Learning to interact with AI without the cut-and-paste
Pre-prepared AI prompts are available everywhere. You’ll find them in places like LinkedIn posts, online AI courses, and curated prompt libraries.
“Just cut and paste!”
Beginners gravitate toward pre-prepared prompts when they’re learning how to use AI tools like ChatGPT. And that’s not necessarily bad—these prompts can help if you have no idea where to start, or you need to build some confidence with the tool as you get a feel for it.
But how likely is it that someone else’s prompt will fit the exact scenario you’re in? The same prompt behaves differently depending on the context.
Maybe you tried one of these prompts and didn’t quite get the result you wanted. It technically worked, but the output didn’t wow you. Where do you go from there?
Think in steps, not in scripts
Consider a prompt as the start of a conversation in which you share your own notes, ideas, or thoughts in your own words.
These tools work best when you go back and forth, refining as you go. More context emerges, you can see more options, and you can decide where to take it.
Here’s what a conversation with ChatGPT can look like:
- Describe the situation: What are you trying to do? What’s the context? Where are you getting stuck?
- Name the kind of help you want: Do you want ChatGPT to help you clarify? Organize? Brainstorm? Revise?
- React to what you get: Is it too formal? Too technical? Not specific enough?
- Adjust as needed: Tell ChatGPT how you want to change the output.
- Repeat with intention: Go back and forth as many times as you like, giving more refined prompts each time.
You don’t have to have all the answers before you start. You don’t even have to use full sentences. But you do need to know what you want and tell whether it’s working. Clarity beats cleverness here.
Help ChatGPT help you
Instead of memorizing prompts, here are other things you can tell ChatGPT to help it give you what you want:
- This is the mode I’m in right now: Brainstorming? Outlining? Drafting? Editing?
- Take on a particular role or audience: “Act as someone with years of marketing expertise,” or “Target this to small business owners.”
- Here’s what I want it to sound like: Make it formal, warm, professional, confident, etc.
- Here’s the kind of help I DON’T want: Don’t write this for me. Don’t make any major changes.
- Ask me questions before you start: This can bring to light details or context you many not have thought to include.
As you experiment, you’ll figure out what works best. And that kind of judgment will help you get the most out of using AI tools like ChatGPT.
Here’s a tip: I like to use pre-prepared prompts to get details or ideas I wouldn’t have thought of myself. Instead of using them verbatim, I fold the bits I find valuable into my own back-and-forth conversation with ChatGPT.
What makes the difference
Unfortunately, there’s no magic incantation to get ChatGPT to give you what you want. Instead, you need to know what you want first and have a flexible way to use ChatGPT to get there.
Yes, that’s more complex than copying and pasting. But instead of spending your time researching the perfect prompt, you can be using your own imperfect words to work your way, step by step, toward something that matches what you have in mind.