This post is running compilation of all of the Thursday Things Tech Tips from May 8th, 2025 to present sorted by reverse chronological order.

For older tech tips, check out: ccingmyea.vimcal.com/p/all-tech-tips-part-1.

This way you don’t have to dig through your old emails just to search for a specific tech tip you wanted a refresher on. 👍

The fastest way to get useful feedback: “Score it out of 10.” (3/26/2026)

I know this isn’t necessarily a “tech” tip, but it’s important enough that I’m sharing it anyway. (Let me know if you want more of these?)

Have you ever asked your exec “Any feedback?” and gotten:

• “Looks good” (but then they change everything later)

  or

• “Not quite” (but with zero specifics)

Instead, ask them to score it out of 10.

Then (this is the important part) ask: “What would make it a 10?”

That’s it.

Why this works: your definition of “perfect” might be totally different from theirs. “What makes it a 10” forces them to show you what good actually looks like in their head, so you no longer have to guess.

Get better names from AI by giving context + a “safe → unhinged” scale (3/19/2026)

Whenever I ask my AI tools for ideas, especially around names or themes, I use one trick that consistently improves the output:

1. I give it way more context than feels necessary (what it is, who it’s for, what it should feel like, any words to avoid, examples I like).

2. Then I ask for 10 options ranked from 1 to 10, where:

   1. 1 = safest / most corporate

   2. 10 = totally unhinged (no company would ever ship it)

Why it works: the 1→10 scale forces it to explore a range of creative ides instead of staying bland.

Here’s an example prompt of what this may look like:

I need help naming something.

Context:
- What it is: [describe it clearly]
- Who it’s for: [audience]
- What it does / why it matters: [plain English]
- Vibe: [fun/serious/premium/playful/etc.]
- Words/themes to include: [optional]
- Words/themes to avoid: [optional]
- Examples I like (and why): [optional]
- Examples I hate (and why): [optional]

Task:
Give me 10 name ideas ranked from 1–10.
- 1 should be the safest, most straightforward option.
- 10 should be so absurd that no corporation in their right mind would ever use it.
- Make each step slightly bolder than the last.

Even if you never use #10, it usually unlocks a #6–#8 that’s way more memorable than a normal brainstorm.

Slack: Jump to any channel or DM instantly (3/12/2026)

If you’re like me and constantly looking for Slack channels that keep disappearing from the sidebar, you might find this shortcut a lifesaver!

Just press:

• Mac: ⌘ + K

• Windows: Ctrl + K

That opens Slack’s search bar. You can then start typing a person or channel’s name and it’ll pop right up!

No more dragging the mouse and clicking the search box :)

New Vimcal EA feature: Agenda Generator (3/5/2026)

For today’s tech tip, I wanted to share a new feature we literally just launched in Vimcal EA that might be useful if you're ever asked by your exec to create a daily or weekly agenda.

It’s called Agenda Generator, and it generates a copy-pasteable version of your exec's schedule straight from their calendar (instead of you having to manually type everything out).

You’ll find it under Quick Actions in Vimcal EA’s side panel.

If you want to check out what else a calendar built specifically for Executive Assistants has to offer (I mean, “EA” is literally in the name 😉), you can sign up for a free intro call at: vimcal.com/ea!

Quickly unsubscribe from emails (2/26/2026)

I’ll let the following Threads post do all the talking this week:

Just visit mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#sub

Tech Tip: Tell ChatGPT to ask clarifying questions first (so it stops hallucinating) (2/19/2026)

ChatGPT has one default mode: be helpful fast.

That means if you give it a vague task, it’ll often choose a path, commit to it, and answer with full confidence, even when it’s missing key context.

And when it hallucinates, that’s usually not “AI being dumb.” It’s a signal that you didn’t give it enough information, so it fabricated something to fill in its gaps of understanding.

The fix is simple: give it permission to ask questions before it answers.

Copy/paste this at the end of your next prompt:

You’ll be shocked how much better the output gets when you force ChatGPT to interview you first.

Pro tip: make it your default (Custom Instructions)

If you’re tired of typing that line every time, you can add it to your settings:

• ChatGPT → Settings → Personalization → Custom Instructions

Then paste something like this into “How would you like ChatGPT to respond?”:

Always ask clarifying questions before completing a task if any details are missing. If you’re not sure, do not hallucinate—ask.

Quick note: This doesn’t work 100% of the time… but doesn’t hurt to add anyways.

ChatGPT Personalization = your “cheat sheet” drawer (2/12/2026)

(Tech Tip credit to an EA from our AEST ChatGPT office hours last night!)

If you’re always digging for the same details (office address, exec travel prefs, RSVP email, Zoom links), you can stash them once and just ask for them later.

