How can you better prioritise parallel tasks, deadlines, and coordination needs, and make complex processes easier to plan? In this workshop, you will use Generative AI as a sparring partner to identify dependencies, systematically assess priorities, and develop a clear, structured work plan for a real task or process from your own work.
In day-to-day administrative work, multiple tasks, deadlines, and coordination processes often need to be managed at the same time. Under time pressure, there is little opportunity to carefully assess priorities or structure complex tasks before getting started. Generative AI can do more than simply create individual texts: as an interactive assistant, it can help identify open issues, clarify dependencies, and develop possible sequences of action.
In this three-hour online workshop, you will work on a real task or process from your own work. You will develop a reusable structure consisting of context, clarifying questions, prioritisation criteria, and planning steps. By the end of the workshop, you will have a concrete, adaptable workflow for your own case as well as a template that you can apply to other tasks.
The workshop is designed to be tool-independent. The focus is on context and harness engineering – in other words, creating reusable contexts, templates, and checklists for working effectively with an AI assistant.
Course Content
- Systematically assess priorities, for example based on urgency, importance, and dependencies
- Break down complex processes into clear and manageable steps
- Use AI as a project sparring partner and guide it through targeted questions
- Develop a structured prompt and reusable context components for planning your own tasks
- Hands-on work on your own case, supported by peer feedback
- Review and refine results and transfer the approach to your day-to-day work
What You Will Take Away
You will leave the workshop with a structured workflow for a real task or process from your own work. You can then adapt and reuse the template for other prioritisation and planning tasks.
Target Audience
This workshop is designed for staff working in administration and research management across the Helmholtz Association who already have some basic experience with Generative AI (e.g. through the introductory course “Using ChatGPT & Co. Effectively” or through independent use) and would like to deepen their use of AI for planning and prioritisation tasks.
This free workshop will be held in German.
Requirements
For the practical exercises, you will need access to an AI assistant of your choice, such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, Academic Cloud, or Blablador. The methods covered in the workshop can be applied across different tools. If you do not have access to a suitable AI assistant, HIDA can provide temporary access in advance.
Please bring a non-confidential task or process from your own work that you would like to prioritise and structure during the workshop. Personal, confidential, or otherwise sensitive information must not be entered into external AI systems.
Course Dates
Places are limited to 25 participants and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
The Trainer
Daniel Mertens
Daniel Mertens
Prof. Dr Daniel Mertens led research groups at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg and Ulm University Medical Center until the end of 2025. He is the author of 101 peer-reviewed publications and has secured €6.77 million in third-party funding.
Since 2011, he has trained researchers, physicians, and staff in administration and research management in transferable skills. Since 2023, he has helped more than 8,000 participants across 259 workshops integrate AI assistants into their day-to-day work, including research support teams at EMBL. Following the workshops, 80% of participants intend to make implementation a top priority.
His focus is on context and harness engineering: reusable structures that enable AI assistants to deliver consistently high-quality results.
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