You are about to walk into a meeting. You know the general topic but not the details. You have 8 minutes. You could skim the last email thread and hope you sound prepared. Or you could run a 3-prompt sequence that gives you a strategic brief, the 3 questions most likely to come up, and a clear recommendation you can deliver if someone turns to you and says “what do you think?”
The Problem with Meeting Prep
Most professionals prepare for meetings by re-reading. They open the last email thread, scan the shared doc, maybe check Slack for context. This takes 15–20 minutes and produces a vague sense of familiarity. You know what happened. You do not know what to say.
The issue is that reading is passive. You absorb information but you do not organize it into decisions. When someone asks your opinion, you end up summarizing what you read instead of recommending a direction. You sound informed but not decisive.
The fix is to replace reading with structured extraction. Instead of absorbing everything, you pull out exactly 3 things: the current state, the open question, and your recommendation. That is all you need.
The Context Brief (60 seconds)
Copy-paste whatever context you have — the calendar invite, the last email thread, a Slack snippet, meeting notes from last time. Then use this prompt:
I have a meeting in [X minutes] about [topic]. Here is the context: [paste context] Give me a 5-sentence brief: 1. What is this meeting actually about (not the calendar title — the real purpose) 2. What was decided last time (if applicable) 3. What is the open question or decision that needs to be made 4. Who has the strongest opinion and which direction are they leaning 5. What is the one thing I should NOT say (political landmine or resolved debate)
Why this works: It forces the AI to extract the subtext, not just summarize the text. The calendar invite says “Q2 Planning Sync.” The brief tells you “Sarah wants to cut the infrastructure budget by 30% and needs buy-in from your team.”
The difference: Being in the meeting vs. being ready for the meeting.
The 3 Questions (60 seconds)
This is where most people get caught off guard. They know the topic but not the specific questions. When you answer immediately with a clear yes/no and a condition, it looks like you planned for this.
Based on this brief, what are the 3 questions most likely to be directed at me or my team? For each one, give me: - The question (as it would actually be phrased in conversation) - Why they are asking (the real concern behind the question) - A 2-sentence answer that is direct and commits to a position
The test: When someone asks “Can your team absorb the analytics work if we cut that contractor?” and you hesitate, it looks like you have not thought about it. When you answer immediately with a clear yes/no and a condition, it looks like you planned for this.
Your Recommendation (60 seconds)
Most people in meetings either stay quiet or say something vague like “I think we need to think about this more carefully.” Neither is useful. A prepared recommendation — even if it is wrong — positions you as someone who thinks ahead.
If someone asks me “what do you think we should do?” during this meeting, what should I say? Give me a 3-sentence recommendation that: 1. Acknowledges the constraint (shows I understand the problem) 2. Proposes a specific direction (not “it depends”) 3. Includes one condition or caveat (shows I have thought about risk)
Why it works: The caveat protects you if circumstances change. You sound decisive and thoughtful. That is the combination that gets you invited to the next meeting.
When to Use This
The Compound Effect
The first time you use this, you save 10 minutes and sound slightly more prepared. After a month of using it, something else happens: you start thinking in this structure naturally. You walk into meetings already thinking about the open question, the likely questions, and your recommendation.
This is the pattern across every issue of The AI Playbook. The prompts are not shortcuts — they are training wheels for a way of thinking. Eventually you will not need the prompts. But you will keep the structure.
15–20 min of passive reading Replaced with 5 min of structured prep
Walk in with a recommendation — not just familiarity with the topic.
Try It Today
Pick your next meeting. Any meeting. Run the 3 prompts before you walk in. Pay attention to how different it feels when someone asks your opinion and you already have an answer.
Then reply to this email and tell me how it went. I read every response.
The Contract Decoder: How I turned a 40-page contract into a 1-page decision brief in 8 minutes — and the prompt that catches what lawyers miss.