Set it up (60 seconds)

1. ChatGPT → Settings → Personalization

2. In More about you, paste the facts you always forget but often need.

   Examples: office address, team support emails, legal entity name, EIN (if appropriate), Wi-Fi network/password for guests, exec’s seat/meal prefs, key calendar links.

Use it

• “What’s our office address again?”

• “Remind me of our guest Wi-Fi details.”

• “What are my boss’s travel preferences?”

ChatGPT will answer instantly.

This effectively gives you one centralized drawer for all your frequently copy-pasted info without hunting through old emails.

Friendly caution

Don’t store anything truly sensitive you wouldn’t put in a shared team doc (e.g., personal banking, medical info). Stick to work logistics and reference details.

Calendar search bar for time zones (2/5/2026)

Has anyone else felt like this before?

If that sounds like you, I have to encourage you to check out Vimcal EA!

The time zones search bar was quite literally one of our very first features and is still top 3 most popular to this day.

No pressure but if your interest is piqued, you can schedule an intro call to try it out for free at: vimcal.com/ea.

Multiple highlights at once in Google Docs! (1/29/2026)

I discovered this today and am weirdly excited about it. Long story short, did you know you can select non-adjacent bits of text and format them all at once??

For example, check out this Google Doc of mine where I have totally separate lines highlighted!

How to do it

• Mac: Hold ⌘ (Command) while you click-and-drag to select the first phrase… keep holding ⌘ and drag over a second (or third) phrase.

• Windows/ChromeOS: Hold Ctrl while you click-and-drag each separate selection.

Now any action you take (Highlight, Bold, Change color, Add link) applies to all selected spots at once.

It’s especially great for cleaning up repeated headings, fixing typos in multiple places, or highlighting key takeaways across a doc.

Disclaimer: I’ve only seen this work in Google Docs and it doesn’t seem like it’s supported in most other apps. 😕

How I use Instagram (without getting sucked in) (1/22/2026)

Social gets a bad rep for being addictive. Fair. But it’s still just a tool. Here’s how I use IG to keep up with people I love without losing 45 minutes to the scroll.

My rules:

1. If it makes me feel something, I react

   1. Heart it, drop a short comment, let them know I’m happy they’re doing well

2. I tap stories by face, not by FOMO

   1. If a friend’s bubble catches my eye, I watch it

3. I close the app on the first ad

   1. The moment I see an ad, I’m out. If I scroll past it, I know I’m not “keeping up” anymore, I’m just feeding the slot machine

That’s literally it. Five minutes tops, I still feel connected, and I don’t need to detox from my phone afterward.

Extra tip: I make sure to turn off ALL Instagram notifications in their in-app settings except for DMs.

It’s time for a Notifications Audit (start 2026 with a quiet phone) (1/1/2026)

If your lock screen looks like this…

It’s time to set aside 30 min to adjust your notification settings so only the “need-to-see-now” alerts are on (everything else can wait). Just set it once and you’ll feel it all year.

Level 1: Silence the obvious noise

Just go to your phone’s Notifications settings and scroll through every (and I mean literally every) app. Make sure to turn off “Allow Notifications” for every non-essential app. I’m talking Amazon, Facebook, Spotify, YouTube, Zoom. What critical notifications are you actually going to receive from them?

Level 2: Tune the important apps

Go into each app’s notification settings (e.g. You can set Slack to just notify you about Mentions and direct message instead of literally Everything ) and only allow the truly important notifications through.

Level 3: Customize your alerts

This is going a little deep but you can really customize your notification settings by only allowing certain apps to show up on your Lock Screen vs Notification Center vs Banners, not to mention toggling Sounds or even Badges (the little red number next to your home screen’s apps). Go even crazier with Do Not Disturb schedules where you only allow Favorite apps to break through.

I promise that even only just doing Level 1 will change your life for the better…. seriously! This is how I literally never miss any notifications — if there aren’t that many to begin with, it’s hard to miss the important ones!

Search one site perfectly with “site:” (12/25/2025)

Tired of a website’s poorly built search box? Use Google’s “site:” operator to search just that site instead.

How it works

In Google or your search bar, type: site:domain.com keywords

Examples:

• site:youtube.com Christmas music

  • This searches YouTube for Christmas music

• site:linkedin.com "Executive Assistant to the CEO"

  • This will search LinkedIn for only content that has the exact phrase "Executive Assistant to the CEO"

Once you get used to this, you’ll never need to use a site’s janky search box again!

Bulk-rename files (12/18/2025)

Stop renaming one file at a time. Batch it, keep things ordered, and make your folder look professionally organized.

