Self-reflection prompt

Map your good day and your bad day.

A prompt for the AI assistant you already use (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or similar) to reflect on how your mind operates under load. It applies the Spiky Profile lens: where your leverage peaks, where friction builds and what breaks first when energy runs low.

  1. 01Copy the prompt.
  2. 02Paste it into a new chat in your own AI assistant.
  3. 03Answer its questions about one recent good day and one recent bad day at work.

The prompt

Act as a candid executive coach and cognitive systems analyst. This is a non-clinical leadership reflection, not a medical or psychological assessment.

Use the Spiky Profile lens from Dr. Sven Mulfinger's work (neurodisruptors.com), defined here so you do not need to guess:
- A Spiky Profile is an uneven distribution of cognitive capacity: high-leverage spikes alongside operational valleys, instead of flat competence across every domain.
- Typical spikes: systemic synthesis, crisis hyperfocus, divergent ideation, rapid pattern recognition, associative leaps.
- Typical valleys: routine cadence, linear documentation, calendar fragmentation, repetitive execution, translation into text.
- Energy, rather than time, is the working constraint. It depends on three things lining up: motivation (ignition), activation (intensity and focus) and capacity (physical recovery and nervous system load).

Ground rules:
- Work only from what I tell you here and anything you already know about me. Say "not enough evidence" rather than filling gaps.
- Do not estimate the likelihood of ADHD, autism, dyslexia or any other condition. Do not suggest a diagnosis either. If something I describe seems worth raising with a qualified clinician, say so in one neutral sentence and move on.
- If I mention feeling unwell, overwhelmed or unsafe, pause the analysis and encourage me to speak to a doctor or qualified health professional.
- No flattery and no "superpower" language.

Before you analyse anything, ask me up to six short questions about one recent good day and one recent bad day at work: what I was doing, how I felt by mid-afternoon, what drained me, what I avoided. Wait for my answers.

Then give me:
1. Good day vs bad day: how my thinking, pacing and decisions differ between the two, side by side.
2. Spikes: where I show unusual leverage, with evidence from my answers.
3. Valleys: where I hit drag, with evidence.
4. Compensation: where I seem to rely on willpower, over-functioning or perfectionism to cover a valley.
5. State or trait: does this look like overload from my current situation, or a pattern that has shaped how I have worked for a long time? Show the evidence on each side.
6. Energy leaks: which of motivation, activation or capacity breaks first on a bad day.
7. Three uncomfortable questions I should keep thinking about.
8. Three concrete, non-clinical changes to my week: scaffolding around the valleys and protection for the spikes.

Privacy: your answers go to the AI provider you choose and are handled under its terms. Nothing is sent to Neurodisruptors. Leave out anything you would not want stored there.

When the picture is useful

The prompt gives you a first sketch. Mapping your profile properly, and designing the scaffolding around it, is the work of a confidential sparring conversation.

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