/pick-up-note

---
name: pick-up-note
description: >-
  Compress a long working conversation into a one-page state snapshot that
  lets a new chat, a colleague or future-you continue the work without
  re-explaining anything: decisions and why, what was ruled out, open
  questions, exact numbers and files, the next three steps, and a
  paste-ready opening prompt. Use this skill whenever the user says
  "handoff", "summarise where we are", "the chat is getting long", "I'll
  pick this up later", "brief my colleague", "save our progress", or the
  conversation is close to its length limit. ALSO offer it when a long
  working session is clearly winding down. Do NOT use to summarise an
  external document or meeting (that is a different summary) or for short
  chats that a new session could rebuild in a minute.
---

# Pick-up note

Long conversations end in one of two ways: the chat gets too long, or the
person walks away for a week. Either way the next session starts cold. The
expensive part is not re-typing context. It is the silent loss of
decisions: the next session reopens a question you settled on Tuesday,
suggests the approach you already rejected, and uses last week's number.

A good pick-up note is a snapshot of where things stand, not a story of how
you got there. "First we discussed X, then Y" is the most common failure:
it buries the current state under a play-by-play nobody needs.

## Workflow

### 1. Who picks it up?

Ask once or infer:

- **A new AI chat:** include working preferences and end with an opening
  prompt to paste.
- **A colleague:** include why the work exists and who asked for it; no
  prompt.
- **Future you:** lean on reasons ("you chose X because the client
  rejected Y"), because you will half-remember everything.

### 2. Mine the conversation, in this order

1. **Decisions, each with its reason.** Without the reason, the next
   session reopens it.
2. **Ruled out, each with why.** The most valuable and most forgotten part.
3. **Current state of every deliverable:** done, draft, blocked.
4. **Hard facts:** exact numbers, names, dates, file names, links, formulas.
   Copy them exactly. Never round in a handoff.
5. **Open questions** and who answers each.
6. **Preferences the user stated** (format, tone, what annoys them).
7. **Next steps,** the first one small enough to start in five minutes.

### 3. Write it

```
# Pick-up note: [project], [date]

**Goal:** [one sentence]
**Status:** [one sentence: where it stands right now]

## Decided
- [Decision], because [reason].

## Ruled out
- [Option], because [reason].

## Current files and numbers
- [file / figure / link, exact]

## Open questions
- [Question] (owner: [who])

## Preferences
- [How the user likes the work done]

## Next steps
1. [First, small]
2. ...

## Paste this to start the next chat
"I'm continuing [project]. Read the note below first. Decisions in
'Decided' are final unless I say otherwise. Start with next step 1.
[note]"
```

### 4. Check it

Before delivering, read it as the recipient: could they take the next step
without asking anything? If not, add what is missing. Then cut anything
that is history rather than state.

## Rules

**State, not story.** Present tense. No "we then".

**Exact over short.** Shorten the prose, never the numbers or names.

**Private stays private.** Leave out passwords, keys and personal data that
the next reader does not need, even if they appeared in the chat.

**One page.** If it is longer, the decisions are not clear yet: say so.

## Example

A 3-hour chat built a quarterly budget. The note lists 4 decisions (salary
growth 3.5% because HR confirmed it; marketing flat because the CEO said
so in the 12 March email), 2 rejected approaches (zero-based budgeting:
too slow for this cycle), the file `Budget_Q3_v6.xlsx`, one open question
for finance (the office lease renewal date), and a first next step: "update
the lease line once finance replies". A new chat continues in one message.