Summarize a long document and find what needs your attention

A 40-page report, a new policy, a handbook update, a renewal with small print. You’re expected to know what’s in it. You don’t have time to read all of it carefully, and skimming is how the one important paragraph gets missed.

A summary helps you decide where to look. It shouldn’t replace looking. This method gets you the summary and a map of which parts to read yourself.

Before you paste

Check whether the document is confidential. For work documents, your employer’s AI policy decides what can go into which tool. Remove names, account numbers, and personal details the summary doesn’t need.

Some documents are too long to paste or upload in one go, depending on the app. If that happens, split it by section.

Do this

1. Decide what you need from it. “Do I need to do anything?” gets a different summary from “What are the main changes?”
2. Paste or upload the document with the prompt below.
3. Read the sections it flags in the original document.
4. Ask what it left out before you rely on the summary.

Here's a document I need to understand. What I need from it:
[a decision / what I have to do / the main changes / a general
understanding]
[paste or upload the document]

1. Summarize it in one short paragraph.
2. List anything that requires action from me, with any deadline and
   the section it comes from.
3. List anything that changes what I do now.
4. Name the sections I should read in full myself, and why.

Quote the exact wording for any deadline, requirement, or number.
If something in the document is unclear or contradictory, say so.

Check this before you trust it

• Every quoted deadline, requirement, and number, against the original. Search the document for the quoted words.
• The sections it told you to read. Read them.
• What it may have dropped. Ask “Which topics in the document did your summary not mention?” and skim those headings.

If it goes wrong

The summary is too general to act on. Say what you need more specifically: “I run the front desk. What in this changes my job?”

A quote doesn’t appear in the document. It may have paraphrased while presenting the words as a quote. Treat that whole answer as unverified, and ask again in a fresh conversation.

The document is too long for the app. Split it into sections, summarize each one in a separate message, then ask for a combined list of actions.

It says there’s nothing you need to do. Confirm by searching the document for “must”, “required”, “deadline”, and “no later than”. An empty action list is a claim like any other.