I’ve been knee-deep in these AI waters and have gotten comfortable with using ChatGPT for all manner of activities that fit my lifestyle and schedule.
Using it as a recommendation engine to find new media to enjoy, finding fun local spots worth exploring on my own & with friends, setting up productivity routines that I can actually put into practice, etc., are just some of the best life applications I’ve taken from ChatGPT. Yesterday, I attended an event called “ChatGPT for Everyday,” which was set up as a valuable reminder of just how convenient OpenAI’s chatbot can be.
After hearing from ChatGPT users about the practical methods they use to improve their lives and reading a guidebook full of 300 ways people are using the chatbot, I left the event with more ideas on how to use it for myself and what my friends & loved ones should do with it themselves.
I hope the following best-use cases for ChatGPT and the best prompts that go with them empower you to try OpenAI’s chatbot for the first time and give it another chance if you were scared off by your initial AI experience.
1. Food and cooking
I’m halfway decent in the kitchen — I have a few recipes in the tuck I can always go back to and have even found a few new ones thanks to my time spent with ChatGPT. At the ChatGPT for Everyday event, I overheard a chef talking about using ChatGPT’s Voice feature as a virtual assistant chef that can aid you while you cook. Asking for step-by-step instructions, requesting proper cooking times for certain dishes or asking how to fix a cooking error you might have made stood out as some things I should try next whenever I go into amateur chef mode again.
These are three other great use cases for ChatGPT that are perfectly applicable to numerous food preparation and cooking needs:
- Find a good substitute: I’m making pancakes but don’t have buttermilk. What’s a good substitute?
- Plan a dinner party menu: I’m planning a dinner party for me and [number] friends. One of them is allergic to dairy and one is a vegan. It’s okay if the entire meal is not vegan, but there should be vegan options. I need one snack, an appetizer, at least two entree options, and at least two desserts. I also need a list of things people can bring to the party. Give me three options for every part of the meal.
- Get a family-friendly meal plan: What do you need to know about me and my family in order to give us a really good meal plan that suits our lifestyle? My kids are ages 3, 5, and 6. The 3- and 5-year-olds will eat just about anything. Do not suggest an adult meal and a kids’ meal, cuz that ain’t gonna happen. I want things that take 30-60 minutes to prepare. I have a slow cooker, pressure cooker, air fryer, stove, and an oven. Tuesdays are a busy day because of extracurricular activities, so we need to do a slow-cooker meal or something very hands-off that day.
2. Travel and exploration
ChatGPT has become a boon for folks who want to travel the world and find the best routes toward embarking on their dream vacations. Researching a place before you’re planning on going to, figuring out the logistics behind that trip, building an itinerary, preparing for your departure and even starting up beginner lessons to learn a foreign language can be done with ChatGPT’s help. The following prompts are extremely useful for anyone who wants to get the most out of ChatGPT’s travel and exploration expertise:
- Fit a visit into one day: I’ve got a few hours in [location] — what should I do? I want to focus on seeing nature, eating food, and getting pictures.
- Check if a website is reputable: I’m booking tickets to [tourist attraction]. How can I tell if this is a reputable website? [include link to website]
- Brainstorm where to go: I want to plan a trip with [number] of my closest friends to a destination outside the U.S. We love to be outside, prefer hot weather to cold, love being by the water, love to hike, enjoy amazing food and culture, and like playing and watching sports. Give me [number] destinations.
3. Fitness, wellness and health
I’ve used ChatGPT a few times to build beginner workouts that I can squeeze into my busy work schedule. While at OpenAI’s event, I also got a primer on how its chatbot can be used to find the best methods to train safely, improve your nutrition, take care of your skin & overall appearance and more. This next group of prompts highlights just some of the ways ChatGPT can lead you down the right path to healthier habits and anything else that matters to keeping you fit:
- Find videos of exercises: Can you find me highly rated videos of each of these recommended exercises? [List exercises]
- Get personalized coaching: Act like a certified health coach and ask me questions one at a time about my current exercise, nutrition, supplements, and goals for myself. Then use my answers to formulate an understanding of where I am now and how we can achieve the goals together.
- Develop a skin-care routine: I want to take better care of my skin without overdoing it or ending up with a 12-step routine. I work out, swim, and sweat a lot. My skin is fine, but I’d like fewer breakouts and more “glow.” Build me a simple routine — max 2-3 steps each time. Tell me when to do it (morning vs. night, before vs. after the gym), and recommend beginner-friendly products that won’t fry my skin.
