Let AI Become Your Personal Productivity Coach

(Image credit: Shutterstock / Primakov)

If you're like me, you've seen countless headlines about game-changing ChatGPT prompts. I spend most of my days searching for the next big AI trend, so it’s rare for a truly popular and useful tip to slip past my notice. Yet, that’s exactly what happened.

During a lunch break, I stumbled upon a three-month-old YouTube video from Stanford University professor Jeremy Utley. With nearly 2 million views, I was surprised I'd missed it. The title, "How Stanford Teaches AI-Powered Creativity in Just 13 Minutes," made me skeptical. I expected a sales pitch for an online course, but what I got was incredibly valuable information and a prompt that might be one of the best ways to use any AI chatbot.

The Big Shift: Let AI Ask the Questions

Professor Utley’s core idea is simple but profound: instead of asking AI for answers, we should let the AI ask us questions. He points out that you can't ask Microsoft Excel to teach you how to use Excel, but with AI, you can. It can teach you how to use itself to your greatest advantage.

To do this, he provides a powerful prompt that transforms the AI from a simple tool into a personal consultant. Here is the prompt he recommends:

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.

By copying and pasting this into ChatGPT, you initiate a detailed conversation designed to uncover how AI can specifically improve your personal and professional life.

My Personal AI-Powered Consultation

I decided to try Utley's prompt, and I spent the next 30 minutes in a thorough conversation with ChatGPT about my goals, the friction points in my daily routine, and my aspirations for improvement.

After a series of insightful questions, ChatGPT delivered four custom prompts tailored to my needs. For months, I've struggled to balance work, a new puppy, and the challenges of a remote setup. This simple conversation gave me a new perspective and a clear path forward. The AI generated the exact information I needed to build a Notion page with shortcuts to run my new AI-powered workflow each morning, helping me stay on top of my responsibilities without feeling overwhelmed.

The fantastic thing about this method is its personalized nature. The outcome will be different for everyone, but the process of allowing the technology to guide you toward solutions is incredibly powerful. While I shared a lot of personal information during my session, I can confidently say that the 30-minute reflection was one of the most enlightening conversations I've had in years. I highly recommend everyone try this at least once.

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