Since Thanksgiving last week I've been doing a top-secret experiment.

The early results are promising so I've decided to share them with you!

Here's the experiment:

• I created a list of questions to ask myself each morning and each night. The questions I chose help me plan my day, work on my goals, and reflect each evening.
• I stored them in ChatGPT's memory as a personalization instruction, with two trigger phrases 1) "Let's do the morning prompt" and 2) "Let's do the evening prompt"
• Each morning or evening I use my iPhone's text-to-speech to say "Let's do the morning/evening prompt." into the ChatGPT app
• It will reply "ok!" and list out the questions
• Then I start dictating into my phone, using the built-in microphone, which goes into ChatGPT's text window.
• I answer each of questions as best I can for that day, not worrying about how well the dictation comes out.
• ChatGPT responds to my dictation, helping refine my answers and set me up to have a good day

Here are screenshots of the questions (click to make it larger):

The results so far have been fascinating. The AI has helped me: Set up a 3-hr "focus block" each morning to work on high value tasks, letting me get more done this week than any week last month Got me to go to CrossFit when I was tired this week Offered me a deep breathing protocol to improve sleep (I will sometimes wake up at 3 am and can't fall back asleep) Listened to me describe all my tasks and my energy level one day, and generated an entire schedule customized exactly for what I want to do Offered me powerful mental reframes for handling daily situations (e.g. win the morning, win the day) Helped me schedule and actually study for the Certified Development Lifecycle and Deployment Architect exam, which I've been procrastinating on It's like I hired a coach and advisor with a PhD in every field to known to mankind. The AI never gets tired, angry, or bored. It remembers every detail. It's always trying to help me. It's like a friend with unlimited energy and unlimited intelligence, and committed completely to working with me to have a good day. An excellent friend to have! You can also "flavor" its responses. ChatGPT has a small memory where you can store instructions (called Personalizations) about how to interact with you. I think most people use that for things like "I like reading books." but I've turned it up a notch. Check out this personalization (click to make it larger):

Now, when I'm planning my day, the AI will ensure I'm lined up with these principles for success. It's crazy! And the funny part is I didn't even write that personalization myself.  I asked another AI tool (Claude) to write a personalization instruction that I could upload into ChatGPT to help me do deep work (I did give it two or three principles as a start). I took things even farther and asked Claude to generate 1) an identity statement and 2) summarize the philosophy and principles of some of the most brilliant people I know of. People like:  Ray Dalio Charlie Munger Elon Musk Ben Franklin Eckart Tolle Next, I took the identity statement and principles, and asked Claude to turn them into a personalization instruction for ChatGPT to use when talking to me. Here is the one Claude generated for the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, which I uploaded to ChatGPT:

I made the Emperor of Rome my mentor! Ha ha. After doing this experiment for a day or two, I noticed the AI never criticized me and generally agreed with me on almost everything. Interesting... So after my next evening prompt I asked: "Is there anything you would criticize or give me feedback on based on what we've talked about? What painful truths might I not want to hear but are essential for me to grow?" AI doesn't play around. It immediately zeroed in on some of my biggest weaknesses: You're stuck in over reflection at times You protect your comfort zones in subtle ways You may be underestimating the power of single focus And listed out reasons why it thought this way.  I felt like it read my soul. It was completely correct. How could I argue?  My super intelligent friend with unlimited energy just highlighted my sticking points (and gave me solutions). Like Ben Franklin said: "The sting of a reproach is the truth of it." If you try this yourself it's important to do it after you answer lots of questions in a longer prompt. Answering a bunch of questions before asking for feedback lets you build up a fairly big context window in the current chat. ChatGPT's memory gets wiped between chats, so the longer you talk to in a single session, the more "data points" it will have on you to assess. Other questions I found interesting to ask:  What is the most limiting belief I appear to hold? What's one thing you think I may not know about myself? Based on everything we've discussed, please estimate my IQ in a 10-point range If I could receive one piece of advice every morning to help me grow, what would it be?

 

 

And that's as far as I've gotten in a week!

It's been a fun experience and I think I'll extend the experiment out 90-days to see what it's like.

Working on this got me into a real flow state so I was happy to push it pretty far.

I wouldn't say everyone needs to go all-out like I did, but I would definitely encourage you to try a modified version.

The insights are both practical and profound.

Hope this helps!

 

Best,

Nick

P.S. Here is a quick start guide to doing this yourself:

15-Minute Quick Start Guide

Setup Phase (10 mins):

1. Open ChatGPT
2. Copy paste the following. The formatting may not translate. That’s okay.

Update your memory about me to include exactly the following. Do not change the text in any way.

Please create two trigger phrases for me to start my morning and evening prompt

• "Let's do the morning prompt"
• "Let's do the evening prompt”

My morning questions are as follows:

• What's my most important task today?
• How will I make time for it?
• What potential obstacles should I plan for?

My evening prompt questions are as follows:

• What went well today?
• What could I improve?
• What's my first priority tomorrow?

When I ask for the morning prompt please only list the morning prompt questions.

When I ask for the evening prompt please only list the evening prompt questions.

I will answer each question individually. Please evaluate my responses, refine my thinking, and help me have a good day.

Daily Practice (5 mins each session):

• Morning: Use text-to-speech to trigger morning prompt
• Evening: Use text-to-speech to trigger evening prompt
• Speak your answers naturally, don't worry about perfect dictation

Pro Tips:

• Start simple, add complexity later
• Use longer sessions to build context