If you keep rewriting the same request four or five times before it lands, the problem usually isn't the AI. It's that the first version gave it a topic, not a brief.
01Why the first draft misses
"Write me an email about the schedule change" is a topic. AI has to guess the tone, the length, who's reading it, and what you actually want them to do. Guessing is where the five rewrites come from.
02The six-line brief
Fill in six short lines instead, and most of the guessing disappears.
The six-line brief
WHAT I NEED
[The thing itself: an email, a summary, a plan.]
WHO IT'S FOR
[Who reads or uses this, and what they already know.]
WHAT IT NEEDS TO ACCOMPLISH
[The one outcome. What should happen after they read it.]
LENGTH
[A number, or "as short as possible."]
TONE
[Plain and direct. / Warm. / Formal.]
ANYTHING TO AVOID
[A phrase, a topic, a tone you don't want.]Delete any line that doesn't apply. Six lines filled in beats sixty words of vague description.
03Keep it, don't rewrite it from scratch
Save this as a template. Next time, you're editing six short lines instead of writing a paragraph explaining yourself from nothing.
⚠ Watch out for
- More detail isn't always better. Six specific lines outperform two paragraphs of context every time.
- The first draft still needs a read. A good brief gets you closer faster, not a finished product without a look.