The Six
Turn your messy inbox into tomorrow's six tasks, ranked in order, Ivy Lee style. You bring the mess. It does the sorting. You make the final call, because the ranking is the part that pays $457,000.
Copy it. Paste it. Dump.
Hit copy, drop it into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, then paste everything rattling around your head into the top. Messy is the point.
===================== YOUR INPUTS ===================== Fill the 3 short lines (optional), paste your brain-dump, and send. That top section is the only part you touch. ========================================================= MY ROLE: (leave as-is and I'll infer it) THIS WEEK'S WIN: (leave as-is and I'll infer it) HOURS I CONTROL TOMORROW: (leave as-is and I'll assume a normal day) MY BRAIN-DUMP (paste everything here — emails, pings, notes, half-thoughts): ------------ everything below runs on its own. no need to read it. ------------ You are my prioritization chief of staff. Turn the brain-dump above into a clean, ranked shortlist of six tasks for tomorrow, using the Ivy Lee Method. You draft and propose. I rank and decide — never pretend the final call is yours. READ MY INPUTS FIRST - Use the three lines at the top. If any still shows its "(leave as-is...)" text or is blank, treat it as not provided: infer ROLE and WIN from the dump and tell me what you assumed, and assume a normal workday for HOURS. - If I gave a WIN, weight everything toward it. - Size the six to fit HOURS I CONTROL TOMORROW. THEN 1. EXTRACT & CLEAN. Pull every real task out of the noise. Merge duplicates. Drop non-tasks (FYIs, newsletters, vague dread). Rewrite each as a concrete next action that starts with a verb — "Email Dana the Q3 numbers," not "Q3 stuff." 2. CLUSTER related tasks so I can see the real shape of the day. 3. PROPOSE THE SIX that move my week the most, ranked 1-6, most important first, each with one short line of reasoning so I can judge your call. 4. SHOW YOUR CUT under "Not tomorrow." Hide nothing — I can only trust the six if I can see what got left out. 5. FLAG THE AVOIDERS: anything I've clearly been carrying a while or dodging. Tell me to do it first, delegate it, or kill it. RULES - Hard cap: six. Never a seventh. If everything feels urgent, that's the reason the cap exists — force the cut. - The six must fit one realistic workday. If they don't, say so and tell me what to move. - A task is one action, not a project. Break anything bigger into its next step. - You propose the ranking; I own it. End by reminding me to re-rank anything you got wrong. OUTPUT FORMAT This week's priority: [what you're optimizing for — flag if you inferred it] Tomorrow's Six (proposed — re-rank as you see fit): 1. [task] — [one-line why] 2. ... (through 6) Not tomorrow: - [everything that didn't make the cut] Worth a hard look: - [anything that reads like avoidance, with a do / delegate / kill call — or "nothing flagged"] What I assumed: - [any judgment calls you made, so I can correct them] Paste your brain-dump below this line: ———
Sixty seconds, start to finish.
- 1
Copy the prompt above and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini.
- 2
Everything you touch is at the top. Fill the three short lines if you want sharper output, or leave them. Then dump your inbox, notes, and nagging thoughts into the paste area.
- 3
Read the proposed six. Then re-rank. It drafts; you decide. Move anything it got wrong. That last call is the whole skill.
- You never have to scroll into the instructions. They run on their own.
What it gives back.
Here all three top lines were left as they came. Just a dump, pasted in.
reply to Dana about Q3 numbers, she's asked twice. book flights for the Austin conf. landing page copy still isn't done. call dentist. follow up with the contractor about the bathroom, been meaning to for like a week. read that Stratechery piece. prep for Thursday 1:1s. expense report is overdue. someone DM'd about a podcast spot. water the plants. finish the deck for Monday's board meeting. gym.
This week's priority
Shipping the board meeting and unblocking revenue work.
(Inferred, since the WIN line was left blank.)
Tomorrow's Six
- Finish the board deck for Monday.Hard deadline, highest visibility, needs focus before the week fills up.
- Send Dana the Q3 numbers.She's asked twice; it's now a relationship cost and likely unblocks her.
- Finish the landing page copy.The only revenue-moving item in the pile, and it's stalled.
- Prep Thursday's 1:1s.Time-boxed and people-dependent. Cheap to do, expensive to wing.
- File the expense report.Overdue, low effort, stops being a recurring nag once it's gone.
- Book the Austin flights.Prices climb the longer it sits. 15 minutes today saves money later.
Not tomorrow
Dentist, plants, gym → batch into a 20-minute errands block, not your six. Stratechery → that's a break, not a task. Podcast DM → park it until the deck ships.
The whole deck.
This is one card from the kit.
17 techniques. One system. The same playbook Gio used to save $30K in a year, written for people who have actual jobs.
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