2 Prompts. Less Time. Better AI Output

⏱️ Read time: ~3 min

Today I'm sharing two prompts that change how you work with AI, and one of them is brand new.

One of the most common frustrations I hear from coaches and consultants about AI goes something like this: "I tried it, the output was terrible, and I don't see the point."

And almost every time, the real problem isn't the AI. It's the user input.

AI won't fix a lack of clarity. It will amplify it. Give it a vague ask, get a vague answer. Give it a clear, well-structured ask, and suddenly it feels like magic.

So today I want to share two prompts that I think of as twins. If you've been following me for a while, you probably already know the first one. The other is new, and it really helps speed up things and boost consistency across how AI enables me to work smarter.

The Original: My Favorite Starter Prompt

I share this one in every course I teach, every webinar I run… because it works.

"I am [your role]. I want to [what you want to do] for [your audience] in order to [your goal]. How can you help me?"

Simple. And incredibly powerful. Because it forces you to get clear before you even hit send. Your role, your audience, your goal, your desired outcome. All in one sentence.

That clarity is what gets you a useful response instead of a generic one.

The Twin: The Skill-Builder Prompt

Now here's where it gets interesting.

The other day, I was extracting and generalizing agent instructions to share with my AI Lab members. I'd been doing it manually, one by one. About 15 minutes per agent. Tedious, inconsistent, and honestly, not a great use of my time. And if you know me, you know I hate manual admin-y work.

So I started by asking AI to help with the extraction. It helped, but not enough to really move the needle.

Then I asked a different question:

"What are the key decisions and rules I should define for a skill that [does this task]?"

Little did I know what this question would trigger…

The AI walked me through the key decisions. I made some choices, approved a template, and together we built a skill, a reusable set of instructions the AI can follow every single time, consistently, without me re-explaining from scratch.

Result? What used to take 15 minutes per agent now takes around 3 minutes. And the output looks better too.

Wait…what exactly is a skill? And how do you build one? You totally lost me there. Don't worry, whether 'skills' sound foreign to you in the context of AI or whether you've heard about them but aren't really sure what they're all about, I've got you. That's a conversation for the next edition, arriving in just a few days so stay tuned!

Key Takeaway

These two prompts work beautifully together:

Prompt 1 gets you started with clarity on any task.
Prompt 2 helps you systematize what worked, so you can scale it.

Your challenge this week: Pick one task you do repeatedly with AI. Use Prompt 1 to do it well. Then ask Prompt 2 to help you turn it into something reusable.

Keep experimenting,
Elena

P.S. Skills are available in most major AI tools right now. You might already have access and not know it yet.

"AI is the most powerful tool of our time.

It's not here to replace you. It's here to free you, so you can focus on high-impact work, serve your clients better, and finally get your time back."