One task, three parts.

1 · Work from the car.

A voice message almost always makes the better task. When you talk, you automatically include the context you’d leave out when typing. You don’t have to organize anything: think out loud, jump between topics, correct yourself halfway through. He’ll sort it out for you.

That’s how dead time turns into working time: the drive to an appointment, the walk across the job site, the ten minutes before your next meeting. By the time you’re back at your desk, the first draft is often already waiting for you.

2 · The night works for you.

He doesn’t sleep, and he knows no quitting time and no weekends. Every night he has nothing to do is working time thrown away. So get into the habit of handing him the big tasks in the evening: research, lists, analyses, first drafts. Anything that takes a lot of searching, reading, comparing, and sorting. In the morning the result is waiting for you, and you begin your day with a head start.

3 · The briefing: show him everything first, then let him work.

This way of working is one of the most important of all. Master it, and you’ll get the best results out of him.

Why? Some tasks don’t fit into one message. You want to show him photos, give him files, record a few voice messages to go with them, and tell him for each piece what it’s for and what he should do with it.

At first, he just listens. When you’re finished, he looks at everything together: he connects the pieces, analyzes them, and sees what belongs together and what contradicts what. Only then does he come back with a plan. That way he isn’t working on fragments, but on the whole picture. And the quality of his results goes up noticeably.

Here’s how. “Briefing,” “Done,” and “Stop” are commands. Just type each one as its own message in the chat.

When is a briefing worth it? Whenever a task is complex: when you have more to explain, when several documents come together, or when individual pieces need their own explanation. A quote with photos from the customer, a campaign, a presentation, a new trade show booth. For “Tell Mr. Weber that Thursday works,” you don’t need one.

Check first, then let him work. With every big briefing, this is the single most important step. A message can get lost along the way: it never reaches him, a long voice message only arrives in part, or he went through a restart in between and never read it afterward. The tricky part: you don’t notice. You naturally assume he has everything. And he works with whatever reached him, without knowing that something is missing.

So after “Done,” run one quick check, ideally with a count:

If something is missing, just resend that one piece. For long voice messages, also ask about each one individually:

If the length and the last sentence match, he has everything. Ten seconds, and you know for sure that he’s working with everything you gave him.

4 · Concept first, then execution.

If you want to get to know him first, just let him do his thing. Give him a task and watch how he approaches it. That’s the fastest way to learn how he works, and he’ll often surprise you.

For bigger projects, a different approach pays off: a short brainstorm first, then execution. After all, every piece of work costs time and computing power. If he builds away for an hour and only then do you both realize you had something else in mind, both are gone. If he first explains how he would tackle it, you’ll see within two minutes whether you’re thinking in the same direction. And he often brings along ideas you hadn’t thought of yourself.

He presents his concept to you. You tell him what you like and what you want done differently. Only then does he get going, with a plan the two of you made together. After a briefing, he does this on his own. For any other larger task, just tell him to. Two minutes of reading a plan saves an hour of rebuilding.

5 · Questions are a good sign.

He’d rather ask once than get it wrong twice. A question doesn’t mean he’s stuck. It means he wants to get it right. Keep your answer short. “You decide” is an answer too; he’ll then tell you what he assumed. If he asks you too much or too little, tell him: “When it comes to customers, ask one time too many. For routine stuff, decide on your own.”