Projects and Custom GPTs — stop re-explaining yourself
Every chat starts cold. A Project remembers your background, your style, your files. Create one for the work you actually do every week, and stop pasting the same context twelve times a day.
::TL;DR · the whole lesson in three lines
- MOVEEvery chat starts cold. A Project remembers your background, your style, your files. Create one for the work you actually do every week, and stop pasting the same context twelve times a day.
- DRILLPick the AI workflow you do most often — the one you've explained five different times this month. We're going to build it a permanent home so you never have to explain it again.
- WINYou have one named Project / Custom GPT / Gem saved in your account that you can open by name
::concept · what's actually happening
A regular chat has amnesia. You open a new conversation, the model knows nothing about you, your company, your project, your writing style, or what you're trying to do. So you paste the same three paragraphs of background, attach the same brand guide, explain the same constraints. Then tomorrow you do it again. By the end of the month you've typed your own job description four hundred times.
read full concept · 4 more paragraphs →collapse concept ↑
A Project (Claude calls them Projects, ChatGPT calls them Custom GPTs or Projects, Gemini calls them Gems) is a container with persistent context. You write the instructions once — who you are, what you're working on, how you want the model to respond — and attach the reference files once. Every new chat inside that container starts with all of it already loaded. You skip the warm-up and go straight to the task.
Three things go inside: a custom instruction (the standing brief — role, audience, tone, constraints, things to always do, things to never do), reference files (style guides, prior work, brand decks, transcripts, anything the model should ground in), and optionally a name and description so you can find it later. The model treats all of it as the silent first message of every conversation in that Project.
The tier matters. Claude Projects require a paid plan. ChatGPT lets free users use existing Custom GPTs but creating your own is a Plus feature on some plans (Projects are more broadly available). Gemini Gems are available on the free tier with limits, expanded on paid. Check what your current plan actually allows before you commit to a workflow.
The win isn't novelty — it's compounding. The hundredth chat in a well-tuned Project is dramatically better than the first chat in a cold one, because every conversation you have teaches you what to tighten in the instructions. Treat the Project itself as a living artifact. When you notice yourself correcting the same thing twice, that correction belongs in the instructions, not in the chat.
::drill · do the thing
Pick the AI workflow you do most often — the one you've explained five different times this month. We're going to build it a permanent home so you never have to explain it again.
::L24 drill · copy-paste into any AI chat
PROJECT INSTRUCTIONS (paste into the "Custom instructions" or "System prompt" field when creating your Project / Custom GPT / Gem) You are helping me with [SPECIFIC RECURRING TASK — e.g., "drafting client update emails for my consulting work"]. About me / my context: - Role: [YOUR ROLE] - Audience for this work: [WHO READS THE OUTPUT] - Tone I want: [e.g., warm but professional, no jargon, short paragraphs] - Things I always need: [e.g., a clear subject line, a one-sentence summary at the top, next steps in bullets] - Things to never do: [e.g., never use the word "leverage," never close with "Let me know if you have any questions"] When I drop in raw notes or a request, your default move is to draft the output in the format above. If anything is missing, ask me ONE focused question, not a list. If I say "looser" or "tighter," adjust verbosity. If I say "more [name]" use prior drafts I attach as the tone reference.
::steps
- 01Pick ONE recurring workflow. Not three. The single most repeated AI task you do this month. If you can't name it in one sentence, you don't have one yet — stop the drill.
- 02Open your AI of choice. In Claude click Projects → New Project. In ChatGPT click Explore GPTs → Create (or Projects → New). In Gemini click Gems → New Gem.
- 03Paste the drill prompt above into the instructions field. Fill in every [bracketed slot] with your real specifics. Be concrete — 'professional' is not concrete, 'two short paragraphs, no exclamation marks, signs off Best,' is.
- 04Attach 1–3 reference files: a recent example of work you were happy with, a style guide if you have one, any background doc the model should ground in. Skip this if you don't have clean references yet — bad references hurt more than no references.
- 05Run task one inside the Project. Drop in real raw notes and ask for the deliverable. Don't paste any background — the Project already has it.
- 06Run task two inside the Project. Different inputs, same workflow. Check whether the output already feels closer to your voice than a cold chat would have produced.
- 07Edit the instructions. Whatever you had to correct in task one or two — add that correction to the instructions field so it never comes up again.
::outcome · what should be true
- You have one named Project / Custom GPT / Gem saved in your account that you can open by name
- Two real outputs produced through it, both closer to your voice than a cold chat would have given you
- Your instructions file has at least one edit you made after seeing the first output — proof the Project is now tuned, not just created
- You stopped pasting your background paragraph mid-drill because you realized the Project already had it
::trap · the most common failure
Building a Project for a task you actually only do once. People get excited and create a Project for "my novel," "my taxes," "my job search," "my workout plan" — five Projects in an afternoon, none of which they'll open twice. The rule: if you haven't done the task at least four times in the last month, it's not Project-worthy yet. Just run it in a regular chat. A Project earns its keep through repetition, not aspiration.
::other lessons at User level
Multi-turn conversations — letting the chat build a model of the task
At User level, a single prompt is rarely the win. A 5–10 turn conversation that builds a working model of your task is.
Documents in chat — when paste vs. upload matters
AI is at its best when reading something specific. Knowing how to feed it documents is the next leverage step.
Your first paid tier — which one, when, why
Free tier is enough for most humans for 30+ days. When you outgrow it, you pay for ONE tool. Not four.
Image-in-chat — paste the screenshot
Most people describe what they see when they could just paste the screenshot. The AI reads pixels better than you can describe them. Stop typing the picture.
Voice mode — when speaking beats typing
Real-time conversation with AI is a different shape than chat. Knowing when to switch modes is the actual skill.
Artifacts and Canvas — the side panel that runs your work
Claude Artifacts and ChatGPT Canvas turned chat into a workspace. Code runs. Documents render. Edits happen in place. This is where AI stops being chat and starts being a tool.
::part of the AtomEons /learn curriculum · 45 lessons · 5 levels · cc-by 4.0