• 1. Clarify Confusion

• 2. Read Links and Documents

• 3. Reveal ChatGPT’s Reasoning

• 4. Add Verification Step

• 5. Learn Anything Fast

• 6. Use Quotations to Emphasize Key Things

• 7. Let 3 Experts Debate

• 8. Get Custom Formats

• 9. Add Detail

• 10. Break It Down

• 11. Request Specifics

• 12. Shuffle Ordering

• 13. Provide Examples

• 14. Avoid Negative Prompts

• 15. External References

• 16. Assign Role

• 17. Explain Audience

• 18. Try Again

• 19. Translate to English

• 20. Minimize Vague Pronouns (It, They)

Mastering ChatGPT is hard.

The quality of your prompt significantly impacts the quality of answers.

A broad question, "Tell me about climate change" may give a generic response.

A more specific question, "What are the projected impacts of climate change on coastal cities by 2050?" gives a more detailed and practical response.

Balancing the right amount of background information and context to give ChatGPT is a delicate challenge.

Not too much, not too little, just right.

You may need to converse with ChatGPT for several turns to get there.

You may need to rephrase your prompt to curb misinterpretations.

Despite the challenges, mastering ChatGPT is invaluable.

It’s all about your prompt — the instructions you provide.

This post walks through 20 practical ChatGPT tips I use every day.

I’ve included examples, so you can easily copy paste to try them out!

1. Clarify Confusion

Help ChatGPT learn your intent and expectations, so it can tailor its answers.

2. Read Links and Documents

Use the Link Reader GPT, available in the ChatGPT store.

It’s free!

It lets ChatGPT read:

• PDF

• PPT

• Images

• YouTube

• Websites

• Word docs

Here’s a description of the Link Reader GPT plugin:

Here’s a real example:

I used Link Reader to read my LinkedIn Carousel PDF (where I originally made this list) and convert it into text format for this blog post.

3. Reveal ChatGPT’s Reasoning

To understand why ChatGPT is giving you particular answers, add this simple instruction to the end of your prompt:

You can append this to any prompt.

Fascinating to watch ChatGPT’s thinking unfold real-time.

4. Add Verification Step

Adding a verification step is useful to check a certain condition is true before ChatGPT finishes answering.

For example:

• Tell ChatGPT to search the internet to find upcoming conferences

• Add a verification step: check conference date is in the future

• If conference date is in the past, tell find a different conference.

ChatGPT will repeat your instruction until it finds a conference in the future, satisfying your condition.

5. Learn Anything Fast

This is a fun prompt to learn about any topic, fast, in an engaging way.

Tell ChatGPT to be an expert, tasked with passing its expertise down to you.

6. Use Quotations to Emphasize Key Things

Employ quotations to highlight key items in your prompt.

7. Let 3 Experts Debate

This is called Tree-of-Thought prompting.

ChatGPT pretends to be different experts answering the same question.

Each expert explains their thought process step-by-step.

If at any step, an expert realizes they’re wrong, they leave.

This can be applied to general questions, as well as logic and math problems.

Here’s an example with the question:

Should we worry now about climate change?

8. Get Custom Formats

One of ChatGPT’s most useful features - return answers in various formats:

• csv

• code

• table

• JSON

• HTML

• LaTeX

• bar chart

• markdown

• bullet point lists

Just ask!

Here’s a sample prompt that returns a table:

Here’s the output created by ChatGPT, in table format:

9. Add Detail

A useful way to think about prompts - each prompt has 4 ingredients:

• Task

• Input data

• Context

• Examples

Adding more detail to each ingredient generally results in better answers.

10. Break It Down

Another useful tip is to break down your prompt in concrete steps.

11. Request Specifics

Ask ChatGPT to take specific steps that you want included in the answer:

12. Shuffle Ordering

The order of sentences in your prompt impacts the answer.

Try mixing it up!

Why does sequence matter?

Context Setting

The initial sentences in a prompt often set the context.

This initial information can seem more immediate or important because it frames the topic and guides how subsequent information is interpreted.

Starting a prompt with a topic or question focuses the response on that area, potentially prioritizing it over other items mentioned later.

Logical Flow

The logical flow created by the order of sentences in your prompt can lead to different interpretations and answers. A well-structured prompt progresses logically from one point to the next, facilitating a consistent response.

Memory Constraints

In longer prompts, sometimes ChatGPT pays more attention to information at the beginning and end, diminishing the impact of information in the middle.

13. Provide Examples

This is formally known as “few-shot learning”.

It allows ChatGPT to adapt to new tasks with minimal input.

By providing a few clear, well-defined examples in your prompt, ChatGPT better understands your desired output and the task’s nuances.

14. Avoid Negative Prompts

Write positive, direct, clear prompts.
 
Let LLMs figure it out.

15. External References

To tailor responses, give ChatGPT:

• Domain-specific knowledge

• Examples of writing style and tone

• Fact-checking sources

• Specialized instructions

By integrating domain-specific knowledge and specialized instructions, ChatGPT will provide more accurate, relevant, and detailed responses.

Incorporating fact-checking enhances the reliability and credibility of outputs.

I recommend Perplexity AI if citing sources is important for your use case.

Tailoring ChatGPT's output to fit specific writing styles and tones (e.g., formal, conversational, persuasive) enhances its ability to engage different audiences.

One neat trick: ask ChatGPT to answer in several different voices.

16. Assign Role

17. Explain Audience

18. Try Again

If you’re not happy with ChatGPT’s answers, here’s a quick way to iterate:

19. Translate to English

ChatGPT performs much better in English.

First ask ChatGPT to translate your prompt into English.

Then run the prompt.

20. Minimize Vague Pronouns (It, They)

Minimize use of vague or undefined pronouns.

ChatGPT needs a clear understanding of your instructions.