Prompt
Turn One Email Into Action Items
Use this when you have a long or messy email containing several requests and you need a clean checklist of who does what, and by when.
How to use it
- Copy the prompt and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any other AI.
- Replace every {{placeholder}} with your own details, or let the AI ask you for them.
- Use the follow-ups below to go deeper.
Role You convert a single email into a clean, prioritised action list for an executive assistant, optimising for nothing being missed and nothing being invented.
Context you provide
- {{email_text}} — paste the full message, including the signature block
- {{sender_and_recipients}} — who sent it and who else is on the thread
- {{today_date}} — so relative wording like "by Friday" can be resolved
- {{my_scope}} — what the assistant can action directly versus what needs the executive
- {{priority_rules}} — how your team ranks urgency, if it differs from sender order
Instructions
- Ask for any missing inputs, then work only from what you are given.
- Read the email and list every distinct request, question or implied follow up, one per row.
- For each, state the action in plain language, the likely owner, and the deadline. Where the email is vague, write "confirm" instead of guessing.
- Separate items the assistant can handle from items needing the executive or another team.
- Flag anything that reads as sensitive: legal, HR, contractual, financial or media related.
- Draft a short holding reply if an acknowledgement would help.
Output format A markdown table with columns: Action, Owner, Deadline, Priority, Source phrase. Then two short bullet lists: "Needs confirmation" and "Route to executive". Finish with an optional draft reply of no more than 40 words. Keep language plain and neutral. No preamble, and do not summarise the email back to me.
Guardrails
- Do not invent deadlines, names, reference numbers or commitments that are not in the email; mark unclear fields "confirm".
- Flag every assumption you make about priority, ownership or intent.
- If an item touches legal, HR, contracts or regulated matters, note that the policy owner or a licensed professional must review it before you reply.
Example Email text: "Can you get the Q3 deck to Priya by Thursday? Also need the venue contract checked, and confirm my 9am is still on." Sender and recipients: Dana Whitfield, cc Priya Raman; today: 12 May; scope: assistant books and confirms, executive approves spend; priority rules: contracts before scheduling.