Why this matters
You finally have a prompt that works: for client estimates, weekly reports or proposal drafts. So you keep it in a document and paste the whole thing, rules and all, every time. Then you type the same two corrections after the first answer, every time.
That is slow, and it is fragile. A colleague uses an old copy, someone forgets a rule, and the answers drift.
In this module you turn one proven prompt into standing instructions in a ChatGPT Project. The rules are always on, and a one-line request is enough. Then you test it the way it will really be used, find the gap, and fix it with one new rule.
What you’ll build
For Ridgeline Heating & Air, a made-up company whose owner, Mike, writes customer estimates from rough job notes, you have ChatGPT sort his estimate prompt into two parts: rules that are true for every job, and blanks that change. The rules go into a Project called Ridgeline Estimates.
You test it with one short line and no prices. The format is right, but every price says PRICE NEEDED. One new rule ("ask me first") fixes it: the same line now gets a question back, and one reply with the prices gets the full estimate.
What you need
- Nothing to start the practiceChatGPT is a practice copy, and Mike’s prompt is pasted in for you.
- A ChatGPT account with Projects, to do it for realchatgpt.com. Projects are in the sidebar; the instructions box is in the project’s ⋯ menu, next to Share, under Project settings.
- One prompt you paste every weekFrom your Prompt Templates doc, or the one you use most. The before-and-after in the download shows the shape.
- The corrections you keep typingThe fixes you add after the first answer ("always end with…", "this is always included"). They become rules too.
Concepts
3 ideas you’ll use in the practice.
Rules versus blanks
Read your prompt line by line and ask: is this true every time? Your role, your company, the format, your tone and rules like "don’t invent prices" are true every time. They go in the instructions.
The client, the job and the numbers change every time. They are the short message you send. A blank that never really changes, like your company name, moves into the instructions too.
Where instructions live
Custom instructions (Settings, Personalization) apply to every chat, so keep them for things always true about you, like your name and how you like answers.
Project instructions apply only inside that project, and win there. That makes a Project the best home for one job, like estimates or weekly client reports.
Test with a lazy one-line request
Instructions get used on busy days, with short messages and missing details. So test them that way. The first test here followed every rule and still gave a useless estimate, because no rule said what to do when all the prices were missing.
When you add a rule, send the exact same test again, so the new rule is the only thing that changed. Then still check every number before it goes to a client.
Practice
Do every step yourself in a practice copy of the real tool. It checks your work, and “Do it for me” finishes any step you get stuck on.
Do it for real
Now repeat it in your own account. Tick each step as you go.
Downloads
- Before and after: prompt to project instructions (.txt)Mike’s original prompt, the finished instructions with the new rule, the blanks to send each time, and the lazy test line.
Quick check
3 questions to check you’ve got it.
1. Your company name was a [BLANK] in the old prompt, but it never changes. Where does it go?
- In the instructions
- In every message you send
- Nowhere
Show the answer
In the instructions. Anything true every time belongs in the instructions, even if it started as a blank.
2. Where should rules for one job, like estimates, live?
- Custom instructions, so they apply to every chat
- A Project’s instructions
- At the top of every message
Show the answer
A Project’s instructions. Project instructions apply only inside that project, which is right for one job.
3. Why test with a short, lazy request?
- It uses less of your plan
- That is how you will really use it, so it finds the gaps
- Long requests do not work in Projects
Show the answer
That is how you will really use it, so it finds the gaps. Busy-day messages miss details. Test for that, and the instructions hold up.
You reached the end of Better Prompts
That completes Better Prompts: four-part prompts, interviews, examples, fixes, chains and always-on instructions. Next, put them to work in Intro to AI Automation, where a Custom GPT, an AI agent and a web form do the work for you.
Pick your next course →