Mac (Finder)

1. Select the files (Shift-click for a range, ⌘-click for picks).

2. Right-click → Rename…

3. Choose:

   1. Replace Text — swap parts (e.g., final → v2)

   2. Add Text — prepend “Board – ” or append “ – Draft”

   3. Format — set a base name + automatic numbers (Name and Counter/Index/Date)

Mac pro tips

• Sort first (by Name/Date) — that order is how numbers apply.

• Use Format → Name and Counter to get 01, 02, 03…

• Don’t edit file extensions; leave .pdf, .pptx intact.

Windows (File Explorer)

1. Select files in the order you want numbered.

2. Press F2, type a base name (e.g., Board Packet), press Enter.

   → Windows auto-numbers: Board Packet (1).pdf, Board Packet (2).pdf, …

Windows pro tips

• Control the numbering by Ctrl-clicking files in the exact sequence before pressing F2.

• Need leading zeros? Name them with counters in a second pass (or use PowerToys “PowerRename” if you have it).

Use ChatGPT to share your unfiltered thoughts… professionally (12/11/2025)

Here’s a prompt you can copy paste if you’d like, but I have a feeling you got the gist of it already:

I’m writing a sensitive message. Below is (1) context and (2) my raw, unfiltered draft.

Rewrite so it:
• Keeps every concrete fact, evidence, and ask
• Sounds calm, direct, and respectful
• Aims to solve the problem, not score points
• Offers 1–2 clear next steps or options
• Fits in [email / Slack / text] and ≤ [word/line limit]

Tone dial: reduce emotional heat by [20%]. Keep accountability.
If anything is unclear, ask up to 2 clarifying questions first.

(1) Context: [what happened, why it matters, constraints/timeline]
(2) Raw draft: [paste]

Type 𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗱 & 𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙨 anywhere (without real formatting) (12/4/2025)

When an app doesn’t support rich text (e.g. LinkedIn posts), you can still “style” a few words using Unicode look-alike characters (what you’re seeing here: 𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗱 and 𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘤).

Here’s what I did to add these special characters in my LinkedIn post above:

1. Go to typegrow.com/tools/linkedin-text-formatter

2. Type your text → pick Bold, Italic, or whatever

3. Copy → paste into any app that’s plain-text only

Where this helps

• Social posts & bios: LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Instagram, TikTok

• Plain-text fields: Gmail subject lines, calendar event titles, Google Forms titles, Airtable/Asana task names, Trello cards

• Chat & SMS: iMessage/Texts, WhatsApp, group chats that don’t support real bold/italics

Important note: These are special characters, not true styling, so some screen readers may display them oddly. They’re also less searchable so you’ll generally want to keep names, emails, and #hashtags in normal text.

That’s it!

Typing spec¡al symbo£s and â¢cénts on Mac (11/27/2025)

I was sending an email earlier this week and needed to learn how to type the accented é in someone’s name. That’s when I discovered how many characters I can type by using the ⌥ (Option) key on Mac!

For example, ⌥ (Option) + 3 gives me £, which is very helpful when listing UK salaries.

Some other super helpful ones:

• ⌥ + e: é accent

• ⌥ + `: è accent

• ⌥ + i: î accent

• ⌥ + n: ñ

• ⌥ + u: ü accent

I totally encourage you to just play around and try out ⌥ + random letter or number and see what happens.

P.S. You can also just long press the “e” key to pull up all those accents I listed above (+ more!).

Five AI Agents by Zapier (recording linked) (11/20/2025)

This is a follow up on the webinar that Cortney Hickey, Strategic Business Partner to CEO at Zapier, and Christina Romein, Executive Business Partner for HR + Ops at Zapier, hosted last week walking through how they actually use AI in their day-to-day roles.

Last week I shared fake news that if you registered for their webinar, you’d receive a recording of it. 😓

Thankfully, they just uploaded their webinar to YouTube so you can watch it on your own time!

Five AI Agents by Zapier (11/13/2025)

This is a little late but Cortney Hickey, Strategic Business Partner to CEO at Zapier, and Christina Romein, Executive Business Partner for HR + Ops at Zapier, hosted a webinar earlier today walking through five Zapier workflows that save our execs + EAs ~4 hours/week, including Cortney’s Email Triage that took inbox time from 5 hours to under 1 hour.

Make ChatGPT stop being so nice (11/6/2025)

I’ll just let the Reddit post take it from here 🫡

Here’s the prompt so you can copy paste it easily:

Bonus tech tip

On the topics of prompts, I thought this was another super helpful graphic from Chris Donnelly:

Private charter catering to EAs (10/30/2025)

This week’s tech tip is a guest post from fellow CCing my EA reader Kimberly Lusk at Atomic-6 who mentioned she was “blown away by how they are catering to EAs”.

“A few weeks ago, one of our executives needed to get from Cabo to Hollywood, and the commercial options were messy. Out of curiosity (and a little desperation), I reached out to a friend, Dakota, who runs charter sales at Origin Aviation.

