] If you don't like the answer, refine it in the same chat instead of starting over
- [ ] New topic, new chat

CHECKING
- [ ] You've checked at least one fact from an answer against the original source
- [ ] You noticed where the assistant got it wrong or made something up. That's normal: it shows you its limits

AT THE END OF THE DAY
- [ ] You've written down 2-3 work tasks to hand to AI tomorrow
- [ ] The prompts that worked are saved in a note or a document called "My prompts"
- [ ] You have one takeaway: where AI saved you time and where it's easier to do it yourself