Organizing Your AI Prompts Is a Real Game Changer
I tried organizing the prompts I use at work in a notepad, and the difference in productivity is clear. Instead of writing new ones every time, it seems the answer is to lock in frequently used prompts as templates.
The structure I usually use is like this:
1. Assign a role (e.g., a planner with 10 years of experience)
2. Fix the output format (table, paragraph, list)
3. Specify what it must not do (don't guess; if you don't know, say so)
In particular, without #3, it often fabricated things that weren't there, which was even scarier. Going forward, I'm thinking of creating one prompt file per task and managing them that way.
10 answers
Any sources? Do you have any measured figures showing improved productivity, rather than just a feeling?
Assigning a role really seems to make a big difference. For me, when I added “You are a practitioner with 5 years of experience in this field and are reporting to your boss,” the tone changed completely. As a tip, including one example of the output format makes it more stable. If I just ask for a table, it picks different columns every time.
One file per task might be a bit much. For team sharing, I'd organize it in a wiki; for personal use, snippets would probably be better.
That's why these days I just tell it, "If you're not sure, mark it as [uncertain] and answer." Then at least it shows you where to be suspicious, which makes reviewing easier.
So true lol The difference between people who are good at writing prompts and those who aren’t ultimately comes down to how well they specify conditions.
Oh, I didn’t know that. I’ve just been winging it every time, but I should try turning it into a template.
Agreed — especially #3 is really important. If you don't include the prohibition constraints, it'll fabricate nonexistent sources and come back to bite you later lol
"Say 'I don't know' when you don't know" <- even with this included, it still sneaks in made-up stuff. Is it just me? lol Seems like it doesn't completely stop it.
Well, I’m not so sure about that. If you’re going to manage prompts as files, wouldn’t it be better to just use a macro or snippet tool? If you pile them up in a notepad, you’ll eventually lose track of what you put where. I once made a prompt folder and organized everything too, but after three weeks my filename conventions and versions got tangled, and I ended up wasting more time. Now I just use a text expander and bind shortcuts to the five prompts I use often. Considering the management overhead, that’s the realistic approach.
Thanks for the great post. If you have any negative prompts you use often besides the prohibited conditions, could you share them? For some reason, whenever I add "no exaggeration," the answer gets too bland, so I'm always struggling with that.