Ok, I’ve been talking to a lot of folks about ChatGPT, and it’s obvious people think it’s a lot more complicated than it is. The site is just an app like any other, and you can get going quickly and start chatting as soon as you log in.
Here are two incredibly easy steps to get going with ChatGPT. Yup, only two!
Step 1: Create a ChatGPT account on OpenAI
First, create your account. They’ll send you a confirmation email, and boom, you’re connected to the world of AI chatbots.
Once you have your username and password for your free account, move on to Step 2, where a lot of people hit their first wall.
Step 2: Ask ChatGPT “What can you do?”
Now, you’re looking at this screen with a blank box.
In short, this is a good rule to follow when it comes to new AI tech:
If we don’t know what something can do, we don’t know how it can help us.
And we’re here for help. So ask!
ChatGPT (as well as the GPTs you’ll see, if you subscribe to ChatGPT Plus) is designed to respond to any prompts asking what it can do, before you ask it to do it. It will provide a summary of its capabilities. Or, you can just ask it straight up if it can do something specific, and what it would need from you in order to do it.
Asking for it to tell you is great for getting both inspiration and orientation, and honestly makes me feel pretty good because it’s very rare that you have someone offering to help you for free/cheap. As long as it actually CAN help me, which you’ll find out when you try!
This might sound silly, but I promise you, it’s actually one of the most powerful prompts in existence. Plus, it will help you avoid getting overwhelmed, because quite frankly, there’s almost an element of blank screen paralysis to ChatGPT itself!
Consider the possibilities
I recommend starting out asking in general what it can do, then once you have an idea of how it can help you, ask it to tell you more about the things you could take advantage of.
- If it can help you write emails, what kind of emails can it write? Can it sound like you?
- If it can help you plan your day, what kind of information would it need from you? How could you give it to ChatGPT to process?
- If it can write code for you, what languages does it know? What can it help you do with the code after?
You’ll get the hang of it, I promise. There’s a particular pattern to ChatGPT’s responses that you’ll start to see that when it can respond helpfully to what you ask, it responds fairly predictably (my superpower is pattern recognition, so I definitely see it).
So, let it help you get comfortable! You needn’t be scared, and don’t give up on it early. I promise you that if you can come up with a basic list of stuff ChatGPT might be able to help you with, and just ask it if it can help you, it will say yes and your quality of life will improve dramatically.
Ultimately, YMMV as usual—it may be a pain in the ass getting there. ???? But when it works, I’ve saved HOURS of time before noon, and gotten to the next day’s tasks before 3. It’s worth it, even if there are elements of frustration at times.
Happy chattin’ friends!
