I know, you've seen sensationalist headlines about ChatGPT and prompts that will completely revolutionize your life for months now. In fact, I've written articles in the past highlighting some of the best AI prompts I've found and used, and sometimes my experience might not match your expectations.
That said, earlier today, I was on my lunch break watching YouTube, and I stumbled across a video from a Stanford University professor called Jeremy Utley. The video has nearly 2 million views, and it was published three months ago. To my surprise, I had never seen or heard of it before.
You see, I spend most of my days scrolling the internet looking for the next AI trend to write about, whether that's something ludicrous like turning your pet into a human, or something genuinely useful like a prompt to unlock ChatGPT 4o. So it's very rare that I miss a popular story or viral informational video in the world of AI.
Interested in the title, "How Stanford Teaches AI-Powered Creativity in Just 13 Minutes," I watched the video expecting to get some mundane and, quite frankly, hollow AI advice followed by a link to sign up for some kind of e-learning course.
Instead, I got incredibly valuable information and a prompt that I think might just be one of the best ways to use ChatGPT (or any other AI chatbot) I've seen yet.
Do not ask AI, let AI ask you
Utley claims users shouldn't "ask AI, but instead let AI as you," and he follows this with an easy-to-understand example where he explains that you can't ask Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint to teach you how to use Excel or PowerPoint, but with AI, you absolutely can.
The prompt he advises everyone to use is as follows:
"Hey! You’re an AI expert
I would love your help and a consultation with you to help me figure out where I can best leverage AI in my life.
As an AI expert, would you please ask me questions? One at a time until you have enough context about my workflows, responsibilities, KPIs, and objectives that you could make two obvious recommendations and two non-obvious recommendations of how I can leverage AI in my life."
Simply copy and paste that into ChatGPT, and you'll have a thorough conversation with AI about how the technology can improve your life, and then implement its suggestions. Honestly, give it a try; you might be completely surprised with the results.
My new AI-powered workflow
I used Utley's prompt and spent the next 30 minutes having a detailed conversation with ChatGPT about my goals, the friction points in my life, and how I want to improve them.
After asking questions, ChatGPT provided me with four different custom prompts that I can use daily to not only improve my workflow but also help me keep on top of my life. For months now, I've been struggling with balancing work, my puppy, and working from home, and after one simple conversation, AI showed me a new outlook on how it can help me deal with some of the more challenging but simple-to-fix problems.
ChatGPT then gave me all the information I needed to create a Notion page with direct links and shortcuts so I can run my AI workflow every morning and make sure I don't drown in the sea of things that I need to get done.
The fantastic thing about this prompt is that it will have a different outcome for everyone, but just speaking with AI about your goals and allowing the technology to give you the answers on how it can support your life is so powerful.
I shared a lot of personal information trying this prompt, so I don't want to go into too much detail, but I'm adamant that everyone should try this at least once, even if they don't use AI's suggestions afterwards. Just having that 30-minute reflection has turned out to be one of the most enlightening conversations I've had in years.
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