Most research time goes to the unglamorous middle — the setup, the second draft, the review. The right prompt quietly takes that part off your plate.
Name the failure modes
Write down what you never want as explicitly as what you do. The exclusions often do more work than the instructions.
- Compare two outputs instead of trusting one
- Name the audience and the single goal before you generate
- Keep one ask per prompt — chaining beats cramming
Cut before you polish
Lock the parts that never change and leave one slot for the variable. Now every run shares a family resemblance instead of starting from scratch.
- Lower the reading level, then check what broke
- Save the prompt that worked so the next person reuses it
- Name the audience and the single goal before you generate
Lock the parts that never change and leave one slot for the variable. Now every run shares a family resemblance instead of starting from scratch.