Have you ever felt that quiet hum of acceleration,
like AI shifting gears, moving really fast, and
you're kind of trying to keep pace? Maybe you're
using tools like ChatGPT, but there's that lingering
thought, am I really getting the most out of
this thing? That subtle sense of being just a
little overwhelmed, maybe, navigating this powerful
new landscape. Oh, absolutely. It's such a common
feeling, isn't it? But here's the, well... the
interesting paradox. While the sheer scope of
AI can feel complex, unlocking its true potential,
especially with something like Chad GPT, it actually
comes down to surprisingly simple, smarter interactions.
We're talking about a focused set of insights,
like 35 tips maybe, that can genuinely transform
how you use it day to day. Think of it like becoming
the seasoned pilot of your own AI co -pilot.
Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, our mission
is pretty clear. We're not just aiming to use
Chat GPT. We want to help you master it, to truly
make it a personalized extension of your own
thinking, a co -pilot that understands your specific
needs. We've taken a deep dive into the practical
wisdom that bridges that gap from, you know,
novice to AI power user, helping you really command
this tool. And we've charted a very deliberate
path for you today. First, we'll navigate the
different access plans, help you find your best
starting point, then we'll get into fine tuning
your account settings for maximum privacy and
effectiveness. Super important. Next up, it's
about picking the right AI model for each job
and strategically organizing your work with this
really powerful feature called Projects. It's
kind of less known, but amazing. After that,
we'll unpack the art of prompting how to talk
to it effectively and explore some advanced conversation
strategies. And finally, we'll cover working
with files, how to verify information, which
is crucial, and even getting the AI to help you
write better prompts for itself. This whole deep
dive, it's really about gaining control, building
confidence, and ultimately just amplifying what
you can do. OK, so we've acknowledged that initial
feeling, maybe being a bit overwhelmed. Let's
tackle one of the first questions people usually
have with chat GPT. Do I really need to pay for
it? Or is the free tier enough? Yeah, that's
a really practical question. And the answer is,
well, it depends, because OpenAI offers these
distinct plans. The free plan is obviously zero
cost. It's great for just trying things out for
students, anyone just dipping their toes in.
You usually get access to their latest modeled
let's call it GPT -5, thinking ahead, but with
a message limit. You get basic image generation,
but no sort of video stuff. So for quick emails,
simple questions, short summaries, it's a solid
start. Right. So it's like an entry point, but
with some guardrails maybe. You got it. Then
there's the plus plan. That's $20 a month. This
is often the sweet spot for professionals, content
creators, people using it a lot. You get way
higher message limits, broader access to advanced
reasoning, which is key for complex stuff, data
analysis, planning. Plus, you get better, faster
image generation. Access to Sora for making short
videos from text, this thing called Canvas for
editing together, and agent mode for multi -step
tasks. If you're hitting those free limits or
need those advanced features, this is probably
the one. Hmm, okay. That sounds like a pretty
significant jump in capability, especially if
you're integrating AI into your daily work. It
really is, yeah. And then for most users, the
top tier is the Pro Plan, 200 bucks a month.
Now, this is really designed for small businesses,
researchers. anyone where AI is absolutely central
to what they do, heavy workloads. You're talking
basically unlimited GPT -5 use, the best reasoning
without caps, unlimited and faster high quality
images, longer Sora videos, priority access,
the works. For when AI isn't just helpful, it's
like indispensable to how you operate. OK, so
with those options laid out, if someone's just
starting brand new to this, what's the most sensible
first step? Definitely start with the free plan.
See how you go. If you start hitting the message
limits or needing more power, then upgrade to
plus. Sensible way in. OK, that makes sense.
So we've covered the plans. Now let's get into
making chat GPT feel less like a generic tool
and more like your personal assistant. Customizing
the account settings, this is where it gets really
interesting, right? Absolutely. This is crucial.
First up, protect your privacy. Seriously. Think
of this as your personal data firewall. In data
controls, turn off. Improve the model for everyone.
You're telling OpenAI, hey, my chats are private.
Don't use them to train your AI. Imagine accidentally
feeding your company secrets into a global model.
Yeah, not good. This click prevents that. It's
about owning your data. And there's also temporary
chat. It's basically incognito mode. Chats aren't
saved, aren't used for training. Perfect for
sensitive stuff. And importantly, you can always
export or delete your data. You're in control.
That level of control really does offer some
peace of mind, especially if you're handling
confidential info. Exactly. OK, next, under personalization,
you'll find Customize your experience. This is
super impactful. You tell the AI about you, your
name, your job. Like, are you in marketing or
are you a programmer? It'll tailor answers. You
can set your preferred response style, short
bullets, detailed explanations. You choose. And
you can give it specific rules or formats to
always follow, like that example of Min, the
student. They might say, call me Min. Use startup
examples for academic stuff. Always summarize
in bullets. Bold the main ideas. Ah, so you're
basically programming its baseline understanding
of how you like to communicate and what you need.
