How to use ChatGPT as a free personal assistant

While most are using the much-hyped AI tool to cheat on school essays or make funny poems, others are using it to better manage their time. See how.

Time poor Aussies are turning to artificial intelligence to tackle life admin and get more hours back in their day.

ChatGPT – which has been trained on massive amounts of data scraped from the internet pre-2022 and is freely-accessible online – generates human-like text in response to natural language prompts.

It has left universities scrambling to stop students submitting AI-generated essays, while companies race to integrate the technology into their own tools and applications.

Donna McGeorge has used the AI tool to generate a starting outline for her next book. Picture: Nigel Hallett

Although most users have been generating fun personalised poems and short stories for a laugh, productivity coach Donna McGeorge says the real value is in using ChatGPT as a personal assistant.

“We are in an epidemic of burn out and overwhelm, and it’s like a mental Thermomix – it can do the basic stuff while you are doing other things,” she says.

Here are five ways to leverage ChatGPT as a personal assistant:

1. PLAN MEALS

Asking the chat bot for “a healthy meal plan for a family of four” will generate breakfast, lunch and dinner ideas for Monday to Friday. Users can also be more specific – for example, stipulating they are vegetarian or lactose intolerant.

Ms McGeorge has used ChatGPT to come up with recipes based on the food in her fridge.

“I told it ‘I’ve got lamb, potatoes, mustard and sesame seeds’, and it gave me a nice recipe that sounded lovely,” she says.

2. PLAN HOLIDAYS

Users can ask for a holiday itinerary, giving only vague locations and time frames and receive a full stop-by-stop plan that includes travel times and sights to see.

While this information is also available online, Ms McGeorge says the appeal is not needing to search then trawl through multiple websites and blogs.

“If you say to ChatGPT, ‘I am taking a family of five to Rome, we are doing it on a budget’, it will spit out a plan in 10 seconds,” she says.

“I think it will completely make Google obsolete.”

3. ENTERTAIN THE KIDS

ChatGPT can also be used to quickly brainstorm ideas, from “Fun games for a children’s birthday party” to “Ways to teach children about the environment”.

Ms George says the tool is good for “outsourcing thinking”.

CSIRO Data61’s Jon Whittle recommends using ChatGPT as a collaborative tool or to find inspiration. Picture: Supplied

4. APPLY FOR JOBS

Many people are confident in their suitability for a role but struggle to communicate that in a cover letter.

Users can tell ChatGPT the role they are applying for then copy and paste their work experience from their LinkedIn profile, and receive a draft cover letter.

Ms McGeorge says words produced by ChatGPT typically “lacks warmth” but can be a helpful first draft that is then edited to become more personal or specific.

5. KICKSTART PROJECTS

If you have ever wanted to launch a business or write a book but not known how to start, ChatGPT can produce draft business pitches and plans or chapter outlines.

For example, “write me a business plan for my business which will sell hand made children’s clothes that are really bright with the fabrics ethically sourced and hypo-allergenic” generates a 450-word plan with subheadings including executive summary, business description, products and services, marketing and sales, operations, financial projections, management team and conclusion.

While the information is vague as the bot does not know the ins and outs of the business, having a template can help overcome initial mental block.

Ms McGeorge, who has written many books on time management including The 1 Day Refund, used ChatGPT to generate an outline for her next book on short-term activity for long-term results.

“The outline is the toughest bit and I’m going to use it as a starting point,” she says.

“It gave me eight chapters with three key points in each one.”

Ms McGeorge also writes regular blogs and says ChatGPT has halved her writing time.

“It used to take me two to three hours to get a rough draft (blog) or outline done, now it’s taking me about an hour to get close to a full article,” she says.

Time Stylers’ Kate Christie says ChatGPT can save you time or cost you time, depending how you use it. Picture: Supplied

BEWARE THE TIME VORTEX

Although ChatGPT can save time on basic administrative tasks, Time Stylers founder Kate Christie says it can also become a time vacuum.

“Once you start asking questions, you can get sucked into the vortex,” she says.

“It’s like deciding to be on Facebook for 20 minutes then you realise you have been there for an hour-and-a-half.

“Like any productivity technology, you need to use it with discipline or else it defeats the purpose of speeding things up.”

Originally published as How to use ChatGPT as a free personal assistant