How to Craft AI Prompts That Get Results (Every Single Time)

The COACH framework I use every single day + a free resource to help you start using it today

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You open ChatGPT.

Type in a question.

Only to get a response that’s… completely useless.

It sounds like it came directly from a bot.

It doesn’t give you half of what you need.

And you spend 30 minutes going back and forth with the model in an attempt to get the results that other people preach about…

Just to sit there an hour later still going through the process of rewriting and editing it yourself because AI just couldn’t get it right.

Thinking about how you should’ve just done it yourself.

If you can relate, you’re not alone.

A couple of months ago I was facing the exact same problem.

So, I decided to work out how to fix it.

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Today, I’m going to share with you the simple 5-step framework I've created through my own research and trial and error.

I use this on a daily basis I use on a daily basis to craft prompts that save me hours of work while delivering outputs that require minimal editing.

Because while there’s new tools and upgrades coming out every single day. None of them will help you get ahead if you can’t use them effectively.

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Why AI isn't working for you

When you were growing up, someone probably handed you a musical instrument at some point.

(For me, it was the viola.)

And in that very first moment, it was the most useless thing you could have ever received.

Why? Because you had no idea how to play it.

The same tool an educated musician could use to make an entire audience cry… is what left your friends running away to avoid the screeching.

The truth is, Generative AI is exactly like that new instrument - it’s a tool unlike anything we’ve ever used before.

These models have been trained on billions of documents, but they don’t understand your world unless you teach it how to think like you.

Ai’s power will always be limited by something called prompt engineering: your ability to ask the right questions, or give the right instructions, in the right way.

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Need some motivation to learn? This is it.

This new meta-skill of prompt engineering has become insanely valuable in the past 12 months.

Because when you know how to prompt the right way, you instantly gain three advantages: time, leverage and security.

1. Time

5 minutes of prompting, done right, can save you hours of manual work.

Let’s say you’ve got an overflowing inbox.

You could:

• Open every email
• Pull out the action items
• Draft responses
• Try to be polite, but clear, but not too formal...
• Sit there 90 minutes later bored and brain dead

Or, you could run one single, well-written prompt that:

• Summarises each email
• Extracts what you need to do
• Helps you reply in your tone
• And only takes 30 minutes of your time to review and send, while leaving you with an updated to-do list

Time saved = massive.

Mental energy spared = even bigger.

Because here’s the thing:

When you prompt AI the wrong way, you’re actually wasting time.

You end up going back and forth. Re-explaining. Editing manually. And by the end, the result is worse than what you would’ve done alone.

Knowing how to prompt is the easiest way to fix this.

2. Leverage

Everything you do in life has a certain amount of leverage.

Learning to write well is high leverage – it takes significant upfront investment but pays dividends for years.

Learning how to do your lipstick perfectly is low leverage - it slightly improves your appearance, but your time would have been better spent elsewhere.

In the AI space, there is a LOT of noise.

Prompt engineering cuts through it all.

When you learn how to communicate with Gen AI to get what you want, suddenly you gain the power to:

• Summarise reports in minutes instead of hours
• Create personalised learning materials tailored to your exact needs
• Organise your work and life without spending days setting up complex systems

This is the 20% of knowledge that will drive 80% of your results.

And that right there is leverage.

3. Security

Knowledge work is evolving.

According to Microsoft’s future of work report, soon, we won't be doers – we'll be managers. Not of people, but of AI.

We won't write the report; we'll instruct AI to write it, then review and refine.

We won't organise the data; we'll guide AI to structure it how we need.

Those who can effectively direct these AI "team members" will become exponentially more valuable than those who can't.

By mastering prompt engineering now, you're developing the exact skill that will make you indispensable as these tools continue to advance.

If you learn this now, and build evidence of your expertise, you’ll:

• Be more in demand
• Increase your earning potential
• Deliver higher-quality work, faster
• And become the person others turn to for clarity

This applies whether you work for yourself or an employer.

Prompting is about to be the new professional edge, and now’s the time to get ahead.

Your system: The COACH Framework

So, how do you write a good prompt?

After doing the research and testing to figure this out myself, here’s the framework I now turn to every time I use AI.

I call it the COACH framework.

Let’s break it down.

Hint: don't worry about writing this all down - I've created a cheat sheet with everything you need).

C = Character: Define who the AI should be

You wouldn't want relationship advice from a friend who's never been in a relationship.

You wouldn't want career advice from someone who's never held a job.

So start every prompt by asking:

If you could get anyone in the world to help with this, who would it be?

For example:

This is a start, but we can do better.

There are thousands of L&D specialists in the world.

What would you want them to specialise in? What specific strengths, traits or talents should they have?

Try:

For your personal life, this could be something like:

Now, the AI can pull from the right sources.

It can filter through all the information it has stored from Wikipedia articles, blog posts, books and research papers, to focus on what’s most relevant to you.

Set a clear role, and your results will instantly improve.

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O = Outcome: Define the task

This one is simple: what do you want it to do?

Write? Brainstorm? Review? Strategise?

Building on our previous example:

Keep it simple, specific, and task-based.

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A = Architecture: Outline the style and structure

This is what a lot of people miss.

You need to tell the AI how you want the answer.

• Do you want your summary in dot points, or paragraphs?
• Do you want your email in a formal, or casual tone?
• Do you want a 5 minute presentation script, or a 15 minute one?

If you’re missing this, it’s probably why you’re wasting time doing so much back and forth.