I told him I wasn’t sure private would fit the budget but wanted to see what it might look like. Within hours he sent over a realistic ballpark estimate and promised full quotes by the next day. The pricing ended up being more than we could justify for that particular trip, but the experience completely changed how I think about private travel.

Instead of a sales pitch, Dakota walked me through when it actually makes sense to go private, like for shorter flights, back-to-back meetings, or situations where every hour counts. Having someone who could quickly explain the landscape, answer questions, and be honest about costs made all the difference.”

If you’ve ever been considered booking a private flight for your exec but weren’t sure how to start, try reaching out to Origin Aviation’s head of sales, Dakota Ward. He’ll be super helpful even if you don’t end up purchasing.

I personally plan to reach out so I can learn a bit about the world of private charters. ✈️

Revisiting AI models (10/23/2025)

AI changes so quickly that you kinda have to refresh your knowledge on it every few months. Thankfully, Chris Donnelly has made it super easy to do so with his summarized findings here.

Silence the reply-all thread (without actually leaving it) (10/16/2025)

If you’re ever prevented from hitting inbox zero because you keep getting cc’d on a non-urgent email thread causing that little (1) to repeatedly pop up in your email tab, this is for you.

Gmail: Mute

• Method A (from Inbox list)

  1. Check the box next to the noisy thread

  2. Top toolbar → More (vertical ⋮) → Mute

• Method B (from an open thread)

  1. Open the conversation

  2. Top toolbar above the message (Archive/Spam/Trash row) → More (vertical ⋮) → Mute

     1. (Note: not the small ⋮ inside an individual message, use the top toolbar one.)

• Keyboard shortcut (fastest)

  1. Press m

     1. (If it doesn’t work, go to Settings → See all settings → General → Keyboard shortcuts → On → Save)

What it does: Future replies skip your inbox (they stay in All Mail / any labels) until you unmute.

To Unmute / find muted emails: Use the search bar and type is:muted, open the thread → Move to inbox

Outlook: Ignore

• New Outlook / Outlook on the web (OWA)

  • Open thread → … More actions → Ignore → confirm

• Classic Outlook for Windows

  • Select thread → Home tab → Delete group → Ignore

What it does: Moves the entire conversation (current and future replies) to Deleted Items automatically.

To Unignore, just Open the email from Deleted Items → Stop ignoring

Important note: While Gmail’s Mute quietly archives, Outlook’s Ignore sends emails to Deleted Items. If you’d prefer a softer approach in Outlook, create a rule to move that conversation to an “Inbox-Later” folder instead of deleting it.

Delete text way faster: delete by word/line (10/9/2025)

This is a sort of part 2 to last week’s tech tip (at least in spirit). When you’re editing, use these shortcuts to delete text instead of tapping or holding down Backspace forever.

Mac

• ⌫ (Delete): Delete previous character

• fn + ⌫: Delete next character

• ⌥ (Option) + ⌘ Command + Delete: Delete previous word

• ⌥ + fn + ⌫: Delete next word

• ⌘ (Command) + Delete: Delete to start of line

Windows

• Backspace: Delete previous character

• Delete: Delete next character

• Ctrl + Backspace: Delete previous word

• Ctrl + Delete: Delete next word

• Shift + Home + Backspace: Delete to start of line

Edit text way faster: jump by word or to the line start/end (10/2/2025)

Next time you’re typing up an email or document, try this shortcut:

Mac

• ⌥ (Option) + ← / → = jump your cursor by word

• ⌘ (Command) + ← / → = jump your cursor to start / end of the line

Windows

• Ctrl + ← / → = jump your cursor by word

• Home / End = jump your cursor to start / end of the line

Pro tip:

• Add Shift to the above shortcuts to select by word or line

  • e.g. Ctrl + Shift + → will highlight the next word (Windows)

  • e.g. ⌘ + Shift + → will highlight the entire line (Mac)

I know most EAs don’t use shortcuts but this is one I genuinely recommend, especially if you’re typing all the time!

Business card → contact in 10 seconds (iPhone) (9/25/2025)

Next time you receive a business card, instead of pocketing it and "doing it later", you can just quickly add their details to your iPhone's contacts.

1. Open your Camera app and point it at the business card

2. Tap the Live Text icon that appears in the bottom right corner

3. Long press the underlined email or phone number → Add to Contacts → Create New (or Add to Existing).

That's it!

Extra tips

• Add a one-liner to remind yourself additional details: “Met at Administrative Professionals Conference, ask for intro to *The Davids™️”

• Snap a selfie photo with them to use as their contact's profile pic

For Android users, Google seems to have removed this feature from their native camera app a few years ago… 😭

*The Davids™️ is what we call our 2 account executives, David Nguyen and David Ryan.

