1In one sentence
Here are ten things to type today, each showing one thing ChatGPT is good at, so that by the end you have felt what it can do instead of reading about it.
2New words
- Summarize — make something long into something short that keeps the important points.
- Brainstorm — produce many ideas quickly without judging them yet.
- Draft — a first version of a piece of writing that you will improve.
3Why you would want it
Most people type one vague question, get a vague answer, and decide ChatGPT is "okay". These ten prompts say what you want, who it is for, and how long. Copy them, then change the parts in [brackets] to your own life.
| # | What it shows | Type this |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Explain | Explain how [a mortgage] works to a 12-year-old, in 6 short lines. |
| 2 | Summarize | Paste any long text, then: Summarize this in 5 bullet points, then tell me the one thing I must not miss. |
| 3 | Rewrite | Paste your own paragraph: Rewrite this to be shorter and friendlier, keep my meaning, no new facts. |
| 4 | Translate | Translate this into [French], keeping it polite and formal: [text] |
| 5 | Plan | Make me a simple 3-day plan to [prepare for a job interview], one hour a day. |
| 6 | Compare | Compare [renting] and [buying] a car for someone who drives 20,000 km a year. Give a table, then your recommendation. |
| 7 | Brainstorm | Give me 15 names for [a small bakery by the sea]. Mix short, funny and classy ones. |
| 8 | Check | Here is an email I wrote. Point out anything unclear, rude or wrong, then show a fixed version. |
| 9 | Teach | Teach me the 5 most important words in [Spanish] for a restaurant, with how to say them. Then quiz me. |
| 10 | Draft | Draft a 6-line message to my [landlord] asking to fix the [air conditioning] by Friday. Polite but firm. |
4Try it now
- Open a new chat (the pencil-and-paper icon at the top left).
- Do prompts 1, 5 and 10 first; they take under a minute each.
- For prompts 2 and 8, paste real text of yours.
- After any answer, reply with Make it shorter or Make it more formal and watch it adjust.
5What you will see
Ten very different kinds of answer: a child-level explanation, a tidy summary, a table with a verdict, a quiz. Here is what happens after you reply Make it shorter:
The point is not any single answer; it is that the same box did all ten.
6Watch out
- One-word prompts ("mortgage?") get one-word quality. The brackets are where your details go; fill them.
- ChatGPT likes to end with "Would you like me to...?" offers. You can ignore them or say yes; they are suggestions, not requirements.
7Go further
Pick the prompt you liked most and ask: What else could you do with this? Then read Chapter 1.5 to learn about the Think button and the model picker.