Couldn't have said it better myself. Yeah. Then
enable advanced features. Go into settings, turn
on web search. This is vital. Otherwise, its
knowledge is stuck in the past before its last
training cutoff. It won't know current events.
Advanced voice lets you have natural spoken chats.
Canvas is like a collaborative doc with the AI
helping you edit. And Code interpreter. Don't
let the name fool you. Let's it analyze data,
do calculations, run code snippets. Super powerful.
I find that code interpreter amazing. It's not
just for coders, is it? It's like having a mini
data scientist on call. Precisely. And finally,
set up memory and personalization. If you enable
referenced save memories and referenced chat
history, chat GPT starts to learn from your chats.
It remembers things like Oh, you prefer a humorous
tone for social media posts, so you always ask
for sources. And you can manage these memories,
delete ones you don't want, so it only remembers
what's helpful. That sounds great, but honestly,
does that AI memory ever get in the way? Like,
does it sometimes make it too rigid or lead it
down the wrong path because it remembered something
incorrectly? It's a really sharp question. Yeah.
Yeah, it can't happen, though it's mostly helpful.
An old preference might occasionally lead to
a less than ideal answer in a new context. That's
exactly why being able to manage those memories
is key. You can just delete one if it's causing
issues. It reminds us AI is intuitive, but definitely
not perfect. But overall, it means way less repetitive
instruction makes it feel much more like it just
gets you. Right, less repeating yourself over
and over. OK, so the account is tuned, privacy
is locked down, it's starting to feel personal.
Now, let's talk about picking the right brain
for the job and, crucially, how to keep things
organized. Right. Often you've got a choice of
models. For instant or auto tasks, think quick,
simple stuff. What's the capital of France? Translate
this sentence. These don't need deep thought.
But for anything needing more cognitive horsepower,
complex logic, math problems, detailed planning,
you want the thinking models. These models engage
in a much more deliberate reasoning process.
You get more robust, accurate answers when the
task is genuinely tricky. You might also see
legacy models in the settings, maybe for specific
older tasks they were good at. Okay, so simple
facts are instant, but mapping out a whole marketing
strategy needs a thinking model. It's exactly.
Summarizing the plot of, say, the movie Inception,
instant auto is fine, but asking for a detailed
five -year marketing plan for a new coffee shop
in Ho Chi Minh City? With budgets and audience
segments, that absolutely needs a thinking model.
Now, for organization, let me introduce projects.
Honestly, one of the most useful features and
so many people don't seem to use it. Think of
projects like creating dedicated specialized
AI assistants. Each one is custom built for a
specific workflow or topic. dedicated AI assistants
for each project. That sounds incredibly powerful.
It really is. Projects let you group related
chats together. You can store relevant files,
PDFs, images, notes right inside that project.
The AI then uses only those files as its immediate
knowledge base for that project. And crucially,
each project can have its own custom instructions,
only separate from your main account settings.
And here's the real game changer. It creates
project only memory. What you discuss in one
project, the preferences it learns there. They
don't leak into other projects. No more crossed
wires. Whoa. OK, hang on. Imagine having a separate
AI expert for every single project you're working
on, each one with its own specific knowledge
base and instructions. That's like Maso building
a whole team of specialist consultants. It's
honestly that transformative. I remember when
I first started using them, I was juggling like
three totally different client projects. One
needed this really quirky and formal social media
voice. Another needed super precise technical
language for finance. The third was academic.
Before projects, ChatGPT kept messing them up.
It would try to inject jokes into the financial
report. Projects completely sorted that out.
Saved my sanity, frankly. So you can have a YouTube
content assistant project, upload your brand
guidelines, successful video scripts, audience
data, instruct it. You're a YouTube strategist,
give me three catchy titles, use an energetic
tone for young viewers, or maybe a university
academic advisor project, feed it syllabi, notes,
sample essays, tell it, you're my tutor, explain
microeconomics simply, use examples relevant
to my course. You can even do a weight loss coach
project with your food logs and workout plan.
The key pro tip. Always enable project -only
memory for that laser focus. So projects basically
puts up walls between different topics, stops
the AI getting confused when you switch contexts.
Exactly. It ensures that focused expertise for
each specific task. No more knowledge contamination.
Mid -roll sponsor, read placeholder. Okay, we've
set up our environment. We've got the specialized
project assistance ready. Now for the main event.
how we actually talk to the AI. Because the quality
of the answers really does depend so much on
the quality of our questions, doesn't it? Spot
on. First rule. Talk like a human. Seriously.
