Most design time goes to the unglamorous middle — the setup, the second draft, the review. The right prompt quietly takes that part off your plate.
Anchor to one reader
Treat the first output as a draft, not a verdict. The prompt does the typing; you keep the judgment about what ships.
Keep a negative list
Treat the first output as a draft, not a verdict. The prompt does the typing; you keep the judgment about what ships.
- Have the model flag what it could not cover
- Keep one ask per prompt — chaining beats cramming
- Ask for three angles, then cut to the one worth shipping
Reuse the recipe
Write down what you never want as explicitly as what you do. The exclusions often do more work than the instructions.
- Save the prompt that worked so the next person reuses it
- Keep one ask per prompt — chaining beats cramming
- Lower the reading level, then check what broke
Ask for the reasoning, then the result. When the model shows its steps you can see exactly where to push back.