Free Guide, Part Two

Your Second Week With AI

You've sent your first messages, corrected a few answers, learned to check the ones that matter. This is where an AI chat stops being a box you type into and starts being a system that already knows who you are, so you stop re-explaining yourself every time.

New here? This page assumes you've already sent a few messages and know how to write a plain, specific request. If that's not you yet, start with the beginner checklist first.

Start With Part One

The Toolkit

Seven upgrades, in a sensible order

None of these are required. They're what turns "I use AI sometimes" into "AI already knows my business before I've typed a word."

0 of 7 done
1 Give it a memory: the master prompt

Right now, every new chat starts from zero. The AI does not know your business, your role, your customers, or how you like things written, unless you type it out again. A master prompt fixes that: one document you keep and paste in (or upload) that answers the basics once.

  • What you do, and who you do it for
  • Your products, services, or role in one or two lines
  • The tone you write in, and the tone you hate
  • Anything it should never suggest or assume

Interview me so you can write a one-page master prompt about my business and how I like things written. Ask one question at a time.

Why this matters You will use this document constantly. Save it somewhere you can find in ten seconds, a notes app, a pinned document, whatever you already use, and paste it in at the start of any chat where the background actually matters.
2 Turn your best prompts into system prompts

A master prompt says who you are. A system prompt says how to do one particular job, every time, the same way. If you catch yourself writing a similar request over and over, weekly emails, meeting notes, social captions, that task is worth turning into a saved instruction set.

  1. Get the output right once, correcting it back and forth until it's genuinely good.
  2. Ask the AI to write down the instructions that would produce that same result directly, no back and forth.
  3. Save those instructions somewhere. Next time, paste them in first, then add only what's different this time.

Based on everything we just went back and forth on, write me a reusable instruction set that would get me straight to this result next time, without the corrections.

3 Learn the seven control words

In part one you learned Role, Context, Command, and Format. These seven go further, drop any of them into a prompt and the answer usually gets noticeably more useful.

1Act as
"Act as a skeptical accountant." Sets the expertise and voice the answer comes from.
2Deep research
Asks the AI to actually look things up and show sources, instead of answering from memory alone.
3First principles
"Explain this from first principles." Forces a from-scratch answer instead of a recycled cliché.
4Devil's advocate
"Now argue against this." Surfaces the risks and holes in your own plan before you commit to it.
5Constraints first
State your budget, deadline, and tools before you ask for the answer, not after.
6Format as
Table, checklist, plain text, JSON. Say the shape you need before you get an answer in the wrong one.
7Verify and cite
"Verify this and cite your sources." Pushes back on confident-sounding guesses (see part one, step 5).
Where to start If you only add two, add constraints first and format as. Those two alone usually fix most of what makes an answer feel almost right but not quite usable.
4 Store context once: projects

Most AI chat tools now let you group related conversations into a folder that holds shared files and background, sometimes called a project or a workspace. Instead of pasting the same brand guide, pricing sheet, or report into every new chat, you upload it once and every conversation inside that folder can see it.

  • One project per ongoing thing: your business, a specific client, a big report you're building over weeks
  • Drop in the documents that keep coming up: brand guide, past examples, notes from calls
  • Your prompts inside that project can get shorter, the background is already there
Worth checking This feature usually sits on a paid plan, and the exact name and limits vary between AI tools. Check what your specific one offers before you build a habit around it.
5 Set your defaults: custom instructions

Many AI tools have a settings page where you can set standing preferences that apply to every conversation, not just the current one. Look for something called "custom instructions" or "personalisation" in your account settings. Worth setting:

  • Your preferred tone (blunt, warm, formal, whatever fits how you actually talk)
  • Your default format (short answers, bullet points, no unnecessary preamble)
  • What to do when it's not sure, guess and flag it, or ask you first

Set this once and every future chat starts already tuned to how you like things.

6 Package it up: custom GPTs

Once a system prompt reliably gets you the same good result, some AI tools let you save it as a standalone assistant with its own name and icon, sometimes called a custom GPT or a custom assistant. Anyone with access can use it without knowing how to prompt at all, they just answer its questions.

Good candidates: a client-intake assistant that always asks the same questions in the same order, a first-draft-email writer trained on your voice, a support assistant that only answers from your own documentation.

Why this matters This is the step where AI stops being something only you know how to use, and becomes a tool the rest of your team can use too, without training.
7 Build them in this order

Trying to build all six at once is how this whole page ends up ignored. Do them in this order instead, each one makes the next one easier.

First

Master prompt + custom instructions

Just for you. Takes twenty minutes, pays off in every single chat after.

Then

One system prompt

Pick the task you repeat most often and turn it into a saved instruction set.

Then

One project

Somewhere ongoing, a client, a business area, that keeps needing the same background.

Last

A custom GPT

Only once you have a system prompt good enough that someone else could run it.

Reference, Not A Step

A few more words you'll hit

Part one covered prompt, model, hallucination, context, and token. These pick up where that left off.

Master prompt
A single document introducing who you are, so any chat can be given your background in one paste.
System prompt
A saved instruction set for a specific, repeatable task, so you stop rebuilding the same request from scratch.
Custom instructions
Standing preferences set once in your account, applied automatically to every future conversation.
Project / workspace
A folder of related chats that all share the same uploaded background files.
Custom GPT
A system prompt packaged into a standalone assistant that someone else can use without writing prompts.
Control word
A short instruction, like "constraints first" or "format as", that changes how the AI approaches the whole answer.

Once The Toolkit Is Built

Ready for week three?

A deeper interview about your goals and skills, finding your blind spots, a real roadmap, and a profile brief that carries it all into every chat. Still free.

Read Part Three

Rather someone just built this for you?

We set up the master prompts, system prompts, and custom GPTs. You just use them.

If you'd rather skip building this yourself, submit a brief and we'll tell you what fits your business and what it costs.

Submit a Brief See AI Integration