This ChatGPT immediate turns rambling voice memos into clear to-do lists
Small-but-important duties by no means come to me once I’m really typing my each day to-do listing. As a substitute, they all the time hit me once I’m doing one thing else: taking a stroll, commuting to work, or different “useless instances” when my mind is free to wander.
One behavior of actually organized folks (I’m not one in all them, sadly) is to fireplace up a voice memo app and simply discuss. That’s usually when your greatest concepts come out, significantly when pertaining to each day duties. However who needs to plow by means of all these disjointed ramblings?
Nicely, ChatGPT, that’s who. Or some other respectable AI chatbot, like Claude or Gemini. All of them excel at taking massive information dumps—something from prolonged error logs to random stuff you stated whereas strolling within the park—and discovering order inside the chaos.
Now, you might merely activate the voice modes of ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini and discuss on to them about your each day to-dos. However AI voice modes are usually overly chatty, interrupting your trains of thought with undesirable reward (“You come across one thing profound, Ben!”) or pointless follow-up questions (“Would you want me to dig up evaluations for that plumber?”).
As a substitute, I like to recommend utilizing a standard voice memo app—Apple Notes will do, or Google Recorder for Android customers—after which handing a transcription of your musings to your most well-liked AI chatbot. You’ll additionally want a immediate {that a}) turns your ramblings into an organized to-do listing and b) extracts your ideas with out including the rest.
The great thing about this methodology is that it really works with any AI (not simply these with voice modes) and it additionally works wonderful with free AI accounts.
Right here’s the immediate, culled from quite a lot of variations on the internet:
Right here’s a tough voice observe I simply dictated—deal with it as messy, stream-of-consciousness enter. Don’t clear it up or rewrite it. As a substitute, simply extract:
1. Each concrete job or subsequent step I discussed
2. Each choice I have to make
3. Any thought I stated I needed to revisit or take into consideration later
Solely pull out what I really stated. Don’t add, counsel, or infer something new.
I attempted the immediate utilizing Apple Notes and all I did was discuss out loud, going over each potential job I might consider. Naturally, top-of-mind stuff got here first (“Um, first, I want to jot down the immediate of the week”), however different random to-dos popped into my head as effectively (“Oh, be sure that to get a pepper refill as a result of we’re working out of, uh, pepper”).
I then took the uncooked transcription and fed it to ChatGPT (utilizing the GPT-5.5 Immediate mannequin). In lower than a minute, my to-do listing arrived:
Right here’s what you really talked about, organized by class.
1. Concrete duties / subsequent steps
— Write the “immediate of the week.”
— Provide you with a subject for the weekly e-newsletter.
— Name the dermatologist about paying a invoice.
— Do a fast test of your financial institution accounts.
— Have a look at your listing of weekly dinners to resolve what to make for dinner tonight.
— Cost your Sonicare toothbrush.
— Begin packing on your journey to New Jersey this weekend.
— Get a pepper refill since you’re working low.
— Clear the tanks for the robotic vacuum cleaner.
— End the laundry.
— Look over the problem with BenBot and see if it must be adopted up.2. Choices you should make
— Resolve what to make for dinner tonight.
— Resolve whether or not the BenBot subject wants follow-up.
Not unhealthy, though I’d say selecting a e-newsletter subject belongs within the “selections you should make” part (cautious prompting might repair that).
Give it a strive, and don’t be afraid to tweak the immediate for free-flowing brainstorm classes. For further credit score, you might additionally use a connector to ship your to-dos to Notion or one other on-line workspace.