Measure distance and area in Google Maps (9/18/2025)

Google’s default navigation directions are great, but sometimes you want the exact path distance (a jog, a custom walk) or the area of a space (your backyard, a park section).

For desktop:

1. Right-click your starting point and then select “Measure distance”

2. Click along your path to trace it (total distance updates as you go)

3. To get area, click back on your starting point to close the loop. Maps will then show the enclosed area

For mobile:

1. Long-press to drop a pin and then tap “Measure distance”

   1. Important note: this only appears when you long-press an unnamed location. If you tap a point of interest (restaurant, station, hotel), the “Measure distance” option won’t show

2. Pan the map so the crosshair sits on your next point and then tap the “+” icon to add a point. Repeat to trace your route

3. Mobile Maps shows distance only. For area on your phone, use the Google Earth app’s Measure tool.

Extra tips:

• Switch to Satellite or Terrain view for precise edges (lawns, trails)

• Change units (mi/km) in Maps Settings

Perplexity trick: find great stops on your route (9/11/2025)

Normally, finding a place “on the way” means: check your route, close your route, search spots, try to remember your route’s stops, check your route again, etc. Perplexity can do all that in one shot.

For example, last weekend I was visiting the Brooklyn Museum with some friends I hadn’t seen in a while when one of them mentioned wanting to stop by a bar on our way back home.

So all I did was pull up Perplexity and ask it:

“I’m currently at the Brooklyn Museum and am going home near the Empire State Building. What are some popular must-visit bars on my way back that are minimal detours from subway stops?”

Perplexity returned options mapped to natural waypoints on my route home (I’ve added green flags in the screenshot below that mark the bars Perplexity suggested).

Along this same idea, you could also use Perplexity to:

• “Hotels in [city] for [dates] that are walkable to [office/venue], quiet rooms, on-site gym open ≥ 10pm, late check-in, and breakfast starting ≤ 6:30am. Return 5 with rates and pros/cons.”

• “For a [citizenship] traveler to [country] on [dates], summarize visa/entry rules, e-Visa links, processing time, and business traveler pitfalls. Bullet the exact steps.”

The 95% Rule: Make ChatGPT ask you first (9/4/2025)

A while back I shared the long “Lyra” prompt. It’s helpful, but in practice I use a totally boiled down version where I effectively just tell ChatGPT to ask me clarifying questions until it’s 95% confident it can deliver the task with total accuracy.

ChatGPT has a habit of speaking with conviction, so it’s tough to gauge what it actually understands and what it’s hallucinating. Forcing clarifying questions makes its confidence visible and your results wayy better.

Pro tip: Ask ChatGPT to rate its confidence in delivering the task accurately out of 100. This puts on a number on an otherwise totally qualitative task.

Here’s an example of something I might include in my prompt:

Before you answer, rate your current confidence out of 100 in delivering this task perfectly. Then ask me any clarifying questions needed until you’re at least 95% confident you can complete the task with 100% accuracy.

Pro tip 2: To keep the “numbers on qualitative tasks” theme going, try asking ChatGPT to “Grade this output out of 100 like an expert [role: comms lead / chief of staff] and tell me what’d you improve to get it to 95+.”

Use “quotes” to Google something exactly (8/28/2025)

This week is a non-AI related tech tip that I’ve been using for as long as I can remember.

Sometimes you don’t want Google’s “best guess.” You want to search for an exact phrase, not words scattered across a page.

So, just wrap your search in quotes.

For example:

• Searching Vimcal EA might return results with just “Vimcal” or just “EA.”

• But searching "Vimcal EA" will only return pages that mention the full phrase, exactly as typed.

Give it a try!

Free AI playbooks from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic (8/21/2025)

We’ve shared plenty of AI tips over the past year, but this week’s resources come directly from the builders themselves.

OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic have all released internal playbooks on how they actually use and scale AI inside their orgs.

Prompting, agents, enterprise use cases with no fluff, just clear, practical guides.

Why EAs need tools built specifically for their workflows (8/7/2025)

If you’ve ever wrestled with a tool that wasn’t designed for how you work (e.g. Google Calendar or Outlook), this might resonate.

Imagine you want to colorize a black and white photo.

You could ask a general tool like ChatGPT to do it.

It’ll kiiinda work, but it’s clunky, slow, and honestly not good enough.

Or… you could just use a specialized tool that was actually built to do that one specific thing.

That’s the difference between general AI tools and specialized software, and in this 18-minute presentation I gave at The EA Campus’s Innovate Virtual Summit, I break down exactly what that looks like in action. 👇

Planning an offsite? 2 tools worth checking out (7/31/2025)

Offsites are fun after they happen. But planning them? It’s a lot…

Here are two tools I know about that can make organizing your next one easier, whether you're doing it solo or want someone to take it off your plate:

Offsite

Fun fact: Offsite is also based in NYC so we’re going to be hosting a fun event for EAs together soon, look out for that!

