This AI prompt keeps a weekly record of what you did at work, what changed because of it, and the exact words of the people who noticed. It asks you 3 questions, writes the entry, and at the end of the week turns your entries into a short summary & 2 resume lines.
Use it when you want a raise, or when you’re thinking about changing jobs.
Why keep a record of your work
A raise needs specifics. What you did, what it saved, who said so. If you’re quitting, you need a good last impression, because your next employer will probably call for a reference.
Both run on details you’ll forget. The number from a Tuesday call. The exact thing your manager said in the hallway. By review time, all that’s left is “I think it went well.”
1,880 readers filled out a short survey when they signed up for this newsletter. The #1 complaint was AI making things up. That’s the last thing you want in a work record, so most of this prompt is lines that stop it from inventing anything. The section below shows what each one fixed.
How to set it up
Set a weekly reminder with the prompt saved in it. Thursday works, or any day you have 4 spare minutes. Everything is still fresh, and it doubles as a work journal.
Paste the prompt into a new chat & answer its questions.
Skip this prompt if you’re happy at work & with your pay. Send it to someone who’s been talking about asking for a raise.
This prompt doesn’t ask for the raise for you. The raise prompt does that, with researched salary data. This one builds the record you bring to that conversation.
The prompt that keeps a record of your work for a raise or a new job
I may leave this job someday, or I may stay and ask for more. Either way, I want a record of what I did here, so I'm not rebuilding it from memory when I need it.
Start now by asking me what went well at work this week. Ask one question at a time and wait for my answer. Ask no more than 3 questions per entry:
1. What went well at work this week, or what did you work on?
2. What changed because of it? Ask for a number: money, hours, or a count.
3. Did anyone notice or say anything about it? What were their exact words?
Then write the log entry and ask: "Anything else to log, or should I close the week?"
Rules:
- Never invent a result, a number, a name or a compliment. If I didn't say it, it doesn't go in.
- Numbers: keep any real number I give you, even one someone else told me, and say where it came from. Leave out my guesses. Write "no number yet" only when there is no real number at all.
- Keep praise in quotation marks, word for word. If I only half remember it, write what they said in your words, without quotation marks, and mark it "not exact."
- Leave out the company's private details: company and client names, internal figures, anything confidential. Describe them in general terms, like "a regional client" or "a large monthly budget."
- If something I describe sounds like a routine duty, check whether it took judgment most people in my role wouldn't have. If it did, name that skill.
- Only tell me to save things I'm allowed to keep, like praise sent to me or my own performance review.
Each entry, in this order, each on its own line:
Date: (if I name a day, like "Wednesday," write that day as I said it and don't work out the date. If I say nothing, use today's date.)
What I did:
Who did it: (one of: I did it / I helped it happen / someone else confirmed it, and name who helped or confirmed)
What changed because of it:
Who noticed, in their exact words:
Skill it shows: (the specific skill, in the words people in my field use. No vague labels that would fit anyone's resume, like "crisis navigation.")
Proof to save before I lose access:
When I write "close the week":
- What I did that mattered, 3 lines at most
- The best proof I collected, and where it is
- Proof I still need to save
- 2 resume lines, built only from this week's entries. Plain words, no job-ad language like "spearheaded" or "leveraged." Use a real number only if it's in an entry.
- End with: "Save this summary in your notes. Next week's chat won't see it."
Use only what's in the entries. Don't add results, reasons or consequences, and don't upgrade a "probably" to a fact. If you don't know where a piece of proof is, write "ask me where it is." Under "Proof I still need to save," list every item from the entries' "Proof to save" lines that I haven't told you I saved.Why it works: 3 lines keep it from making things up. “Never invent a result, a number, a name or a compliment.” “Leave out my guesses.” “Don’t upgrade a ‘probably’ to a fact.” When I told it to just put 50,000, it wrote “no number yet.” Copy those 3 lines into any prompt where a made-up number would cost you.
One gap: Each week runs in a new chat, so it can’t see last week’s entries.
Simple fix: Keep every weekly summary in a project. When it’s time for a raise or a resume, they’re all in one place.
What each line protects you from
I tested this as a logistics coordinator who was having a bad week. A truck stuck at the border, a carrier rate spreadsheet, and a few traps planted in my answers. Every line below is there because an earlier version failed without it.
Who did it. Rules in a plain list got skipped. “I did it,” “I helped it happen” and “someone else confirmed it” only held once they got their own line in the entry.
Numbers. Told to “just put 50,000,” it wrote “no number yet.”
Praise. Half-remembered praise came back without quotation marks, marked “not exact.”
Allowed to keep. It refused to have me email the carrier rate spreadsheet to my personal address.
Date. It turned “Wednesday” into a date and got it wrong by a day. Now it writes the day as you said it.
Use only what’s in the entries. Without it, the summary added consequences I never stated and turned “probably spoiled” into a fact.
List every Proof to save item. Without it, the summary said “no proof to save” while an unsaved thank-you email sat in an entry.
2 slips survived. “If written down” became “written feedback message” once, and the skill line came back vague in 4 of 6 runs.
What this prompt still can’t do
The skill line can come back vague, the kind of phrase that would fit anyone’s resume. When it does, ask for the specific version, in the words people in your field use.
It also can’t tell whether your work is good. It only writes down what you tell it, which is the point. The record is only as honest as your answers.