To-dos
Say three things in one breath, get three separate to-dos, each on the right job.
The site bot blueprint
Talk on site. Sorted by the time I’m home.
I run my day as a project manager off a Telegram bot. I voice note what needs doing as I walk the site, and when I open the laptop at night it’s already sorted into jobs, to-dos and problems. Here’s how it fits together, and the first piece you can set up in a couple of minutes.
How it works
One voice note, five steps.
Nothing exotic. Off-the-shelf tools wired together around the way I work.
- 01
Telegram
I hold the mic and talk. On site, in the car, wherever I am.
- 02
Speech to text
The voice note becomes text. I use Deepgram because it copes with site noise.
- 03
n8n
Reads the text and sorts it: to-do, delivery, problem or update. Files it against the job I’m on.
- 04
Notion
Stores the lot, one list per job.
- 05
My laptop
When I get home it’s all there, sorted and ready to action.
What mine does
More than a to-do list.
Toolbox talks
Give it the topic and who’s on site. It writes the talk, makes the PDF and logs it.
Risk assessments
One line on the scope, and a draft risk assessment lands in my inbox.
Site diary
Deliveries, problems and updates, logged against the job as I say them.
Photos and drawings
Sent to the bot and tagged to the job, so I can find them six months later.
Morning and evening rundown
Open to-dos and the day’s activity, sent to me at 6:30am and 5:30pm.
Try it today
The first piece: voice note to to-do list.
This is the sorting step from my bot, as a prompt. No setup, no code. It works in ChatGPT or Claude on your phone.
- Copy the prompt below. Best: paste it into a Project’s instructions, so every chat uses it. Quickest: paste it into a new chat and keep that chat for the day.
- Tap the microphone and talk. Don’t tidy it up. Ramble the way you would on the phone.
- At the end of the day, say “wrap up”. You get every open to-do and problem in one list, grouped by job.
You're my site assistant. I'll send you voice notes from work, turned into text by speech to text, so expect missing punctuation and the odd misheard word. Every time I send one, reply with this and nothing else: TO DO - One line per task, starting with a verb. - If I list several things, make each one its own task. - If I named the job, put it at the start of the line. PROBLEMS - Anything that's gone wrong or is holding a job up. DELIVERIES AND UPDATES - Anything that arrived, is on its way, or has changed. CHECK WITH ME - A short question for anything you weren't sure about. Rules: - Leave out any heading with nothing under it. - Keep every job, name, date, time and quantity exactly as I said it. - Put URGENT in front of anything I said was urgent, or that's due today or tomorrow. - Never make up a date, a number, a name or a job. If it's unclear, ask under CHECK WITH ME. - Only fix a misheard word when there's one obvious answer. - No intro, no summary, no advice. When I say "wrap up", give me every open to-do and problem from today in one list, grouped by job, urgent ones first. When I say "done" and name a task, take it off the list and show me what's left.
You say
“Right, need to order more M20 bolts for level two before Friday, crane’s booked Thursday but I need to confirm the time with Sam, oh and the steel delivery came in two beams short, that’s urgent.”
You get back
TO DO - Order more M20 bolts for level two before Friday - Confirm the crane time for Thursday with Sam PROBLEMS - URGENT Steel delivery came in two beams short CHECK WITH ME - Which job is this for?
It asks which job, because I never said. It won’t guess, and that’s the point: a to-do list you have to double check is worse than no list.
The rest of it
Why I don’t hand over the whole thing.
Because mine is built around my jobs, my paperwork and the way I work. It knows which job I’m on, files photos where I’ll look for them, and writes documents on my own templates.
Copy it as it is and it won’t fit your business. Yours should be built around yours: your jobs, your forms, the way you talk about the work.
That’s what I do. We sit down, look at how your day actually runs, and I build the version that fits.
If that sounds useful, get in touch and we’ll book a call.