✶ the free field guide

Build your Second Brain.✶

Ten minutes to your first win. One folder, one prompt, and tomorrow morning you get one page on what actually matters — pulled from your real files, your calendar and your inbox. Claude or ChatGPT. No code.

[ get the guide → ] [ see what’s inside ]
first win10 min
pages10
skill levelnone

One thing nobody mentions: if it is reading files on your own machine, your computer has to be awake when it runs. Mine fires at 6am with the laptop plugged in and open. Pick a time your machine is actually on — or keep what it reads in connected tools, and it runs with the laptop shut.

Frances Méndez walking outdoors in Los Angeles
fig.01 — mid-stride, still thinking

I stopped starting my day from scratch.✶

For years the first twenty minutes went the same way. Open seven tabs. Scroll the inbox. Try to remember what I promised on Tuesday. Twenty minutes gone before I did a single piece of real work.

Most people try to fix that with a better prompt. The fix is a different room — a workspace that can see your actual files and keeps notes on you between sessions. If your AI forgets you every morning, it is not the prompt. It is the room.

what’s inside(01)

/01 Start here One folder, one prompt, one email tomorrow morning. Ten minutes, and you have already felt it work. Do this part before you read anything else.
/02 The Foundation What to put in the folder so it learns you instead of guessing — and why messy notes teach it more than three perfect documents.
/03 The Connections Which tools to plug in first, which to leave alone, and the two rules to set before you connect anything that can post as you.
/04 The Rhythm The exact prompt behind the two-minute brief that lands before I wake up, plus the three daytime pokes that keep it in front of you.
/05 Make it stick How to correct its memory, the dashboard it rebuilds every morning, and the one capture habit that feeds the whole thing.
✶ Plus: when it breaks, and every prompt on one page Troubleshooting for the seven ways this usually goes wrong, what good looks like after thirty days, and a single tear-out page with every prompt in the guide.

what lands at 6am(02)

The Franki Brief wed · 6:00 am

Overnight: two new replies in the partnership thread. Your 10 AM moved to 2 PM.

Waiting on: the proposal you sent Monday. Day three.

today’s one thing

Send the follow-up on the proposal before your 2 PM. Everything else can wait.

One thing. Never a list.✶

A list is a decision you still have to make. A single named action is something you can just do. Send me five items at 11 AM and I will read none of them.

The guide has the prompt that produces this, plus how to change the tone, the timing, and where it gets delivered.

the honest part(03)

It will not make you do the work.✶

This is not a personality transplant and it will not fix a focus problem. What it removes is the twenty minutes every morning you spent deciding what the work even is. That, every day, compounds.

You will also need to correct it. It keeps notes about you, those notes are editable, and saying “that’s wrong” in the moment is the whole skill. Five seconds now beats a month of slightly wrong briefs.

before you start(04)

you need

An AI workspace, not a chat tab

Page three tells you exactly how to tell the difference — in Claude or in ChatGPT.

you need

Ten minutes, not a Sunday

Page three is the whole first win. The rest is an upgrade on it.

you do not need

Code, plugins, or a new app

Everything here is settings, documents, and plain English.

✶ free

Take the whole thing.✶

Ten pages. A page that tells you where to start, five that build it, and four you keep for later. Every step, every prompt, and what to do when it breaks. Works the same in Claude or ChatGPT.

I’ll send the guide, and the occasional note when I publish something worth your time. Unsubscribe any time. Privacy · Terms.

get the next one(05)

Already have the guide? This is where the next one comes from.

I send the things I actually use, when they are ready. Nothing weekly for the sake of weekly.

I’ll send the guide, and the occasional note when I publish something worth your time. Unsubscribe any time. Privacy · Terms.

More in the Thoughts, or everything free on Tools.

who wrote this

Frances Méndez — also written Frances Mendez — is cofounder and Managing Director of Camino5, an SEO and AI search consultancy in Los Angeles. She has spent two decades in brand and digital strategy and now writes about AI, visibility, and how work is changing, in real time. More about her, or say hello.