You ask AI to help with an email. It gives you a polished draft, but the tone is wrong, it misses the point, and it promises something you never agreed to.
Now you’re rewriting the email you wanted help with.
It’s tempting to hand AI a task and expect a finished product. But if you haven’t explained what you want or checked what it gives you, you’ve skipped the parts that make the result useful to you.
That’s the idea behind the 60% Handoff Rule:
- Your first 20%: Define the intention, goal, what great looks like to you, and the guardrails.
- AI’s middle 60%: Let it research, organize, draft, or build from that direction.
- Your final 20%: Read the result, review it, and refine it before approving the finished product.
Think of the percentages as a way to divide responsibility, rather than a stopwatch. Some tasks need more preparation or more review.
You can’t skip your 40% and expect AI to know what quality means to you. A lot of frustration starts there: expecting a useful result without providing clear direction or making time to finish it.
Your first 20%: define the work
Start with a task you can describe in a sentence. Then add the details that would help someone else do it for you:
- The intention and goal: Why are you doing this, and what should happen as a result?
- What great looks like to you: What would make the finished work useful? Specify the format, tone, level of detail, or an example to follow.
- The context: Who is it for, and what does it need to know?
- The source material: Supply the notes, messages, documents, or data it should use.
- The guardrails: What must it include? What should it leave alone, avoid, or ask you about first?
For example, say a client asks for two extra website pages that aren’t in the agreed scope. Your goal is to offer a separate quote. A great reply would be friendly, direct, and clear that the extra work costs extra. Your guardrails: don’t invent a price, promise a delivery date, or apologize for charging for the work.
Those are the decisions you bring to the task. Give AI the client’s email along with that direction.
AI’s middle 60%: do the work
Once you’ve provided the direction and source material, let AI produce the draft, organize the information, or work through the task you’ve assigned.
In the email example, its job is to turn your instructions into a clear reply. You’ve already decided the outcome: offer a separate quote without promising a price or delivery date.
Give it room to do that work. You don’t have to write every sentence yourself before it can help.
Ask it to flag missing information instead of filling the gaps. For the client email, an unknown price should stay unknown until you decide it.
Your final 20%: read, review, and refine
An answer can read well and still be wrong. Before you send, publish, or rely on it, check:
- Are the names, dates, numbers, and other facts correct?
- Did it add a promise, claim, or detail you didn’t give it?
- Does it answer the question or complete the task?
- If someone else will read it, does it sound like something you’d say?
For the client email, make sure the reply doesn’t imply that the extra pages are included. Check that it asks about a quote without committing you to a price or deadline.
Then refine what needs work. “Make it better” gives it another guessing job. Try “Remove the first paragraph and make the request for a decision clearer.” Or “Keep the wording, but put the action items in a checklist.”
If it misses a key detail, add that detail. If it misunderstands the task, correct the misunderstanding. Read the revised version too; asking for changes isn’t the same as checking that they’re right.
Nothing leaves with your name on it until you approve it. Read the finished version, make any needed changes, and decide whether it’s ready to use.
The 60% Handoff Prompt
Think of the handoff like a sandwich: your first 20% is the top slice, AI’s middle 60% is the filling, and your final 20% is the bottom slice. The prompt below puts all three parts together. Copy it, fill in your first 20%, and give the whole thing to AI.
MY FIRST 20% — intention, goal, and direction:
- The task: [what you want done, e.g. turn these notes into a client-ready recap]
- My intention and goal: [why I'm doing this and what I want to happen as a result]
- What great looks like to me: [the finished result I'd approve, e.g. one page, my voice, clear next steps, no jargon]
- Must include: [anything it has to have]
- My guardrails: [what's off-limits, e.g. don't invent facts, change my numbers, or make promises I haven't approved]
- What you have to work with: [paste the notes, thread, transcript, or data]
YOUR MIDDLE 60% — do the work:
1. If anything is unclear, ask me up to 3 questions first. Otherwise, start.
2. Do the task using my goal, definition of great, and guardrails. Give me TWO versions: one safe, one bolder.
3. At the end, list anything you assumed, were unsure about, or couldn't verify. Don't invent facts to fill gaps.
MY FINAL 20% — read, review, refine, and approve:
I'll read both versions, check the facts and whether they meet my goal, and pick one to refine.
I'll tell you what to change. Make only those edits, then stop so I can review the finished version.
The work is finished when I approve it. Don't send or publish it on my behalf.When AI returns the two versions, read them, choose the one that fits, and ask for any changes. Review the revised version before approving it. That’s your final 20%.
15 tasks to try
Pick one you already need to do. Each example tells you what to provide, what to ask for, and what to check.
Emails, meetings, and documents
- Reply to an email. Paste the thread and explain the outcome you want. Ask for a draft. Check its tone and any commitments before sending.
- Organize messy notes. Supply the notes and say whether you need a brief, checklist, or process document. Check that it kept the important details.
- Pull action items from a meeting. Give it the transcript. Ask for decisions, tasks, owners, and deadlines, with missing details marked as unknown. Compare the list with the source.
- Prepare for a meeting. Provide the purpose, attendees, and relevant background. Ask for an agenda and questions to discuss. Remove anything that doesn’t belong in this meeting.
- Reformat a list. Give it the list and one example of the format you want. Check that entries weren’t dropped, duplicated, or changed.
Content and communication
- Turn a video into draft posts. Provide the transcript and specify the posts you need. Check that the drafts reflect what you actually said.
- Outline an article. Name the topic, reader, and point you want to make. Ask for an outline. Remove sections that don’t support your point.
- Research a topic before writing. Ask for sources supporting the points you want to cover. Open those sources and check that they support the claims.
- Draft alt text for an image. Provide the image or a description and explain where it will appear. Check that the result accurately describes what’s relevant.
- Draft replies to comments or DMs. Supply the messages and examples of your tone. Review each reply before sending, especially anything about your offers or availability.
Planning and everyday admin
- Compare options. List the choices and what matters to you, such as price or ease of use. Ask for a comparison. Verify the details that will affect your decision.
- Break down a project. Describe the goal, deadline, and what you’ve already done. Ask for ordered steps. Adjust the plan to fit your actual time and resources.
- Prepare information for a recurring form. Supply the current information and required fields. Ask for a draft you can transfer into the form. Check each entry before submitting.
- Make a packing or grocery list. Give it the trip details or meal plan, including what you already have. Check quantities and anything it missed.
- Understand a dense document. Provide the document and ask for a plain-English explanation, with references to the relevant sections. Use it to identify questions to follow up on, then check the answers against the original.
Start with one task
Choose something small enough that you can check the result yourself. An email you’ve been putting off or a set of messy notes is a useful place to start.
Do your first 20%: explain the goal, what great looks like, and the guardrails. Hand over the middle 60%. Then do your final 20%: read, review, refine, and approve.
When you get something useful, save the instructions so you can adapt them next time.