UMKAY
A practical way to work with ChatGPT.
Start with something you actually want to do. Give ChatGPT the context that changes the answer, then refine what it gives you. If a mistake could matter, check the facts and assumptions before you use the result. With practice, these are skills you can take into any ordinary ChatGPT conversation.
The lessons follow the same practical idea: explain things plainly, leave room to try another approach, and match the amount of checking to the stakes.
One everyday example
Starting request
Help me reply to this email.
Add a goal and useful limits
Help me write a short, friendly reply declining the proposed meeting time. Suggest Thursday afternoon instead, avoid sounding apologetic, and don't promise availability I haven't confirmed.
Check before using it
Read the draft and make sure it doesn't invent a date, commitment, or fact that wasn't in the original email.
What you can reuse
State what you want, give the constraints that matter, and review the result for assumptions before sending it.