The Research Workflow That Sticks

You don't need a hundred research prompts. You need five you trust and actually reuse.

Start with the smallest version

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.

Name the failure modes

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.

• Have the model flag what it could not cover
• Name the audience and the single goal before you generate
• Save the prompt that worked so the next person reuses it

Reuse the recipe

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.

• Name the audience and the single goal before you generate
• Have the model flag what it could not cover
• Keep one ask per prompt — chaining beats cramming

Write down what you never want as explicitly as what you do. The exclusions often do more work than the instructions.