Decide what to keep if I only have half the time
Stress-tests your workload against a 50% time cut to reveal what truly matters and what can shrink, slow down, or go.
The prompt
Help me work out what I'd keep if I suddenly had only half my working time.
My current workload: [PASTE TASKS, PROJECTS, AND RECURRING WORK]
My goals and what I'm accountable for: [DETAILS]
Why I'm asking: [e.g. "upcoming leave", "taking on a new project", "I want to focus"]
Period: [e.g. "next 4 weeks"]
Steps:
1. Estimate the time each item takes now (mark estimates) and total it.
2. Assume I have 50% of that time. Keep only what has a real consequence if dropped: customer commitments, legal or compliance duties, my core goals, and work that unblocks others.
3. For everything else, decide: shrink (a smaller version), slow down (less often), hand off, or pause.
Return:
1. The 50% plan: | Item | Keep / Shrink / Slow / Hand off / Pause | New time | What changes |
2. What each shrunk version looks like (e.g. "the weekly report becomes 5 bullets in Teams").
3. Who would notice each change and what to tell them.
4. What this reveals: items I'm probably over-investing in even at full time.
5. Changes worth keeping permanently.
Be honest about trade-offs; don't pretend everything still gets done.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Productivity & Planning prompts
What to fill in
- PASTE TASKS, PROJECTS, AND RECURRING WORK
- DETAILS
- e.g. "next 4 weeks"
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
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