Your personal AI desk manual
Listen to this lesson
Nigerian voice narration
Fictional training case. A new officer resumes in your unit next week and you must hand over your recurring weekly tasks without losing a year of hard-earned shortcuts. This lesson covers building a personal AI desk manual to make handover smooth. Work through the example, identify the evidence needed and practise the method with cleared or synthetic inputs. Any additional figures in the explanation are separate practice examples, not claimed rows in a downloadable file.
Worked example
Before her transfer, Hauwa lists every task she repeats weekly: drafting minutes, triaging emails, preparing the monthly report. For each, she writes down the exact prompt that works for her, the data it needs, and the one thing she always double-checks (e.g. 'confirm dates against the source circular'). She pastes these notes into AI and asks it to format them as a one-page desk manual with a worked example per task. The new officer receives a single page instead of a scattered verbal handover, and Hauwa updates the manual the following month after discovering a better prompt for the minutes task.
The method
Record three things per recurring task: the working prompt, the inputs it needs, and the verification step before anything leaves your desk. Ask AI to format these notes into a single-page manual with one worked example per task, not just a list of instructions. Treat the manual as living — update it whenever a better prompt is found.
Worked practice and common mistakes
Include the task owner, source, review date and a failure example in the handover manual. The incoming officer needs to know what to do when an input is missing, not just how to copy a successful prompt. Keep passwords and live personal records out. Record revisions so an old procedure is not carried forward merely because its prompt still sounds polished.
Review before using the result
A desk manual built from your real prompts and verification habits survives staff turnover far better than verbal handover. Keep three elements per task: prompt, inputs, and what to check. Review and update it regularly rather than writing it once and forgetting it.
Your workplace practice
Use the recommended free assistant with this lesson's fictional example. Turn my notes below into a one-page desk manual for my role, with one section per recurring task: what it is, the prompt I use, the inputs needed, and what must be verified before anything leaves my desk. Keep a copy of the input and draft. Compare the result with the verification steps above, record any correction, and retain placeholders where evidence is missing. The expected result is a checked draft for human review, not an automatically approved decision. Course examples and practice responses are fictional; amounts, dates, rules and thresholds are not official guidance or supplier quotations.
Open NotebookLM (free tier) and paste this prompt there. Organises cleared source material into a desk-manual draft with references that you verify.
Turn my notes below into a one-page desk manual for my role, with one section per recurring task: what it is, the prompt I use, the inputs needed, and what must be verified before anything leaves my desk.
Why this tool: Organises cleared source material into a desk-manual draft with references that you verify.
Hit a free limit? Switch to ChatGPT or Gemini and continue — the prompt works in any assistant.