AI · productivity · prompting
Stop introducing yourself to a goldfish: the context template I use in every AI project
The reason AI gives you bland answers isn't your prompting — it's that you keep re-explaining who you are every session.
okay, real talk: if you feel like AI gives you generic, could-be-anyone answers — it's probably not your prompting. It's that you're starting from zero every single time. You open a new chat, spend ten minutes explaining who you are, what you're working on, your goals, your voice… and then you're exhausted before you even ask the thing you actually wanted.
here's the fix, and you set it once: it's called a project. You give it your context one time — who you are, what you're building, how you think — and every chat inside it just remembers. You stop talking to a stranger and start picking up with someone who actually knows you. Below is the exact context template I paste into mine. Fill it in once and even your laziest prompt gets good, because it finally knows who's asking.
The context template
Paste this into your project instructions You are my ongoing AI collaborator inside this project. Everything below is permanent context — remember it in every chat here and use it to make your answers specific to me, never generic. WHO I AM: - Name: [your name] - What I do: [your role / work / business in one line] - The season I'm in right now: [what you're focused on this month] WHAT I'M WORKING ON: - Main project(s): [the 1–3 things that matter most right now] - Why it matters to me: [the real reason — the goal underneath the goal] MY GOALS: - Short-term (next 90 days): [specific + measurable if you can] - Bigger picture (this year): [the direction you're building toward] MY VOICE + STYLE: - How I like things written: [e.g. Warm, direct, no corporate jargon, a little playful] - Words/tones to avoid: [anything that makes you cringe] - Formatting I like: [bullets, short paragraphs, examples, etc.] HOW I THINK / WHAT I VALUE: - [how you make decisions, what you care about, what 'good' looks like to you] HOW TO WORK WITH ME: - Be honest and direct — tell me if something's a bad idea. - Ask me clarifying questions before giving a big answer if you're missing context. - When I give you a short or lazy prompt, use everything above to fill in the gaps instead of asking me to re-explain. - Give me options I can React to and refine, rather than one final answer. Confirm you've got all this, then ask me what I want to work on first.
How to use it
Open ChatGPT or Claude and create a new project (in Claude it's 'projects', in ChatGPT it's a custom gpt or a project space). This is your one-time setup.
Paste the template into the project's instructions / custom context field — the spot that applies to every chat, not just one message.
Swap out every [bracket] with your real details. Be honest and specific — vague context = vague answers.
Start any chat inside that project. Notice you never have to introduce yourself again — it already knows.
Make a separate project for each area of your life (I run one for my content, one for work, one for personal). Keeps the context clean so nothing bleeds over.
Refine as you go — every few weeks, update your goals and 'what I'm working on' so it grows with you.
that's it — set it once and stop reintroducing yourself to a goldfish. If this made something click for you, come tell me on Instagram what you're building a project for first. I read them all, and I've got so many more of these little AI shortcuts coming.