Think: “Airbnb for team retreats” but with two options: you can go the self-serve route and browse venues yourself or let their team plan the whole thing for you.

They offer:

• Search over 1,000 vetted global venues and compare availability, amenities, and pricing in one place

• Access curated local vendors from team-building activities to event production and transportation

• Option to upgrade to full-service planning, including customized agendas, vendor booking, travel logistics, and on-site coordination all for a flat per-person fee

🎁 Offsite set up a discounted link for CCing my EA readers, which includes 10% off your first retreat when you use their full-service option.

Nowadays

I heard about Nowadays from a trusted Vimcal EA user who was raving about how actually helpful the AI features were, so I had to check them out.

Built from the ground up around AI and automation, it’s perfect if you want speed, reach, and a shared planning dashboard.

You get:

• Access to 400,000+ venues/vendors, all searchable and instantly comparable

• Automated outreach in the venue’s native language and real time negotiation

• Help with flights, visas, city research, and attendee registration

• One dashboard for quotes, maps, comments, and approvals

🎁 Nowadays set up a discounted link for CCing my EA readers that gives you 30% off their corporate planning fee (normally 10%, now 7%). If you have any questions, you can also reach out to them at [email protected] with “CCing my EA” in the subject line.

ChatGPT prompting cheat sheet (7/24/2025)

I saw this ChatGPT cheatsheet on Reddit and thought it could be super helpful as a printout for you to have by your desk.

With that said, if you ever feel like using ChatGPT “correctly” is too complicated or technically complex, you might find some of the top comments on the Reddit post reassuring:

Clay for CRM (7/17/2025)

Note: if you're already using a different CRM tool, Clay will migrate you for free and send you a special gift! Just email them at [email protected] to get started.

If your exec knows hundreds of people but remembers zero birthdays, job changes, or who they had lunch with last quarter… Clay might be worth a look.

It’s a relationship management tool that actually works for EAs and is built to help you stay on top of your exec’s network across both personal and professional relationships. With shared access, smart integrations, and a clean interface, Clay helps you manage your exec’s relationships behind the scenes.

Here’s how you’ll want to start:

1. Connect everything: Email, calendar, LinkedIn, iMessage, WhatsApp. Clay pulls in contacts, meetings, and interactions automatically.

2. Clean up contacts: Use Clay’s duplicate detection to merge, edit, or enrich with job titles, notes, or personal context.

3. Set reminders + notes: Schedule regular check-ins for important relationships, and take rich, searchable notes tied to each contact.

4. Use the Home feed: It’s like a relationship briefing: job changes, social updates, birthdays, and who your exec hasn’t talked to in a while.

My personal favorite feature is the Map view though. It gives a quick, visual reminder of who’s physically nearby, which is especially helpful while traveling.

More than once, I’ve visited a city and completely forgotten someone I should’ve reached out to. Clay solves that in one glance!

To try out Clay, use this link to get an extended trial (normally 14 days, now 2 months) specifically for CCing my EA readers: clay.earth/partners/vimcal 🎁

And just in case, here’s Clay’s full EA guide.

Paste this into ChatGPT. It’ll change how you prompt. (7/10/2025)

Ever spent 10+ prompts trying to get ChatGPT to “just write the thing”? Same.

A Reddit user had that exact meltdown and ended up creating Lyra, a prompt that flips the script. Instead of you guessing what ChatGPT needs, Lyra interviews you first.

In his words, it’s like upgrading ChatGPT into a “$500/hr consultant”.

Here’s what to do:

1. Copy the full Lyra block below

2. Paste it into a new ChatGPT thread

3. Give it your vaguest, messiest request

4. Watch it ask smart clarifying questions and return a way better result

👇 Copy/paste this into ChatGPT:

You are Lyra, a master-level AI prompt optimization specialist. Your mission: transform any user input into precision-crafted prompts that unlock AI's full potential across all platforms.

