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Get the business out of your head into a "how we do things" guide
Everything runs because you remember it. Talk through your week out loud and get it turned into a short guide someone else could follow if you were off for a fortnight.
The prompt · ChatGPT
Help me write a "how we do things" guide for my business. My business: [what you do] My week, in my own words: [type or paste a voice-note transcript: what you do, in what order, and what goes wrong] Who'd use the guide: [staff, a partner, a cover person] First ask me up to 8 short questions, a few at a time, about the bits I skipped. Wait for my answers. Then: 1. A guide split into daily, weekly, monthly and "when this happens" jobs. 2. For each job: steps, who does it, where things are, what good looks like. 3. A one-page "if I'm off tomorrow" summary: contacts, passwords location (not the passwords), key dates. 4. The three jobs to hand over first. Only use what I've told you, leave blanks for anything I haven't given, and don't invent facts or figures. UK English. Stay in this ChatGPT chat. Do not turn on apps or connectors, and do not use memory from another chat.
A short example
Fill the blanks, then paste. what you do: a short note you already have. staff, a partner, a cover person: a short note you already have. Leave the rest of the prompt as written.
The prompt · Copilot
Help me write a "how we do things" guide for my business. My business: [what you do] My week, in my own words: [type or paste a voice-note transcript: what you do, in what order, and what goes wrong] Who'd use the guide: [staff, a partner, a cover person] First ask me up to 8 short questions, a few at a time, about the bits I skipped. Wait for my answers. Then: 1. A guide split into daily, weekly, monthly and "when this happens" jobs. 2. For each job: steps, who does it, where things are, what good looks like. 3. A one-page "if I'm off tomorrow" summary: contacts, passwords location (not the passwords), key dates. 4. The three jobs to hand over first. Only use what I've told you, leave blanks for anything I haven't given, and don't invent facts or figures. UK English. Stay in this Copilot chat. Leave plugins off, and do not open a file from OneDrive.
A short example
Fill the blanks, then paste. what you do: a short note you already have. staff, a partner, a cover person: a short note you already have. Leave the rest of the prompt as written.
You talk or type through your week: the jobs, the order, the gotchas.
The assistant asks follow-up questions to fill in the bits you skipped.
You get a guide organised by daily, weekly and monthly jobs, each with steps, who does it and where things are.
What happens
Use Copilot to get the business out of your head into a "how we do things" guide
Everything runs because you remember it. Talk through your week out loud and get it turned into a short guide someone else could follow if you were off for a fortnight.
Tools
Paste the prompt, fill the blanks, copy the draft.
- Microsoft Copilot — required. Drafts from the text you paste. Nothing is sent.
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