Have you ever encountered a moment in your life where you are trying to get an AI to give you a good answer but it just gives you the most generic text ever? Yeah I have definitely been there.
I still clearly remember just minding my own business trying to get ChatGPT to help me with a task. I typed in a super basic question and the answer was so bad I was genuinely shell shocked. I was like What?! Why is this so generic?!
Not gonna lie though I was a total noob when it came to AI. I just thought it would miraculously read my mind. Oh boy you could tell how frustrated I was when it did not understand me. I kinda had a hard time structuring my instructions and I hit a wall so many times. But the frustration I experienced made me realize that I cannot just move in the dark on my own. I NEEDED external help.
So taking a leap of faith I went on a research spree and stumbled upon a YouTube video by a guy named Jeff Su. And you know what?! That video was an absolute golden opportunity.
He taught a legendary six step formula that completely reworked how I talk to AI. And yes I mean reworked. He stripped away everything I knew and rebuilt my prompting skills from absolute zero.
Sooo here are the steps
START WITH THE TASK
The very first thing you need is a task. The rule of thumb is to always start your sentence with an action verb. Tell the AI exactly what your end goal is. Are you asking it to generate or write or analyze? If you just give it a prompt without a task absolutely nothing happens. You have to be clear like literally.
GIVE IT CONTEXT
Honestly this is the trickiest part to get right. You need to give the AI a little bit of background. Like tell the situation you are in and your details like “Im a SPM graduate that has zero knowledge about programming and have been taking interest in learning python bla bla”. Fun fact around this time I used to give zero context and I expected the AI to just magically know my life haha. Just give enough information to guide it so you do not get a completely irrelevant answer.
PROVIDE EXEMPLARS
This is basically just a fancy word for examples. Providing a structure or a framework for the AI to follow will drastically improve the quality of your output. It is like showing a junior exactly how you want a debate case structured. The comparison is huge when you actually give it an example to follow.
CHOOSE A PERSONA
Who do you want the AI to act like? If you want fitness advice ask it to act like a physical therapist. If you want a fun story ask it to act like an expert copywriter. You can literally make it become whoever you need in that moment. It is honestly so magical. Another thing you can also set a gender for the AI, like if you set it as a female that is caring and soft spoken, the AI will exactly act like that.
DEFINE THE FORMAT
Close your eyes and visualize how exactly you want the end result to look. Do you want bullet points or a table or paragraphs? Just tell the AI! Whenever I need to organize my thoughts asking for a table format is the ultimate dopamine release.
SET THE TONE
Do you want the AI to sound casual or formal or witty? Just tell it the exact feeling you are going for! You can definitely ask it to use clear and concise language or write in a friendly yet confident tone.
Well, you might be asking. Miera sure you give us the formulas but I cant quite catch it very well. I getchu, well then here is one example of the prompt.
The example I use here is when you ask AI to make a study schedule for you
THE TASK
Generate a highly realistic one month study schedule.
THE CONTEXT
I am a high school student preparing for my final exams and I am a total noob when it comes to time management. I have five subjects to cover which are Math Science History English and Malay. I only have from 8 PM to 11 PM free on weekdays and I am completely free on weekends. I get distracted easily so I need frequent breaks to survive.
THE EXEMPLARS
Please structure the daily study blocks using the Pomodoro technique framework which means 25 minutes of focused studying followed by a 5 minute break.
THE PERSONA
Act as a highly organized and compassionate senior student who has survived these exact exams and knows how to push me without causing burnout.
THE FORMAT
Output the schedule in a neat table format with the days of the week on the left and the specific subjects and time blocks on the right.
THE TONE
Use an encouraging realistic and slightly strict tone so I actually feel motivated to follow it.
Hope this help!!!