# Your First Real Task: the 30-minute worksheet

From Distru's No Bullshit AI Course, lesson 01-04 (learnai.distru.com). CC0 1.0: copy, edit, share.
Version 1.0, September 2026. The standing-instructions block and the chore prompt were run in Claude Projects and a ChatGPT project against a redacted supplier price sheet and a Monday restock list; both tools accepted the block as-is.

One chore. One workspace. Three timed runs. Then a decision. Fill the blanks as you go; the whole sheet is done in 30 minutes.

## 1. Pick the chore (5 minutes)

A good first chore ticks every box:

- [ ] You do it at least weekly.
- [ ] Text goes in, text comes out (an email, a summary, a rewritten sheet, a narrative).
- [ ] You can tell in under a minute whether the output is right.
- [ ] Nothing in it is secret: no passwords, no customer IDs, no patient information. (Lesson 01-03.)
- [ ] A wrong answer costs you an edit, not a fine.

Good first chores we have seen work: the Monday restock email to a supplier; a plain-English summary of last week's returns from the returns log; rewriting a vendor's messy price sheet into your column names; turning count-sheet notes into an inventory adjustment narrative; turning a Metrc bulletin into "what changes for us, by Friday".

Bad first chores: anything where a number goes straight to the state; anything that needs your live inventory; anything with a customer's name in it.

My chore: ________________________________________________

How long it takes me by hand today (honest guess): ______ minutes

## 2. Set up the workspace once (10 minutes)

Most chat tools have a "project" feature: a saved space with standing instructions and files that load every time you open it. Create one, name it after the chore, and paste this in as the instructions. Edit every bracket.

```
You work for [company], a licensed cannabis [cultivator / distributor / retailer] in [state].
Units: weights in grams unless I say otherwise; 1 lb = 453.592 g. Dates as YYYY-MM-DD.
Our product categories, exactly as we name them: [flower, pre-rolls, vapes, edibles, ...].
Tone for anything I will send to a person: short, direct, one line of pleasantry at most.
Match the two example emails in the attached files.

Rules that always apply:
1. Use only the information I gave you. If something is missing, write MISSING instead of guessing.
2. Never state a Metrc rule, tag, price or total that is not in the material I pasted.
3. No medical, health or effect claims about any product, ever.
4. When I paste a file, tell me in one line what you think it is before you use it.
```

Attach, as files, only what the chore needs: the current price list, the SOP for this chore if you have one, and one redacted example of a good output from last time. Keep the total small; everything you attach is re-read on every message.

## 3. Run it three times (15 minutes)

Use the same prompt each time, with that week's real input. Start the clock when you open the project, stop it when you have checked the output and would actually send or use it.

```
Here is this week's [restock list / returns log / price sheet / count notes]:

[paste]

Do the [chore] exactly as the standing instructions say.
Then list, in one line each, anything you had to assume.
```

| Run | Input used | Minutes (including your checking) | Mistakes you caught | Kept the output? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| By hand | | | | |
| 1 | | | | |
| 2 | | | | |
| 3 | | | | |

After each run, fix the standing instructions, not the prompt. If it kept getting a unit wrong, the unit rule goes in the instructions. If it kept inventing a supplier detail, add the supplier sheet as a file.

## 4. Decide (2 minutes)

- Run 3 faster than by hand, including checking: **keep it.** Write "open the [chore] project, paste the list, check the output" into your SOP.
- Run 3 about the same: **drop it.** Pick a different chore next week. This one was not the right shape.
- Run 3 slower: the chore probably has a lookup in it (a fact the AI does not have) or the output is hard to check. Both are fixable later; not this week.

The only bad outcome is running it once, being impressed, and never timing it.