The Anatomy of a Great Prompt: 5 Parts Every Executive Assistant Should Know

You ask AI to "write an email declining the dinner." What comes back is three paragraphs long, a little too sorry, and nothing like your executive. So you rewrite it yourself and wonder why you bothered.

The tool usually isn't the problem. The prompt is missing the things you would never leave out if you were briefing a person.

Brief AI like a new assistant on their first day

Imagine handing the same task to a temp who started this morning. You wouldn't just say "decline the dinner." You'd tell them who it's from, who it's to, what the invitation said, how long to keep it, and the one thing they must not promise. AI needs exactly the same briefing. Give it those five things and the first draft is usually close enough to send after a quick read.

The five parts

1The role: who it's from, and who it's for

Whose voice, and for which reader. from my executive to a board member gets a very different email from from me to a vendor.

2The context: what you have

Paste the invitation, the thread, the notes or the calendar. AI only knows what you give it, so this is where most weak answers start.

3The task: one clear verb

Draft, summarise, compare, list, rewrite. Draft a reply declining the dinner on the 14th beats "help me with this email".

4The format: the shape of the answer

Length, tone and layout. under 100 words, friendly but firm, as a table, five bullets.

5The guardrails: what it must not do

The line you'd say last to a new assistant. don't promise another date, use only the information I give you, flag anything unclear instead of guessing.

Before and after

Before Write an email declining the dinner. After: all five parts Draft a short, warm reply from my executive to a board member declining the dinner on the 14th. Here is their email: [paste]. Keep it under 100 words, friendly but firm, and don't promise another date.

The second prompt takes twenty seconds longer to write. It saves the ten minutes you would have spent rewriting the first answer.

When the answer is wrong, fix one part

You don't need to start over. Look at what went wrong and change the part that controls it:

Too long or badly laid out? Fix the format: "shorter", "three bullets", "as a table".

Wrong tone or voice? Fix the role, or paste two emails your executive wrote and ask it to match them.

Generic, could be about anyone? Add context: the thread, the names, the dates.

Made something up? Add a guardrail: "Use only the information I give you. Flag anything unclear."

Three habits that make it stick

Ask for options. "Give me three versions: warm, neutral and firm." Picking is faster than rewriting.
Keep a prompt file. When a prompt works, save it with the brackets left in. Next time it takes thirty seconds.
Check before you send. Names, dates, numbers and times get checked against the source. AI drafts; you decide.

One more rule: use only the AI tools your company has approved, and leave out anything confidential. "A board member" usually works as well as the name.

Get 20 prompts already built this way

The free AI Toolkit for Executive Assistants: 20 copy-and-paste prompts for email, calendars, meetings, travel and research, each with the five parts in place, plus a safe-use checklist. We'll also cover prompting live in our free workshop on Wednesday, January 20, 11am PT.

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Have a prompt that just won't behave? Ask the Academy, and we'll answer the best questions in the workshop.