By this time of year, many of us are looking at two kinds of unfinished business: the house that needs attention and the conversation at work that we keep postponing. This week, we’ll use AI for both - creating a practical spring-cleaning checklist and preparing thoughtful feedback for a team member. Neither requires technical skill. You simply describe your situation clearly and ask for help in a useful format.

Try at least one before Sunday. That is the whole assignment.

Use Case 1 of 2

Use Case 1: Create a Spring-Cleaning Checklist

At 9:15 on Saturday morning, Linda Morales stood in her kitchen with a mug of coffee, three rooms that needed attention, and no idea where to begin. The windows needed washing, the hall closet had become a storage area for things nobody used, and the smoke-detector batteries had not been checked in longer than she cared to admit. Linda works full-time, helps her elderly mother with errands, and did not have an entire weekend to spend cleaning. What she needed was not a gigantic list of every possible household chore. She needed a sensible plan that fit into two hours at a time, with the safety-related jobs clearly identified. AI could turn her scattered thoughts into an orderly checklist - but only if she explained her home, her time, and her priorities.

Here is the exact prompt to use:

Copy and paste this into ChatGPT or Claude:

> I want you to create a practical spring-cleaning checklist for my home. > > My situation: I live in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom house with a kitchen, living room, dining area, basement, and small yard. I have about two hours available on Saturday morning and another two hours on Sunday afternoon. I work full-time, so please do not create an unrealistic deep-cleaning plan. > > Please organize the checklist into four sections: > 1. Safety and maintenance > 2. Decluttering > 3. Cleaning > 4. Outdoor tasks > > Put the most important tasks first. Include practical safety reminders such as checking smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors, cleaning the dryer vent, looking for leaks, and checking whether any household chemicals or medications need to be disposed of safely. Do not tell me to mix cleaning products, and warn me when a task may require a professional. > > Divide the work into two two-hour sessions. For each task, include an estimated time and a simple definition of “done.” Keep the plan manageable for one person. Mark any task I can skip if time runs short. > > Before creating the final checklist, ask me up to five questions about my home, health or mobility limitations, pets, and cleaning priorities.

Why this prompt works: It gives the AI the information a generic request lacks: the size of the home, the available time, the number of people doing the work, and the desired order of priorities. It also asks for time estimates and a definition of “done,” which prevents vague instructions such as “organize the basement.” Most importantly, it asks questions before producing the final plan. A good prompt does not merely name a task; it explains the limits, standards, and decisions that matter.

Use Case 2 of 2

Use Case 2: Give Feedback to a Team Member

At 4:40 on Tuesday afternoon, David Chen reread a report from his team member, Megan. The work was thoughtful and mostly accurate, but Megan had delivered it two days late, and several figures were not explained clearly enough for the client. David had already mentioned the problem once in a rushed hallway conversation. Now he needed to give useful feedback without sounding angry, humiliating Megan, or pretending that the missed deadline did not matter. He also wanted the conversation to be fair: Megan had taken on extra work while another colleague was away. David did not need AI to make the decision for him. He needed help separating observable facts from irritation and turning his concerns into a respectful, specific conversation.

Here is the exact prompt to use:

Copy and paste this into ChatGPT or Claude:

> Help me prepare for a feedback conversation with a team member. Do not write a harsh performance review and do not diagnose the person’s attitude or motives. Help me focus on observable behavior, its impact, and a reasonable next step. > > Situation: My team member, Megan, submitted a client report two business days late. The report contained useful analysis, but three important figures were not explained clearly enough for the client to understand them without asking follow-up questions. Megan has also taken on extra work this month because a colleague has been absent. I have mentioned the deadline issue once before, but only briefly and in an informal hallway conversation. > > My goals for the conversation are to: > - recognize the quality and effort in Megan’s analysis; > - explain specifically why the late delivery and unclear figures created a problem; > - understand whether workload, unclear expectations, or another issue contributed; > - agree on a practical improvement for the next report. > > Please give me: > 1. A short opening sentence; > 2. Three neutral observations based only on the facts above; > 3. A clear explanation of the impact; > 4. Two open-ended questions I can ask; > 5. A suggested next step that is realistic; > 6. A brief closing sentence. > > Use a warm, direct, professional tone. Avoid words such as “always,” “never,” “careless,” “unmotivated,” or “bad attitude.” Keep the suggested script under 250 words, and then explain why each part is included. Also tell me which parts I should adapt based on Megan’s response.

Why this prompt works: It tells AI what not to do as well as what to do. That matters because vague requests for “feedback” often produce generic praise, exaggerated criticism, or assumptions about someone’s character. This prompt supplies concrete observations, asks for the impact of the behavior, and leaves room to understand Megan’s perspective. It also separates the script from the explanation, so David can see the reasoning instead of blindly copying polished language.