Be crystal clear about what you want.

A few things I like to specify are:

• Format (table, list, paragraphs, etc.)
• Length (word count, time estimate, etc.)
• Tone (professional, casual, persuasive, etc.)
• Specific sections to include
• Examples of previous work if you have any

Adding this to our example, we get:

That’s how you save time and improve quality.

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C = Context: Provide relevant background information

AI doesn’t know you (especially if you don’t have a big chat history).

You need to tell it who it’s speaking to, what matters, and what problem you're solving.

A financial advisor gives vey different advice to a 65 year old about to retire, than to a 25 year old starting their career.

Context tells the AI who its talking to, and helps it tailor its answer to your specific situation.

You could provide this context in the form of written instructions (please don't read all this - it's here as an example):

But if it’s an In-depth, important task and you want even better results, consider what documents or PDFs you have available (saved emails, brand guidelines, research papers, etc.).

One of my favourite strategies is to create a ‘deep research’ report on the relevant topic using AI, then use provide the report as a PDF for my AI to use in this new task.

This is particularly useful for things like analysing your target market.

Including in-depth PDFs gives the AI much richer context to work with.

(If you want me to break down this workflow, just reply to this email with 'deep research').

Now, the AI knows exactly what you need.

And you end up with more tailored, accurate outputs that don’t sound like generic, bot-generated content.

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H = Humanness: Add reminders and raise the stakes

Let’s assume you’ve gone through this whole process - you’ve nailed the role, action, format, and context.

That’s a lot of information for the AI to process.

What most people don’t realise, is that AI can be quite similar to humans.

1. It can get ‘lost in the middle’ - paying more attention to the start and end of your prompt, and forgetting some details (many models are improving in this area)
2. It also responds to emotional cues and performance pressure

Here are some of my favourite ways to end my prompts:

• “Take this step by step”
• “Ask me any clarifying questions before answering.”
• “Don’t forget to include practical examples in each section.”
• “Don’t make up statistics. If you're unsure about any data, note that explicitly rather than guessing.”
• "Your careful analysis is essential to helping me prevent customer loss and potentially save my team from layoffs.”

This makes the model think before responding - and yes, improves the quality of the answer.

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Example

Let me show you how this all comes together with a real-world example that might just transform your personal life.

To save this dragging on for another 5 minutes, this is a shortened version, but I’ve included the full prompt for you to copy and paste as a bonus in the AI Prompt Playbook.

C (Character): "You are a holistic productivity and lifestyle design coach who specialises in helping busy professionals create balanced, sustainable life systems."

O (Outcome): "Create a comprehensive life optimisation plan that helps me balance my full-time work, relationships, health, and side hustle."

A (Architecture): "Format this as a weekly schedule template with daily routines, energy management strategies and habit stacking opportunities.”

C (Context): In this section you would add details about your current reality and goals for work, personal projects, health, relationships, time priorities and life values.

H (Humanness): "Create something sustainable that acknowledges my human need for flexibility and rest. The right system would dramatically reduce my daily stress and potentially save my relationship. Ask me any clarifying questions before answering."

You can grab the full prompt, plus 5 time-saving prompts I use on a daily basis, a COACH framework cheat sheet and more in the free AI Prompt Playbook here.

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Big disclaimer:

Before you go and spend 30 minutes writing the perfect prompt…

Be smart about when to use the full framework.

If it’s a quick brainstorm?

You might not need all five elements.

But for:

• Content
• Strategy
• Important emails
• Time or project planning
• Personal decision-making

It’s worth doing right.

Here’s a few strategies to avoid wasting too much time prompting:

1. Save your prompts:

Don’t start from scratch every time. Save the prompts, or even elements of the prompt, that you use again and again.

I use a Notion database for this to categorise my prompts.

But you could just start with a notes app on your phone.

(I’ve really been considering creating some kind of community or platform where we can all share the prompts that work. If this is something you’d be interested in, please let me know here - if there’s enough interest I’ll definitely invest the time in building it for all of us!)

2. Assess the impact:

If the task you're doing has limited impact, question whether it's worth taking the time to craft a prompt that covers the whole framework, or if a shorter version will do.

3. Iterate:

This is a guide, not a scientific method.

Create a prompt as a starting point. Then, based on the answers you receive, refine your approach over time.

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Ready to put this into action?

Here are your action steps for this week:

1. Download the AI Prompt Playbook​

Prompting takes practice, and it’s hard to start from scratch. I don’t want you to waste your time re-reading this newsletter every time you want to write a prompt. This guide will give you:

• The prompting checklist to refer to as you’re crafting your prompt, until you can do it from memory.
• 5 ready-to-use prompts that I use daily to save hours across the week.
• The full version of the bonus life optimisation prompt I shared in this newsletter.

2. Choose one high impact task that takes at least 30 minutes, even better if its something you do regularly

3. Draft a COACH prompt for that task, being extremely specific about the role, action, format, context and humanness.

4. Test and refine your prompt until you get a result that saves you time.

5. Save it, reuse it, and repeat with another task.

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Understanding how to speak the language of AI isn't just a nice-to-have skill anymore.

It's becoming essential for anyone who wants to stay productive and relevant in an increasingly AI-powered workplace.

The good news? You don't need to be a programmer or data scientist. You just need a framework. And now you have one.

P.S. A big life hack: Forward this to a friend or colleague. You can share your prompts and get double the results in half the time.

Looking for more resources?

You'll find all my Notion templates, courses and other free resources here.

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