Forget weird syntax or keyword jamming. Just
chat like you would with a really smart colleague
instead of something robotic like, request provision
of Vietnamese culinary recipe optimized for under
30 minute prep cook time. To diners. Just say,
hey, I want to cook a Vietnamese dish for two
tonight, but I'm short on time. Can you suggest
something tasty that's easy to make in under
30 minutes? Need the recipe too. See? Natural
to clear. Yeah, it feels more like starting a
conversation than issuing a command. Next up,
be direct and specific. If you're vague, you
get vague, generic answers. Tell me about writing
a CV is just too broad. It doesn't know where
to start. Better. How do I write a CV for a junior
marketing exec role? I don't have formal work
experience, just university clubs. What sections
should I include? How do I highlight the club
stuff? Much better. So the more precision you
give it, the more tailored the result you get
back. Precisely. Also really important, provide
rich context. Think about the classic five W's.
Who, what, when, where, why. The more background
you give it, the more accurate and genuinely
useful the answer will be. For example, act as
my personal finance advisor. I'm 25, freelance,
my income's unstable. Average is maybe $650 a
month. Goal is saving for a house deposit in
10 years. Can you suggest a simple monthly budget?
My living costs in Ho Chi Minh City are about
$430. See how much info that gives it to work
with. That's incredibly detailed. I can see how
powerful that is. But maybe for someone new,
could that feel a bit much? Like, what's the
absolute most crucial piece of context to start
with if you're overwhelmed? That's a fair point.
If you had to pick one, I'd say the why, your
ultimate goal, or the problem you're trying to
solve. Start there. Then layer in the who, your
roller perspective, and the what's, the specific
task. Also, you absolutely need to specify your
desired format. Tell it how you want the output.
A table, JSON, a bullet point, a checklist. This
makes sure the info comes back in a way you can
actually use easily. For that finance example,
you could add, present the plan in JSON format
with fields for income, savings, expenses. Great.
So it's not just what info, but how you want
it structured. You got it. And here's a really
powerful technique. Give examples, good and bad.
Show the AI what you want it to do, and just
as importantly, what not to do. Like, if you
want social media hooks for sunscreen, follow
this good style. 90 % of people apply sunscreen
wrong. Here's why. That makes people curious.
Avoid this BD style. Sunscreen is important for
skin. Too generic. Hetcom. This directly steers
it towards the kind of output you're after. You
know, I still wrestle with prompt drift myself
sometimes, even after using these tools for a
while. It really is an ongoing conversation,
isn't it? Sometimes it just wanders off. It absolutely
is. And providing those clear examples, good
and bad, is one of the best ways to keep it anchored,
especially for creative or nuanced tasks. So
yeah, it boils down to treating it like a very
smart but very literal dialogue partner. Be clear,
be specific, give a context. Exactly, a dynamic
partnership. Clarity is definitely king. Okay,
let's take these interactions up another notch.
Let's talk advanced conversation strategies and
also how we handle information reliability, especially,
you know, checking facts. Right. So, for advanced
conversation strategies, number one, don't accept
the first draft. Ever. Chat GPT shines when you
iterate. Always push back. Rewrite this more
concisely. Make the tone more professional. Add
some humor. Can you explain that with a simpler
analogy? Then, use the branching feature. This
is cool. After a response, find the little three
dot icon, click branch in new chat. It lets you
explore different paths from the same point without
messing up your main chat. Like draft a job email,
then branch it one friendly, one more assertive,
see which works better. Oh, that's brilliant.
Like A, B testing different approaches without
losing your original thread. Exactly. Also for
big tasks. Chunk big projects into steps. Don't
ask for a whole business plan in one go. That's
overwhelming for you and the AI. Break it down,
part one. Executive summary, part two. Market
analysis, part three. Marketing, part four. Financials.
Tackle each piece separately. And this is crucial
for alignment. Ask ChatGPT to state its assumptions.
Before it jumps into planning your five -day
New York trip, ask it. OK, before you start,
what are you assuming about my budget, interests,
and how I plan to get around? This gets you both
on the same page. Finally, try this. Let ChadGBT
ask you questions. If you want to help improving
time management, instead of asking for tips,
say, ask me five diagnostic questions about my
current time management challenges. Then based
on your answers, it can suggest a tailored strategy.
Oh, that flips the script. It becomes a diagnostic
partner first, then a solution provider. Very
smart. Yeah. Now, shifting to working with files
and media, the big one. Verify facts and check
sources. AI can hallucinate. It can make stuff
up, but sound totally confident. Always ask for
sources. Click the links. Cross reference with
other reliable sources. Be extra skeptical about
recent events or sensitive topics where accuracy
is paramount. Right. So rule one for critical
info. Never just trust the AI output blindly.
