Chapter 2: How to Talk to AI — Rachel Holt

In this chapter

Why Vague Prompts Get Vague Results
The Four Elements of a Good Prompt
Iterating: How to Improve Any Response
Prompts That Work: Real Examples

Tools mentioned in this chapter

ChatGPT

AI assistant by OpenAI

Claude

AI assistant by Anthropic

Prompts to use

Click any prompt to expand it, then copy and paste directly into your AI tool. Replace the bracketed placeholders with your specifics.

Write a [formal/friendly] email to [recipient] about [topic]. Goal: [what you want to happen]. Tone: [how it should sound]. Length: [short/medium/one page].

Here are my notes from a meeting: [paste notes]. Organize them into: decisions made, action items with owners, and open questions.

I'm trying to decide between [option A] and [option B]. Here's my situation: [describe]. What questions should I be asking myself that I might not be considering?

I asked you [describe what you asked] and got [describe the result]. That wasn't what I needed. Here's what I actually want: [be specific]. Try again with that in mind.

Here's a prompt I wrote: "[paste your prompt]". Rewrite it to be more specific and likely to get a useful result. Then run the improved version.

I work as [profession]. Walk me through five specific, non-obvious ways you could save me time this week — with example prompts I could use for each one.

Can't find the right prompt?

Ask your AI tool to write one for you:

"I need to [describe your goal in one sentence]. Write me a clear, specific prompt I can use to get the best possible result from an AI assistant."

View full prompt library →

Video tutorials

Curated videos to go deeper on the topics in this chapter.

Get the book

Productivity for Women

By Rachel Holt — Available in Kindle and paperback

Kindle — $9.99 Paperback — $17.99

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