Why it helps
Your best thinking often happens on the drive home, in the ute between jobs, or halfway through a meeting. Then it sits in a voice memo or a page of scribbles and nothing happens. Sorting it into a proper list is the step that gets skipped.
Paste your notes or a voice memo transcript into AI and ask it to pull out the actions, the decisions and the things you said you'd follow up. It's one of the quickest everyday wins, and it often spots the "I'll get back to you on that" you'd forgotten.
The prompt
Copy it, swap the bits in [square brackets], and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot.
Here are my messy notes from [today / a meeting with X / my drive home]. I'm in New Zealand, so use NZ English. Pull out: 1. A to-do list, most urgent first. If a due date or person is mentioned, include it. 2. Anything I said I'd follow up on with someone. 3. Anything that looks like a decision we made. 4. Questions I still need to answer. Keep it short and in plain English. Only use what's in my notes. Don't invent tasks, dates or names, and if something is unclear, put it under questions instead of guessing. Notes: [paste your notes or voice memo transcript here]
Then keep chatting
Group the to-do list by day for this week.
Write a short follow-up email to [person] covering what I said I'd do.
Which of these could I delegate or drop?
Turn this into a checklist I can paste into my notes app.
Step by step
- Get your notes in text form. Most phones can transcribe a voice memo, or you can use the voice input in the AI app itself.
- Swap full names for first names or initials if the notes mention clients, staff or family.
- Paste the notes into the prompt and run it.
- Skim the list against your notes. Check nothing important has been missed and nothing has been made up.
- Move the actions into wherever you actually work: your calendar, job app, notes app or a sticky note on the dash.
Worked example
Example details are made up. Your results will vary, so always read and check before you use them.
Watch out for
- Privacy: if the notes mention clients, staff or family, use first names or initials. Leave out phone numbers, addresses, health details and anything personal you wouldn't want stored somewhere else. The Privacy Act 2020 applies to information about your customers and staff (privacy.org.nz).
- Accuracy: AI can occasionally add a task or merge two together. A quick skim against your notes fixes that.
- Dates: check any deadlines yourself, especially official ones like rego, GST returns or tax dates. Check ird.govt.nz or nzta.govt.nz for those.
Go further
Make it a habit: one voice memo at the end of each day, one prompt, one list. If you run a team, try it after your weekly catch-up and send the list round so everyone knows who's doing what. The client meeting follow-up use case turns the same notes into a tidy email.
