A cheat sheet made for Molly

ChatGPT, one level up

Use this every day

New idea? Ramble, then hand it off

  1. Ramble about the idea in the chat you’re in.
  2. Paste the prompt below. It interviews you about anything missing, one question at a time.
  3. Answer, and it writes a clean prompt for a new chat.
  4. Start a new chat and paste that in.

Ask me up to three questions about anything important I haven’t told you, one at a time. Then turn everything I’ve said into a clear prompt I can paste into a new chat. Include the goal, the context it needs, and what a good answer looks like.

The rest of the page covers building on your plan, setup, prompt moves, the right tool, and catching it making things up.

RefresherOne topic per chat, give it context, and start a new chat when it drifts.

Build on your plan

Your plan can keep growing. Bring it into ChatGPT, shape it together, and ask for the features you want.

1Give it the plan

Make a project called “My plan”, start a chat in it, and paste the whole plan in.

2Review it together

Go through my plan with me one step at a time. For each step, ask whether it still fits, and change it with me before we move on.

3Make it long term

Using this plan as the first stage, help me build a longer-term plan. Ask me where I want to be in a year before you write it.

4Ask for features in plain words

A page you can click and tick is a ChatGPT Site. Ask for it in Work (Plus or higher), check the preview, ask for changes, then use Share and Publish to get a link.

Tick off steps

Build my plan as a website I can use, with a check box beside each step in my short-term plan so I can tick them off.

A day-to-day page

Break it out into another page: a day-to-day plan based on the one I like, and make it an interactive to-do list.

Set it up once

ChatGPT keeps things in three places. Put each thing where it belongs and every chat starts smarter.

A projectYour business
Facts, voice and files for one area of work. Make one with New project, then add instructions in •••Project settings, like “Warm, plain voice. Keep product names exactly as written.” Add files it should always know, like your price list. Inside the project these beat your custom instructions, and Project-only memory keeps its chats separate.
Custom instructionsHow you like answers
Style, not facts, for every chat: “Skip the preamble. Short paragraphs. Ask me one question if I’m unclear.” Find them in SettingsPersonalization, or SettingsCustomize ChatGPT in the phone app.
MemoryWhat it picks up
What it learns from your chats. Check it now and then in SettingsPersonalizationMemory: correct anything wrong, or choose Don’t mention this again. If old chats leak into new answers, turn off Reference chat history.

Prompt moves

Small changes to how you ask, big changes to what you get back.

Have it interview you first

It asks for what it needs instead of guessing. The hand-off prompt at the top starts the same way.

Before you write anything, ask me the questions you need to write a strong About page for my online shop. Ask them one at a time, then write it.

Show it an example

An example beats a description of what you want. Fill in the brackets first.

Here’s a product description I like from another shop: [paste it]. Write one for my [product] in the same style and length.

Ask for three, then a critique

Picking between options is easier than judging one.

Write three different subject lines for an email announcing a new product. Then critique each one and tell me which you’d send and why.

Change one part only

Keep what works and fix the rest.

Keep everything else exactly the same. Rewrite only the second paragraph so it’s shorter and warmer.

Pick the right tool

Most of what ChatGPT can do sits in the + menu and the model menu.

Thinking level

Instant is for quick questions. For planning, pricing math or comparing options, turn up the Thinking slider (paid plans) or pick Think (Free and Go). On Plus and Pro it won’t step up by itself, even if you type “think harder.”

Search or deep research

Search is for quick facts with links. Deep research writes a cited report from many sources, like how similar shops price shipping, and shows you its plan first. Start it from +Deep research or type /Deepresearch.

Data analysis

Upload a spreadsheet, like a month of sales, and ask for totals, trends or a chart. It runs the numbers instead of estimating them.

Voice

Tap the Voice icon in the message bar to talk it through, like rehearsing a pitch. It stays in the chat, so you can read it back.

Work

For finished work, like a spreadsheet comparing suppliers, switch from Chat to Work at the top of the screen. It plans, does the steps, asks before important actions, and can repeat a task on a schedule. Any plan in the desktop app; Plus or higher on web and phone.

Catch it making things up

It sounds just as sure when it’s wrong, so check anything you’ll act on.

Make it show its sources

For prices, fees or rules. Then open the links and check they say what it claims.

Search the web and check what you just told me. Link a source for each fact, and tell me anything you couldn’t confirm.

Ask what it’s unsure of

Which parts of this are you least sure of, and why?

Check it against your data

Upload the spreadsheet first, so it works from real numbers.

Check this against the spreadsheet I uploaded. List anything that doesn’t match, and show me where in the spreadsheet it comes from.