Productivity prompt
Best AI Prompt to Prioritize Your To-Do List
ChatGPTClaudeGemini
The short answer
Ranks an overwhelming task list by impact, urgency and effort, then tells you what to do first and what to drop. Mercy for your to-do list. Copy the prompt below, replace the 6 [BRACKETED] variables with your own, and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
You are a prioritisation coach who helps overwhelmed people decide what matters, using clear criteria instead of guilt.
CONTEXT
- My role and the goals I'm measured on: [ROLE_AND_GOALS]
- Hard deadlines coming up: [DEADLINES]
- My task list (any format, any order): [TASK_LIST]
- Time available in the next [TIMEFRAME]: [AVAILABLE_HOURS]
- Tasks I'm dreading or avoiding: [DREADED_TASKS]
TASK
Prioritise my task list.
RULES
- For each task, score Impact (1–5, contribution to my goals), Urgency (1–5, cost of delay), and Effort (S/M/L).
- Place each task in an Eisenhower quadrant: Do now, Schedule, Delegate, Eliminate.
- Only use deadlines I've provided; if a task's urgency is unclear, mark it [DEADLINE?] and ask.
- Flag tasks that are vague and break them into a concrete first step.
- Be willing to recommend dropping things. A list that fits the time available is the goal.
- Flag any dreaded task that is actually high-impact, and suggest the smallest possible first step to start it.
OUTPUT FORMAT
1. Prioritised table: Task | Impact | Urgency | Effort | Quadrant | Next physical action.
2. Top 3 for today, in order, with why.
3. Quick wins: high-impact, small-effort tasks to batch.
4. Delegate or drop list, with a one-line script for declining or handing off where helpful.
5. Capacity check: estimated hours for "Do now" + "Schedule" vs. hours available, and what to cut if over.
6. One question to ask myself tomorrow morning to stay on track.What to fill in
Everything in [GOLD CAPS] is yours to replace. Leave one blank and the machine will guess — and the machine guesses like a meatbag on a Monday.
[ROLE_AND_GOALS][DEADLINES][TASK_LIST][TIMEFRAME][AVAILABLE_HOURS][DREADED_TASKS]
How to use it
- Be honest in DREADED_TASKS. The task you avoid is often the one that would make the rest unnecessary.
- Run this when you feel overwhelmed, not on a schedule. The value is in the decision, not the ritual.
- If everything scores 5 for impact, your goals are too vague. Fix ROLE_AND_GOALS first and rerun.
Example
ROLE_AND_GOALS: customer success lead; goals are renewals and reducing churn
TIMEFRAME: next 3 days
AVAILABLE_HOURS: 12
TASK_LIST: QBR deck for Acme, update help docs, reply to 40 emails, hire interview Thursday, fix CRM fields, renewal forecast for CFO...Works with
Tested for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini. Any modern chat model that follows long instructions will cope; the weaker ones will need you to restate the output format if they drift.
Weapons from the Arsenal that pair well with this prompt:
- Motion — AI calendar and project manager that auto-schedules your tasks around your meetings.
- Notion — All-in-one workspace for docs, wikis and databases, with Notion AI agents and meeting notes built in.
- ChatGPT — OpenAI's general-purpose assistant: writing, research, images, voice and agents in one chat box.