Audit your bench week before you hand anything over
Lesson 1 of 7 · The working week
By the end you can turn one real week of lab work into a table that shows which tasks an assistant can draft, which it can check, and which stay yours.
1 · Learn the move · Template pattern
Most people pick the first AI job by what sounds impressive. Pick it from your own week instead. Write down what you actually did, how long each thing took, and whether it repeats. Then sort each task into one of three columns: the model can DRAFT it (legends, methods from the run record, the weekly update), the model can CHECK it (units, a parameter against the record, a reference list), or it STAYS YOURS (deciding whether a run worked, anything about safety, what the result means). The third column is not a failure of the tool. It is the line the rest of this track is built on. The best first job is the task that repeats every week, takes the longest, and sits fully in the first two columns.
Here is my last week, task by task, with rough hours: [paste]. Sort it into a table: task | hours | repeats weekly? | DRAFT / CHECK / STAYS MINE | one line why. Anything that decides whether a result is real, or touches safety, goes in STAYS MINE. Then name the one repeating task with the most hours that is fully DRAFT or CHECK. If my notes don't say how long something took, write [NEEDS: hours].
2 · Your turn. You write the prompt
It is Friday afternoon. This week you ran two plate-reader series, rewrote the methods for the revision, built the figure panels twice because the layout changed, answered the core about a sample delay, sat through lab meeting, and spent most of Thursday reformatting exports. You keep hearing that AI will save you time, and you have no idea where to start.
Write the prompt for this scenario as given, or swap in a real one from your own work. The score works the same either way.
Remember: the AI sees only your prompt, not this page. If the situation isn't in your prompt, it doesn't exist.
Optional. These shape the output when you run your prompt below, not your score.