## THE 4-D METHODOLOGY

### 1. DECONSTRUCT
- Extract core intent, key entities, and context
- Identify output requirements and constraints
- Map what's provided vs. what's missing

### 2. DIAGNOSE
- Audit for clarity gaps and ambiguity
- Check specificity and completeness
- Assess structure and complexity needs

### 3. DEVELOP
- Select optimal techniques based on request type:
  - **Creative** → Multi-perspective + tone emphasis
  - **Technical** → Constraint-based + precision focus
  - **Educational** → Few-shot examples + clear structure
  - **Complex** → Chain-of-thought + systematic frameworks
- Assign appropriate AI role/expertise
- Enhance context and implement logical structure

### 4. DELIVER
- Construct optimized prompt
- Format based on complexity
- Provide implementation guidance

## OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUES

**Foundation:** Role assignment, context layering, output specs, task decomposition

**Advanced:** Chain-of-thought, few-shot learning, multi-perspective analysis, constraint optimization

**Platform Notes:**
- **ChatGPT/GPT-4:** Structured sections, conversation starters
- **Claude:** Longer context, reasoning frameworks
- **Gemini:** Creative tasks, comparative analysis
- **Others:** Apply universal best practices

## OPERATING MODES

**DETAIL MODE:** 
- Gather context with smart defaults
- Ask 2-3 targeted clarifying questions
- Provide comprehensive optimization

**BASIC MODE:**
- Quick fix primary issues
- Apply core techniques only
- Deliver ready-to-use prompt

## RESPONSE FORMATS

**Simple Requests:**
```
**Your Optimized Prompt:**
[Improved prompt]

**What Changed:** [Key improvements]
```

**Complex Requests:**
```
**Your Optimized Prompt:**
[Improved prompt]

**Key Improvements:**
• [Primary changes and benefits]

**Techniques Applied:** [Brief mention]

**Pro Tip:** [Usage guidance]
```

## WELCOME MESSAGE (REQUIRED)

When activated, display EXACTLY:

"Hello! I'm Lyra, your AI prompt optimizer. I transform vague requests into precise, effective prompts that deliver better results.

**What I need to know:**
- **Target AI:** ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Other
- **Prompt Style:** DETAIL (I'll ask clarifying questions first) or BASIC (quick optimization)

**Examples:**
- "DETAIL using ChatGPT — Write me a marketing email"
- "BASIC using Claude — Help with my resume"

Just share your rough prompt and I'll handle the optimization!"

## PROCESSING FLOW

1. Auto-detect complexity:
   - Simple tasks → BASIC mode
   - Complex/professional → DETAIL mode
2. Inform user with override option
3. Execute chosen mode protocol
4. Deliver optimized prompt

**Memory Note:** Do not save any information from optimization sessions to memory.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

Emojis for saved Google Maps lists (7/3/2025)

Back when I was backpacking China and SE Asia from 2018-2019, I desperately wanted a way to visually separate saved food spots from museums and scenic viewpoints. Instead, I was stuck with Google Maps’s 5 generic default icons. 😒

Turns out, Google quietly fixed this in September 2023!

Now, when you create or edit a saved list in Google Maps (on iOS or Android), you can assign it an emoji icon: like 🍔 for restaurants, 🖼️ for museums, 🌄 for viewpoints, etc.

The emojis will show up on your map, making it way easier to scan at a glance.

Wish 2018 me had this but better late than never!

Search browser tabs shortcut (⌘ + Shift + A) (6/26/2025)

Right now, I have 61 Chrome tabs open. And yes, I actually counted. 😱

If that sounds like you, here’s a much needed shortcut I just discovered that I’m kinda obsessed with:

• ⌘ + Shift + A on Mac

• Ctrl + Shift + A on Windows

This opens a little search bar where you can type anything (e.g. “LinkedIn”, “Google Docs”, “calendar”) and instantly jump to the relevant tab.

Bonus: You can close tabs right from the same search box (perfect for removing duplicate tabs).

Extra bonus: The tabs are sorted by last opened them, so it’s easy to spot mummies. I found 13 tabs I haven’t touched in 64 days… 😭

Copy-paste text without messing up your formatting (6/19/2025)

Ever copy-paste something into an email or doc, only to spend the next minute fixing the weird font sizes, colors, and spacing?

Here’s a shortcut I use constantly to get around that:

• Shift + ⌘ + V on Mac

• Control + Shift + V on Windows

This pastes just the plain text, so it’ll automatically match the formatting of whatever you’re pasting into.

No more unintentionally copy pasting Comic Sans font!

Note: If you’re on Mac, this is literally the same effect as right clicking and then selecting “Paste and Match Style”.

Stop manually scanning emails for scheduling and just let AI do it (6/12/2025)

You get an email:

“Can you do Tuesday 2-5pm, Wednesday 11am-1pm, or Thursday 3pm-6pm?”

And suddenly you're stuck flipping back and forth between your email and calendar trying to see what works.

If this sounds familiar, take 10 seconds to watch this 👇

With Vimcal EA’s AI Free Time Finder, you can:

1. Screenshot the message

2. Drag the screenshot into your calendar

3. Instantly see which times actually fit for you

Calendly links work too: just copy-paste the link and Vimcal EA will show you the overlapping availabilities directly inside your calendar.

Little things like this save way more time (and brainpower) than you’d expect.

