Wise Women Use AI Wise Women Use AI Free guide

Wise Women Use AI  ·  Free guide

Decide what to keep, drop and focus on next

You have been busy. Now give yourself a moment to see what the work has produced and what you want to change. These four prompts hand the heavy lifting to Claude: what worked, what drained you, what to drop, and what to focus on next. One sitting, one cup of tea, and you finish with a one-page plan instead of a vague sense of guilt.

I run my own business on good systems now, so a review like this is a cup of tea and a sitting, not a lost weekend.

You'll need a Claude account, and the free one at claude.ai is fine. Run all four prompts in the same chat, and if typing's not your thing, tap the microphone and talk.

Choose your own review period. Look back over a month, quarter or half-year, then choose the period you want to plan.

Get the four review prompts

Pop your email in and the whole review unlocks right here on the page: how to run it in one sitting, plus all four prompts ready to copy.

Free. Unsubscribe any time.

One email, and it all opens on this page. Nothing to download, nothing to wait for.

The quick version

Why this works when the usual review doesn't

Most of us skip the business review because it feels like homework. Spreadsheets, judgement, a whole day you don't have. So the year keeps rolling and every win, worry and half-finished thing stays in your head, where it weighs the most. This one is different because you don't do the heavy lifting. You talk, Claude sorts. You decide, Claude writes it down. Four prompts, run in order, in one chat. You finish with a one-page plan for your chosen planning period, and that's the advantage we never used to have: a second brain that holds all of it, so yours doesn't have to.

One sitting, four steps

The four prompts

Open one new chat in Claude and run these in order, copy, paste, answer. Keep the same chat for all four so it remembers everything as you go.

1

Get the recent work out of your head

Start here, and don't tidy anything first. You tell Claude everything you can remember about the period you are reviewing, in whatever order it comes out, and it does the sorting. If typing feels like work, tap the microphone and just talk. Rambling is allowed. Rambling is the point.

The prompt
I run my own business and I'm doing a calm business review with you. This is step one: reviewing [start date] to [end date]. I want to plan [the next month, quarter or half-year]. Ask me for these dates if I have not filled them in. I'm going to tell you everything I can remember about the period you are reviewing. The wins, the flops, the half-finished things, the clients, the money moments, the weeks that disappeared. Don't fix anything yet, just take it in. If I speak instead of type, treat the rambling exactly the same. When I'm done, sort what I said into four lists: what went well, what drained me, what I started and never finished, and what I keep saying I'll do but haven't. Then ask me up to five questions to fill the gaps, one at a time, and update the lists. Hold onto them, we'll use them for the rest of the review. Ready? Here is what happened in that period:
2

Sort what's working from what just looks busy

This is the step we never do on our own, because it means admitting some of the busyness produced nothing. Claude has no feelings about your Instagram grid or that offer you spent three weekends on, so it can say the quiet part kindly and plainly.

The prompt
Step two of my business review. Using the four lists from step one, help me see what's actually working. Go through what went well and tell me what those things have in common: which kind of work, which kind of client, which offer, which price. Then look at everything else and be honest about what kept me busy without really producing money, energy or momentum. Give me two short lists: "more of this" and "this was noise". For anything on the noise list, tell me plainly why it's there. If you need rough numbers to judge something, ask me rather than guessing. Close enough is fine. This is a compass, not a tax return.
3

Decide what to drop, shrink or hand over

Here's where the headspace comes back. You're used to carrying all of it, so you'll defend things out of habit. This prompt asks Claude to push back gently, and to name what each thing actually costs you every week you keep it.

The prompt
Step three: the drop list. Take everything from this review so far and help me decide what I'll stop doing, shrink down, or hand over for the period ahead. Push me a little here. I'm used to carrying all of it, so I'll defend things out of habit. For each thing you suggest dropping, tell me what it costs me each week, what would honestly happen if it stopped, and what I could do with the room it frees up. For anything that can't be dropped but drains me, suggest how AI could carry part of it. Be specific about what I'd hand over and what stays mine. Suggest only changes the evidence supports. Write down the reasons so I can choose what to stop, reduce or hand over without quietly picking it all back up.
4

Choose the next focus

The finish line. One focus for the period ahead, milestones that fit around a real life, the very next action for this week, and the whole review written up as one page you keep. Set a date to come back to this page and review what happened.

The prompt
Last step: choose the next focus. From everything in this review, give me one clear focus for the period ahead, the single thing that would make the biggest difference if it got most of my attention. Break my chosen planning period into a few milestones. Ask about fixed commitments and the time I actually have. Do not assume I have six months or an empty calendar. Under the first milestone, give me the very next action for this week, small enough to do in under an hour. Then write the whole review up as one page I can keep: what worked, what I dropped, my focus, my milestones and my next action. Dated, warm, in my words, no corporate speak. That page is the whole point. Ask me when I want to review it again and include that date.

The review is one sitting. The system is the year.

Inside Architect Advantage we take what this review surfaced and build your business a proper home, month by month, in the Your Business HQ classroom. Keep the record somewhere you can return to, alongside the work you want to improve.

See Architect Advantage

Not ready for that yet? Come into the free community first, no commitment.