Takes an overloaded list and sorts it into what actually ships, what gets dropped on purpose, and what someone needs to be told — instead of pretending it all fits.
This does not all fit. Help me choose rather than pretend. EVERYTHING ON MY LIST: {{LIST}} TIME I ACTUALLY HAVE: {{TIME}} HARD DEADLINES AND PEOPLE WAITING: {{CONSEQUENCES}} Sort everything into exactly four groups: **Ships this week.** What fits in the hours I gave you, in the order I should do it. Include a rough time estimate per item and total it — if the total exceeds my hours, cut until it doesn't. **Unblocks someone else.** Anything where a person is waiting on me. These usually cost me minutes and cost them days, so they go early even if they feel unimportant. **Dropped on purpose.** Things I am consciously not doing. Not "later" — dropped. For each, one line on what happens as a result. **Someone needs to know.** Which dropped or delayed items require me to tell a specific person, and the one-sentence message. Rules: - Do not create a fifth "if there's time" bucket. There is no time. - Do not tell me to wake up earlier, timebox, or use a productivity system. - If something on my list is not actually mine to do, say so. - If the hard deadlines alone exceed my hours, lead with that.
Tools for this prompt
Where the input below comes from. The ones marked needed change the output a lot — fallbacks for each are further down.
This prompt is only as good as what you feed it. Web search covers anything public — these are the inputs it can't reach.
Everything genuinely assigned to you, which is usually more than your own list.
Don't have it: Ask the user to paste their list; note it may be less complete than the tracker.
Only tools that web search cannot replace are listed. Anything public — reviews, job ads, papers, salary data — an agent can already fetch, so it is not listed here. No paid placements or affiliate links; if that changes, this line will say so.
A prompt is a skill with the serial numbers filed off. Install it once and your agent reaches for it on its own.
Paste this into ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or whatever you use:
Install the triage-a-week-you-cant-finish skill globally from https://promptsbuddy.com/prompts/triage-a-week-you-cant-finish/skill.md.claude/skills/triage-a-week-you-cant-finish/SKILL.md
---
name: triage-a-week-you-cant-finish
description: "Takes an overloaded list and sorts it into what actually ships, what gets dropped on purpose, and what someone needs to be told — instead of pretending it all fits. Use when the user asks for help with productivity tasks like productivity, planning, prioritisation."
license: CC-BY-4.0
metadata:
source: https://promptsbuddy.com/prompts/triage-a-week-you-cant-finish
author: "Sam Reyes"
version: "1.0"
---
# Triage a week you can't possibly finish
Takes an overloaded list and sorts it into what actually ships, what gets dropped on purpose, and what someone needs to be told — instead of pretending it all fits.
## Inputs to collect first
Ask the user for anything below that they have not already given you. Do not
invent values for these.
- `LIST` — Everything on your plate, dumped in any order. (e.g. Paste your todo list, inbox flags, and the things you're carrying in your head.)
- `TIME` — Honestly available hours, after meetings and interruptions. (e.g. Maybe 11 focused hours across the week; Tuesday is entirely meetings.)
- `CONSEQUENCES` — Anything with a hard deadline or a person waiting on it. (e.g. The board deck is Thursday. Two people are blocked on my review.)
## Tools this works with
Do not require any of these. If one is unavailable, use the stated fallback and
say which input is missing rather than inventing it.
- **Linear** — Everything genuinely assigned to you, which is usually more than your own list.
- Without it: Ask the user to paste their list; note it may be less complete than the tracker.
- https://linear.app/
## Instructions
This does not all fit. Help me choose rather than pretend.
EVERYTHING ON MY LIST:
{{LIST}}
TIME I ACTUALLY HAVE: {{TIME}}
HARD DEADLINES AND PEOPLE WAITING: {{CONSEQUENCES}}
Sort everything into exactly four groups:
**Ships this week.** What fits in the hours I gave you, in the order I should
do it. Include a rough time estimate per item and total it — if the total
exceeds my hours, cut until it doesn't.
**Unblocks someone else.** Anything where a person is waiting on me. These
usually cost me minutes and cost them days, so they go early even if they feel
unimportant.
**Dropped on purpose.** Things I am consciously not doing. Not "later" —
dropped. For each, one line on what happens as a result.
**Someone needs to know.** Which dropped or delayed items require me to tell a
specific person, and the one-sentence message.
Rules:
- Do not create a fifth "if there's time" bucket. There is no time.
- Do not tell me to wake up earlier, timebox, or use a productivity system.
- If something on my list is not actually mine to do, say so.
- If the hard deadlines alone exceed my hours, lead with that.
## Notes from people who use this
- 'Unblocks someone else' is the group people systematically under-rate. Ten minutes of yours can be two days of theirs.
- The fourth group is the one that saves you. A dropped task nobody was told about is how trust goes.
- Be honest about TIME. Padding it just moves the failure to Friday.
---
Triage a week you can't possibly finish · by Sam Reyes · v1.0
From PromptsBuddy — https://promptsbuddy.com/prompts/triage-a-week-you-cant-finish
Licensed CC BY 4.0.
Every prompt is also available at /prompts/triage-a-week-you-cant-finish/skill.md — see all install options.
"Later" is where tasks go to quietly rot while still occupying attention. Forcing a dropped bucket, with a stated consequence, converts an anxious backlog into a decision you have actually made — and one you can defend if asked.
The last group is what separates this from a to-do list exercise. Most of the damage from an overloaded week is not the undone work; it is the person who found out too late that it was not coming.
For when the date won't move. Sorts the plan into what ships, what waits, and what quietly gets cancelled — and names what breaks for users in each case.
Lena FischerTurns a week of scattered notes into an honest account of where the time went, what moved, and the one thing worth protecting next week.
Rony