Always double check. Always. However, you can
upload and analyze documents. This is incredibly
useful. Upload PDFs, research papers, reports,
images, charts, screenshots, text files, data,
notes. You can ask it to, say, summarize a Q3
financial report PDF, identify key trends or
risks mentioned, and even cite the page numbers
for its claims. You can also use Canvas for collaborative
editing. Remember that. It puts an editable document
right next to the chat. You can write something,
edit it directly, and get AI suggestions right
there. That really makes it feel like a shared
workspace, not just a Q &A box. Totally, and
this extends to image and visual capabilities.
ChatGBT can interpret images now, upload a photo,
ask it to count things with a pinch of salt on
accuracy, use OCR optical character recognition
to pull text out of a screenshot, describe a
photo, or extract data from a chart. Pro tip,
perform OCR on this image and give me the text.
Super handy, and just a hammer at home. For any
sensitive discussion, visual or text, use temporary
chat for privacy. Not saved, not trained on,
not stored in memory. OK. So the habit we're
building is this constant loop. Interact, refine,
ask questions, verify, iterate again. Absolutely.
It's a dynamic partnership. You need to be engaged,
not just a passive recipient. It's not a one
-way street. All right. Now for some really advanced
moves. Turning the AI into a prompt writing assistant
for itself and looking at some ready -to -go
templates to save time. Yeah. This is where you
really start leveraging AI smartly. Meta -prompting.
Using AI to improve your prompts for AI. It sounds
complex, but it's simple. Just ask ChatGPT to
write better prompts for you. For example, I
want to brainstorm ideas for my Instagram channel
on vegan cooking. Can you suggest five detailed,
effective prompts I could use to get post ideas,
recipe outlines, and short video concepts from
you? It will then give you well -structured prompts
you can just copy and paste. So you're basically
asking the AI, how should I ask you questions
better? Precisely. It's surprisingly effective.
And then there are ready -to -use prompt templates.
These are huge time savers. For product comparison,
you can set up a template. Create a detailed
comparison table for product A versus product
B. Include criteria, price, key features, ideal
user pros, cons. Then just plug in, say, Grammarly
versus Quillbot. for learning new topics. Explain
complex topic to me like I'm 12, use simple analogies,
then give me a three question multiple choice
quiz with answers. Great for getting up to speed
on something like cloud computing. That's fantastic
for quickly grasping something complex, especially
if you need to learn it fast. Definitely. For
creative writing, write a genre, you example
sci -fi short story about topic, a lonely robot
with a surprising element, you example twist
ending where it finds a dog, then ask. Suggest
three ways to develop this story further. And
there are loads more useful templates out there.
Email improvement, document summarization, brainstorming
ideas, organizing data, planning presentations,
content editing, data analysis, translation,
even personal coaching frameworks. They give
you a solid structure, a powerful head start
for all sorts of tasks. This really does feel
like having a whole toolkit ready, doesn't it?
One that even helps you refine your own thinking
about what you need to ask. It's all about using
the AI to make your own interaction with AI smarter
and more efficient. So... Pulling this all together,
what does this really mean for someone listening
who wants to truly master chat GPT, to really
elevate how they use it? It boils down to maybe
five core ideas, I think. One, communicate naturally.
Talk to it like a smart person, not a search
engine. Two, use projects. Seriously, organize
your work into these focused specialized areas.
It's a game changer. Three, always verify facts.
Don't trust it blindly, especially for important
stuff. AI can be confidently wrong. It hallucinates.
Four, Iterate and refine. The first answer is
rarely the best. Push it, ask for changes, polish
it. And five, be specific. More context, more
detail leads to exponentially better, more relevant
results. It really sounds like it's about building
a more conscious, more interactive relationship
with the AI. Less passive prompting, more active
dialogue. Exactly. Chat GPT is an incredibly
powerful tool, but look, it's not magic. Mastery
takes practice, takes engagement. Start free.
Try these techniques. Focus on natural language.
Set up a project for one common task you do.
And always, always double check anything critical.
Yeah, the goal isn't really to become some kind
of AI guru overnight, is it? It's more about
gradually building ChatGPT into a tool that truly
works for you, understands your needs. It should
amplify what you can do, not replace your own
thinking. The better you communicate, the more
powerful it becomes in your hands. So the question
to ponder is, What new possibilities will honing
these skills unlock found? What will you create
or solve or discover when AI becomes a true extension
of your own intellect? Your AI powered journey
really starts with your very next conversation.
Go experiment. Out T -Row music.