4. Money and finances
While I’m still iffy about uploading my bank statements to ChatGPT, it still works well as a financial assistant that can help you make sense of your finances and figure out what to do next.
Finding the best ways to get control of your money, cut costs wherever possible, save up for major goals, navigate big-time financial decisions and prepare for negotiations that will impact your finances are the main things ChatGPT can help with when it comes to your money inquiries. The next set of prompts is worth trying out if you want to see how good ChatGPT can be when it comes to fixing your finances:
- Make a budget: I want to set up a budget. I don’t know how to do that, but I want to have a weekly budget and be mindful of what I’m spending it on.
- Develop a retirement strategy: Assume I want to live on [$ amount/month] when I retire. When can I stop working, based on your understanding of my finances? Ask me questions about anything you need to know.
- Practice a salary negotiation: What’s the average salary range for [type of profession] in [location]? Also, give me tips and go-to phrases for negotiating a higher salary or better benefits based on my background. Then let’s practice.
5. Parenting
Parenting brings a lot of complexities with it that I’m sure first-time parents could use a hand navigating. While perusing the ChatGPT guidebook, I read up on how OpenAI’s chatbot can help parents discover the best ways to get through those difficult times that come with the famed baby years, helping your family operation go a bit more smoothly, finding unique ways to have fun with your young ones and so much more.
The next set of prompts should go a long way toward helping parents create a morning routine for their children, discover screen-free activities and identify the stressful parts of their life as a parent that need to change:
- Map out a morning routine: Create a morning routine for a kindergartener and toddler that gets us out the door by [time] without chaos.
- Brainstorm independent play activities: Give me 10 independent activities for a [age of child] using common household toys and materials. Prioritize activities that don’t involve screens and keep them engaged for at least 30 minutes, take no more than 5 minutes to prepare or set up, are low mess and easy to clean up, creative and open-ended, and safe for independent play (no constant supervision needed).
- Identify the highest-impact areas to change: Please ask me a few questions, one at a time, to understand which parts of mom life are currently stressing me out the most. Then, prioritize these areas and tell me which one I should focus on first for the fastest results and the quickest relief, and give me 5 simple, actionable tips I can start implementing today.
6. Home and garden
Using ChatGPT to help you around the house and tend to your garden is another way OpenAI’s chatbot can prove useful. I got a quick overview of how it can help users get a better visualization of the design they’re looking to implement in their home, get tips on how to manage their garden and generally keep their house in order.
Uploading photos of what you’re working with goes hand in hand with the next collection of prompts that cater to doing work on your home and garden:
- Create a rendering based on sample materials: Here’s a picture of my shower and here’s a picture of the tile I like. Create a rendering of what the tile would look like. [Upload pictures of your shower and the tile]
- Design a treehouse for your yard: Here’s the tree in my backyard and all the measurements. Design a treehouse that will actually fit with those constraints. [Upload a picture of your tree and a document that has all the measurements]
- Learn to make your flower arrangement last: What should I do to get these flowers looking their best and living their longest? [Upload pictures of your flowers]
7. Learning new things
Using ChatGPT to expand your knowledge across various topics you’re interested in is another one of the best practices to employ during your sessions with OpenAI’s chatbot. Using ChatGPT to answer your questions, solve simple & complex problems and get help doing things you’ve never tried before is worth trying out.
Even asking it to explain complicated concepts like you’re a child can work wonders for first-time learners. The final collection of prompts I’m including here fits right into that category of utilizing ChatGPT as an effective way to learn something new:
- Get up to speed quickly: I want to understand [topic]. Identify and share the most important 20% of learnings from this topic that will help me understand 80% of it.
- Learn by being interviewed: Guide me by asking open-ended questions to encourage reflection, critical thinking, and application of knowledge. Do not lecture or list facts unless I request clarification. Begin by asking me about the notes I uploaded. [Upload your notes document]
- Get a plan to master a new skill: Break down [topic, sport, activity, etc.] into simple steps and give me a timeline for mastering it.
The takeaway
Last year, coming into this year, I got more acquainted with chatbots and all the ways they can assist me during my everyday activities and find easier ways to approach some of my work duties.
Attending the ChatGPT for Everyday event expanded my knowledge of so many basic needs OpenAI’s chatbot can help anyone out with and the next examples of prompts that work like a charm. I’ll be sure to apply some of them to my lifestyle and hopefully emerge as a better cook, more world-traveled and healthier in the process.
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