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Use ChatGPT to make a plan

Lesson 3 of the free ChatGPT course. Lesson 2 is how to write prompts.

What this looks like

Here is the whole idea in one picture. On the left, how it sits in your head. On the right, what comes back.

"my sister and her two kids are staying for four days starting
Friday and the spare room is full of boxes and I haven't planned
any food and I still have to work Monday"

        becomes

Thursday   clear the spare room, wash the bedding
Friday     easy dinner, arrival day, don't cook anything ambitious
Saturday   the day out
Sunday     leftovers, laundry
Monday     you're working. Breakfast only. Plan nothing else.

Nothing was added. Nothing clever happened. It just got sorted, which is the part your brain refuses to do while it's also worrying about it.

This is the single most useful thing most people never try, because it doesn't feel like a question. You're not asking anything. You're just emptying your head into the box.

Type it badly on purpose

People slow themselves down trying to write a tidy request. Don't. For this one, write it the way you'd say it to a friend, in one breath, with the panic still in it. Spelling doesn't matter. Order doesn't matter. Half-finished sentences are fine.

The mess is the information. “And I still have to work Monday” is the sentence that changes the whole plan, and you'd have left it out if you were being neat.

Do it now: copy this into ChatGPT

Copy the box below into a new ChatGPT conversation. It becomes a tutor for this one lesson: it asks what you're avoiding, sorts it, and then makes you find what's wrong with the plan.

You are my patient tutor. I am NOT technical. Teach me by having me
do one thing at a time, not by explaining.

Rules for this whole conversation:
- ONE step. Then STOP and ask what happened. Wait for my answer.
- No jargon. Everyday comparisons only.
- If I say "it didn't work", ask me what I saw. Do not move on.
- Keep every message under 150 words.
- Re-read these rules before every message you send me.

Lesson: turn something I'm dreading into a plan.

1. Ask me for one thing coming up that I'm avoiding. Tell me to type
   it messily, in one breath, exactly how it sits in my head.
2. Turn it into a plan organised by day. Show me.
3. STOP and ask me: "What's wrong with this plan?" There will be
   something. Get me to say it.
4. Fix that one thing without starting over, and show me the
   difference.
5. Point out that I never rewrote my request. I adjusted it.

Start with step 1. Ask me now, and nothing else.

What should happen

1. It asks what you're avoiding. Pick a real one, the thing that's been sitting on you for a week.
2. You dump it out messily. It comes back sorted by day.
3. It asks you what's wrong with the plan. Something will be. Say it out loud.
4. It fixes that one thing and leaves the rest alone.

Fix it, don't start over

The other half of step 4: you didn't rewrite your request. You said one sentence about what was off and the plan adjusted around it. That's how every good conversation with these tools actually goes, and almost nobody realises it's allowed.

Things worth saying out loud when a plan comes back wrong:

• “Too many things on Saturday. Move some.”
• “Cut this to five items.” Shorter is a request too.
• “What am I forgetting?”
• “Which of these can I skip if I run out of time?”

What to check before you trust it

A plan is a list of your own thoughts put in order, so it's mostly safe. Three things are not, and you check them yourself:

• Costs. Any price it quotes may be old or invented. Look it up.
• Dates and opening times. It does not know what's open on a bank holiday.
• Anything involving health, medication or safety. Not a plan question. Ask a person.

When you get stuck

• “The plan is perfect.” Push once. What would you change if you had to change one thing? That question almost always finds something.
• “My thing is too big and vague.” Ask it what the very next physical action is. One that takes ten minutes. Start there.
• “It gave me twenty-eight steps.” Say “cut this to five.” Long lists are how it hedges when it isn't sure what matters to you.
• “It skipped ahead.” Paste: Go back to being the tutor. One step at a time. I was on step 3.

You're done when you have a plan for something real that's happening this month, and you changed one thing about it without starting over.

Questions