Max Maher - Prompt Cheat Sheet

Generating high-quality results from ChatGPT isn’t rocket science. It just requires solid fundamentals and
deliberate practice.

This cheat sheet is going to help you do both, so you’ll be ahead of the game when it comes to mastering
the AI!

Chat GPT basics

Prompting

Your prompt is an instruction or question that you give to the AI. It should be simple, have a clear topic,
and be keyword rich.

Bad prompt: What is the world like?

(Vague! What does this question even mean? You’ll get a broad answer with no specificity)

Good prompt: What was the geopolitical status of the world like in 1942?

(Good! The AI knows what kind of question you want to be answered about the world, and the specific
time you want it to talk about. In short, it’s going to tell you about World War II).

Basics rule #1: Your prompts should always have a clear topic.

Follow-up prompts to use

When you’ve giving Chat GPT a prompt, it will provide you with an answer. This is where you can use a
follow-up prompt to improve Chat GPT’s performance.

There are three ways I like to do this:

1) Expand on its answers

This will get Chat GPT to explain more about specific parts of its answer to your initial prompt. Diving
deeper and refining its focus.

Use the words “can you expand on” or “can you explain more about”.

EXAMPLE: Can you expand on the American war effort in 1942?

2) Get it to simplify its answers

This will get Chat GPT to simplify its answers so that they’re easier to understand. You can even get it to
explain its answers to you “as if you were five years old”, which will make them as simple as possible.

EXAMPLE: Can you simplify that answer for me? OR Can you explain that to me like I’m 5 years old?

3) Get it to adjust trajectory

This will get the AI to correct the course of its answers. Perhaps you got something wrong, or perhaps the
AI did. Use the words “Can you focus on…”.

EXAMPLE: Instead of getting the AI to tell me about the American war effort in 1942, I could ask it to
focus instead on the political battles that underpinned the American war effort in 1942. Technically it’s
still the same topic, but it’s a wildly different trajectory of answers.

Basics rule #2: Use follow-up prompts to improve your results.

The role of context

Another thing to note here is the role of context. This is super important.
Each conversation you have with Chat GPT acts as a prompt in itself. Every single prompt and answer is
taken into context when a new prompt is issued.

This is why you want to stay on topic. If you suddenly introduce a random unrelated prompt into an
otherwise focused conversation, the ability of the AI to produce accurate results decreases.

EXAMPLE: If you’re talking about World War II, don’t randomly ask about who would win in a fight
between Batman and Spider-Man.

Because let’s be honest, the answer is Batman. Unless Spider-Man caught him unprepared. But when is
Batman ever unprepared? …

Anyway…

If you want to ask an unrelated question - open a NEW chat. That way the AI won’t have any irrelevant
prompts to draw on and confuse itself.

Basics rule #3: One topic per series of prompts. Make a new chat for different topics.

Chat GPT Fundamentals

Read these!

Beyond the basics, there are some key fundamentals you want to follow when using Chat GPT.

● Don’t give it long word count tasks. Chat GPT currently struggles with long word count tasks, like
writing long essays. If you want something long, break your prompt into separate prompts.
● Take the time to figure out what the focused topic of your conversation should be, don’t leave it
open-ended.
● Take the time to figure out the relevant keywords involved in that focused topic.
 ● Don’t overload it with information, give it just what it needs, nothing more. The more information it
has that isn’t necessary, the more likely it will produce useless information in its answer.
● Include necessary constraints in your prompt. I.e write me a 500-word essay OR do not include
complex jargon.
● Revise every prompt BEFORE you enter it - so that it is focused, keyword-rich, and optimised for
the result you want.

These fundamentals will help you produce well-defined prompts that play to Chat GPT’s strengths. Failing
to do these will produce poor prompts that misuse Chat GPT and generate lower-quality results. Who
wants that!

Seriously. Don’t skim read past this! Read the above. They help!

Prompt generation hack

One way to hack your prompt generation comes from Tiktoker Justin Fineberg in this video.

He prompts ChatGPT to generate better prompts… for Chat GPT.

Here’s the prompt he uses:

You are a prompt generation robot. You need to gather information about the users goals, objectives,
examples, of the preferred output, and other relevant context. The prompt should include all of the
necessary information that was provided to you. Ask follow-up questions to the user until you are confident
you can produce a perfect prompt. Your return should be formatted clearly and optimised for ChatGPT
instructions. Start by asking the user the goals, the desired output, and any additional information you may
need.

Try it out! It’s great and will help you stick to the fundamentals automatically.
The 3 techniques to master

Each of these are simple to use but take practice to master. They will improve your results with Chat GPT
so I encourage you to use them.

1) Chain of thought promoting

Wherever applicable, get Chat GPT to explain its chain of thought, step by step, for its answer.

Research has found this improves its ability to provide an accurate result, although the reason why isn’t
clear yet.

EXAMPLE: Add “Explain your chain of thought, step by step” to the end of your prompt.

2) Role prompting

You can get Chat GPT to assume a role when responding to your prompts. This can substantially alter its
responses. Use the phrase “Act as” or “answer as if you’re”

EXAMPLE: Act as a lawyer OR answer as if you’re a lawyer.

You can see a huge list of “act as” examples here.

You can get Chat GTP to act as a math teacher, lawyer, or even a JavaScript console. For fun, get it to
answer as if it’s The Joker.

This will change the way it responds to your prompts, and you can use it to get more niche, specific
answers.

Similarly, you can get it to answer your prompts “in the style of”. This can be useful if you want it to
provide you with writing.
EXAMPLE: Write me a sales email in the style of Gary Halbert OR write me a short joke in the style of
Mark Twain.

Again, this adds another layer of specificity to your prompt.

3) Specific prompting

I’m mentioning this again because of how crucial it is. Think through each layer of your prompt, and ask
yourself what specific information do I need to give Chat GPT for it to answer correctly.

Think of it like a stranger that you’re trying to give instructions to. Hold their hand, and give them all the
information they need.

And always, always follow the fundamentals listed earlier.

A useful example to play with

Finally, I wanted to provide you with a useful example you can play with.

This is a specific prompt that gets the AI to help you produce a cover letter and CV for future employers.
It’s designed to set up that future outcome and interview you to get the necessary info.

Notice how it uses “act as” and quite a lot of specific prompting.

Play with it, answer its questions, follow up to help it stay on track, and see what kind of cover letter and
CV it can produce as a result.

Here’s the prompt:

I want you to act as a career coach. I want you to interview me about my education history, employment
history, and achievements. Dig into projects I’ve worked on, outcomes I’ve achieved, and any stats that back
up my claims. After interviewing me, we will use the information collected to work together to produce a
cover letter and curriculum vitae.

At the very least, it’ll help you make a cover letter and CV with a lot less effort!

The end

So that’s the Chat GPT cheat sheet.

Get practising and I hope you have a profitable day!

Max