ChatGPT prompt for triaging your weekly priorities

This is the prompt we run Monday morning on the week’s braindump. Its core rule: it does not just sort, it challenges what you file under “only I can do this” when a teammate could handle it. It is the guardrail against the reflex to keep everything.

The prompt to copy

Here's everything on my plate this week: {braindump}. Sort into: (1) only-I-can-do and high-impact — max 3, (2) delegate — with suggested owner from my team ({names/roles}), (3) delete or defer — with the honest cost of deferring. Challenge me on anything in list 1 that looks like it belongs in 2.

Replace the braces with your braindump and your team’s names and roles, then empty your head without sorting first. The prompt does the sorting, and pushes back when you keep too much.

When to use it

Monday morning, before you open the first email. Five minutes of braindump, and you walk away with three clean lists instead of one fuzzy pile that follows you all week.

What you get back

1. At most three things only you should do, high-impact.
2. What to delegate, with a suggested owner named from your team.
3. What to delete or defer, with the honest cost of deferring spelled out.
4. A challenge on every item you kept by mistake, before it overloads you.

Real example: a Monday braindump → three lists

Input: Maya, who runs Brightside Studio, an 8-person agency, empties her head one Monday morning. An excerpt, as-is:

finish the Fernhill Coffee proposal, chase 3 prospects, sign off Priya's visuals, prep the quarterly review, respond to the city hall RFP, redo the summer time-off schedule
team: Tom (accounts), Lea (design), Priya (junior design)

Output, the part that matters:

List 1, only you, high-impact (max 3)

1. Respond to the city hall RFP (positioning and price: your call).
2. Prep the quarterly review.

Challenge: you filed “sign off Priya’s visuals” under list 1. Lea already mentors Priya day to day, so that sign-off is hers. Keep list 1 for what only you can decide.

Notice what the AI did: it did not just file your tasks, it caught the one you kept out of reflex when it was rightly Lea’s. That guardrail, week after week, is what hands you hours back.

This prompt is part of the library that ships inside the kit, with its usage sheet.