Bonus Tech Tip: 2 recent AI updates useful for EAs

Wanted to throw in an extra tech tip this week that isn’t about Vimcal EA and is 100% worth knowing about:

The “3-word rule” to make ChatGPT give expert responses (6/5/2025)

A few months ago, our CTO shared his four-part prompt formula to help you get quality responses from your AI tools.

Today’s tech tip essentially boils that four-part prompt formula down to a 3-word phrase you can add to your AI prompts to get quality answers. All credit for this tech tip goes to Amanda Caswell via Tom’s Guide.

Before we get started, as per Amanda’s post, “No, the three little words are not ‘I love you’”. 😂

“The concept is simple: Add a short, three-word directive to your prompt that tells ChatGPT how to respond. These three words can instantly shape the tone, voice and depth of the output. You’re not rewriting your whole question. You’re just giving the AI a lens through which to answer.

Here are a few examples that work surprisingly well:

• ‘Like a lawyer’ — for structured, detailed and logical responses

• ‘Be a teacher’ — for simplified, clear and educational explanations

• ‘Act like Hemingway’ — for punchy, minimalist writing with impact

It’s kind of like casting the AI in a role, and then you're directing the performance with the specifics in your prompts.”

“Need a few starter ideas? These formats work across writing, research, translation and even creative tasks:

• ‘Summarize this article like a journalist’

• ‘Explain dark matter like a professor’

• ‘Give feedback like a mentor’

• ‘Write a poem like a songwriter’

• ‘Translate this message like a diplomat’

You can swap in almost any role or voice that fits your needs: CEO, therapist, designer, coach, teenager or just about anyone else. The more specific, the better.

Each tweak helps ChatGPT interpret your request through a more useful lens, and the difference in quality is often immediate.” - Amanda Caswell

2 Shortcuts: ⌘ + ↓ (bottom of page) and fn + ↓ (next page (5/29/2025)

Ever found yourself mindlessly scrolling down a 40-paragraph blog post or dragging your mouse to hit a tiny scroll bar just to reach the footer of a website?

Here’s a faster way:

On Mac

• ⌘ + ↓ instantly jumps to the bottom of a document or webpage

• fn + ↓ moves you down one full page at a time

On Windows

• Ctrl + End instantly jumps to the bottom of a document or webpage

• Page Down moves you down one full page at a time

Why you shouldn’t sleep on niche AI tools (5/22/2025)

My parents recently sent me some old black-and-white photos of themselves from 40+ years ago that they were reminiscing over.

I thought it’d be fun to surprise them by colorizing the photos with AI, so I first tried my go-to AI tool, ChatGPT.

Despite explicitly prompting ChatGPT to “color the photo in realistically while keeping all of the original details intact and without taking creative liberties”, the result still looked cartoonish.

Then I tried Gemini with the same prompt. While it did a better job of maintaining some of the realism, it melted their faces and turned their clothing into plastic.

But then I found a niche AI tool on MyHeritage that was specifically dedicated to restoring old family photos and the difference was night and day: the colors were true to life while every wrinkle, shadow, and smile remained intact. Best of all, I didn’t need to do a thing beyond uploading the original image — not a single prompt needed!

The result speaks for itself.

The main point I’m trying to make here is that while general-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini are super convenient and great for getting simple work done, they’re going to fall short when compared to single-purpose tools for more complex tasks.

If you’re trying to get the best result, whether it’s restoring a decades-old photo, transcribing a meeting, or calendaring meetings for your exec (Vimcal EA anyone? 😉), niche tools built for one job are going to outperform general-purpose AI tools every time.

Use ChatGPT to prepare for tough conversations (5/15/2025)

This tech tip is a simple and self-explanatory, but also powerful use case of ChatGPT.

Here’s the template from above that you can copy and paste into ChatGPT:

QR Code Not Scanning? Try This (5/8/2025)

This tip is so simple, I almost didn’t share it. But it saved the day so many times at the EA Ignite conference, I figured it’s worth passing along.

If your camera won’t scan a QR code, don’t close the app. Just switch to “Video” mode, then back to “Photo.” That quick toggle refreshes the camera, and more often than not, the QR code will scan right away.

Try it now using the same QR code we displayed at EA Ignite. Who knows which David you’ll get? 👀

🫵 Do you have a tech tip you want to share?

What’s your personal favorite tech tip?

Email us about it directly at [email protected] so we can include it in a future issue!

And be sure to include a link to your LinkedIn page so we can give you proper credit. :)

CCing my EA is brought to you by Vimcal EA — world-class calendar software built for the world’s most advanced calendar users: Executive Assistants. ❤️ 

Designed with EAs from startups to Fortune 500 companies, Vimcal EA streamlines complex, high-stakes scheduling with features like auto-deleting holds, effortless timezone conversion, exec calendar audits, and large group polling.