Use ChatGPT to Enable Custom Instructions

Contributed by: J. Chris Anderson

Difficulty level: Advanced

Many of the prompts discussed in this playlist focus on creating a context where ChatGPT is primed to work with the style and expertise required for the task at hand. The custom instructions feature allows you to set automatic context that will be included in all your interactions. For that reason, it’s important to keep it short to avoid using too much of the context window. In this shortcut, we’ll show you how to enable custom instructions and provide some examples of how it can be used.

First, you can enable custom instructions by following these steps:

1. Click on your account icon in the lower-left corner of the screen.

2. Select “Customize ChatGPT,” which will bring up the Custom Instructions screen, shown next.

3. You’ll see a text box where you can enter your instructions. From here, you can enter any text you like, but it’s best to keep it short.

Figure 1. Add Custom Instructions

The first box is labeled “What would you like ChatGPT to know about you to provide better responses?” and is a great opportunity to provide your background. Remember, ChatGPT tries to meet you at your level, so if you are a skilled professional working on tough challenges, this is the right place to level-set. This way ChatGPT will assume you have the background to understand the responses ...