How ChatGPT became my bestie

EMMA'S NOTES #66

Hi there,

People are using AI like they're using a guitar as a drum—just banging on it without learning the chords. That's what my good friend Luis told me recently, and he’s right.

But here’s the truth: I was people. 👉🏼👈🏼

I was guilty of the same thing, thinking the music AI made wasn’t all that impressive. I heard others rave about how AI was a game-changer, while I was only using ChatGPT for repetitive tasks, wondering what all the fuss was about.

Turns out, I was missing out.

The past few months, I’ve invested time in learning how to work with AI. Now, ChatGPT and I are basically besties, and I’m one of those people saying my productivity has skyrocketed.

My speed of work? Night and day compared to a year ago. 🚀

So, how do I juggle running running It’s Your College, studying at Minerva, and working at AIM? (Plus keeping my sanity, working out, and spending time with my loved ones?) My secret weapon is my bestie—Chattie. 🤖

Here are two easy steps to level up your AI game:

Step 1: Make Your Model Smarter

The key to better AI results? What you put in is what you get out. Take a few minutes to train your model.

Using ChatGPT? Customize it! Go to the settings and click ‘Customize.’ Tell it how you want it to talk, what you do, what languages you speak, etc. The more specific you are, the better your results.

Need help? I walk you through it in this video:

Step 2: Use AI for Information Processing

Our brains have limits on how much info we can handle at once. ChatGPT doesn’t.

Let it take care of the heavy lifting—summarizing papers, pulling key insights from reports, or organizing loads of information. I use one simple prompt that saves me hours every week.

If you're a student:

I’m an [undergrad/graduate] student at [your university] studying [your major]. I’m prepping for a class on [topic]. Here are my assigned readings (or PDFs). Please review and generate at least 5 key questions I should be able to answer from the readings. If you can't access them, please browse critical readings in this academic field and still generate 5 questions.

If you're a professional:

I manage a lot of information from reports at work and need to process it efficiently. I’m preparing for a presentation/meeting on [topic]. Below are the relevant documents. Please review and provide at least 5 key questions I should be able to answer to fully grasp the material. If you can’t access the docs, browse industry resources and still provide 5 essential questions.

By following these two steps, you’ll start seeing AI not just as a tool—but as a productivity powerhouse. It’s time to stop banging the guitar and start playing some music 🎸🎶.

Is Chattie your bestie already? 🤖 Do you have any tips? Always love to hear from you!

Rooting for you,

Emma