Lesson 2 of 8
Projects & custom instructions
6 min read
You start a chat about your dissertation on Monday, another on Wednesday, a third on Friday — and re-explain the topic, the tone, and the deadline every single time. What if they all just knew?
A home for related chats
A Project is a folder for chats about one thing. Drop in the files that matter — a brief, a style guide, your notes — and every chat inside the Project can see them. No more pasting the same background into each new conversation.
A Project keeps the context in one place, so each new chat starts where the last one left off — not from a blank page.
Custom instructions
Custom instructions are standing notes about who you are and how you want replies — "I'm a nurse, keep it plain, answer in short bullets." Set them once for a Project (or for all of ChatGPT) and every reply follows them, without you asking each time.
Custom instructions are a prompt you write once. They save you from repeating your preferences in every chat.
Keep instructions short and about how you want answers — length, tone, your role. Overstuffed instructions can quietly steer replies in ways you didn't intend.
The shape of it
- —A Project groups related chats and shares files across them.
- —Custom instructions apply your preferences to every chat automatically.
- —Together they mean you set the context once, not every time.
You're planning a wedding across dozens of chats and keep re-typing the budget and the date. What removes the repetition?
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