How to Use ChatGPT

To use ChatGPT, open a chat, describe what you need and send your message. Read the answer, then reply with what you want changed. You can start with everyday language; a prompt is simply your instruction.

Start with something you already need to do

A short email, a paragraph you want explained or a set of messy notes makes a manageable first task. Choose something you understand well enough to spot a mistake.

“Help with my meeting” leaves a lot for ChatGPT to guess. “Turn these meeting notes into decisions, actions and open questions” tells it what you want to receive. Add the notes and it has something to work from.

This follows OpenAI’s prompting guidance: explain the task clearly, supply context and refine the answer as you go.

Open a chat and send one request

Go to chatgpt.com or use OpenAI’s ChatGPT app. Type into the message box and select the send button. When the answer appears, the same box is where you ask a follow-up. Choose New chat when you want a separate conversation. OpenAI’s getting-started FAQ covers access on web and mobile.

The exercise below uses text you can paste. You do not need to upload a document, connect a work account or choose an advanced tool to attempt it. If your account has reached its usage limit, follow the reset information shown in ChatGPT.

Which tasks are a good fit?

For a first attempt, choose a short source. You can compare every line with the answer. A long report makes it easier to miss an omitted condition or a number that changed. If the task depends on an approval you do not have, such as permission to offer a refund, get that decision before asking ChatGPT to write the message.

Try it: turn meeting notes into a recap

Imagine you have just finished a project meeting and need to send a team update. These are fictional practice notes, so you can use the exercise without sharing work information.

The recap needs to preserve one decision, one assigned action and two unresolved questions. Keep that expected result in mind before you generate anything. In particular, Friday belongs to the QA report; it is not a date for the next meeting.

Copy the complete message below into a new chat. It contains the source notes as well as the instructions.

Turn these meeting notes into a short recap for the project team.

Use three sections:
Decisions
Actions (task, owner and deadline)
Open questions

Keep suggestions separate from decisions. Use only the notes. If an owner or date is missing, write "Not assigned" or "Not set". Add the supporting note number after each item.

Notes:
1. Launch stays on 18 September.
2. Maya will send the QA report on Friday.
3. A customer email was suggested, but nobody approved it or accepted ownership.
4. The team will meet again after the QA report. No date was set.

Send the message and read the reply. Your answer may use different wording from the example below. Look for the same decisions, names and dates.

Why this prompt gives useful direction

Each part handles a different ambiguity. “For the project team” names the audience. The three section names define the layout. “Use only the notes” limits the factual source, while “Not assigned” and “Not set” tell ChatGPT how to display missing information. Note numbers make it easier for you to check where an item came from.

You can change the layout for another task. A table works well when you need several owners and deadlines; short bullets are easier to paste into a team message. Preserve the instructions about missing facts in either version.

The important detail is the customer email: someone suggested it, but nobody agreed to send it. A useful recap keeps that distinction. It also leaves the next meeting date open.

Improve the answer with a follow-up

You can continue in the same conversation. Point to the part you want changed and describe the result you need. “Make it better” gives less direction than “Make it shorter and keep all names and deadlines.”

Make this recap shorter and suitable for a team message. Keep all decisions, names, deadlines and open questions. Do not add a greeting or a sign-off.

If the first response made a factual mistake, fix that before changing the tone. For example: “The customer email was only suggested. Move it to Open questions and leave the owner unassigned.” Then read the whole revised answer; another detail may have changed too.

Catch a plausible mistake

Suppose a draft says that Maya will send the customer email on Friday. That sentence sounds consistent with the surrounding notes, but it combines the owner and deadline from note 2 with the suggestion in note 3. The notes never assign that email to Maya.

Correct the recap using notes 2, 3 and 4.
Maya is responsible only for the QA report, due Friday.
The customer email was suggested but not approved or assigned.
The next meeting has no agreed date.

Revise the recap. Keep the launch decision unchanged and keep both unresolved items in Open questions. Do not assign a deadline or owner to either item.

After the correction, compare the revised text with all four notes. Do not stop at checking the sentence you complained about. If the answer keeps mixing up the same facts, start a new chat and paste the original notes with the corrected instruction.

Turn the checked recap into a message

Once the facts match, use the shorter-message prompt above. A suitable final version would be:

This version drops the note numbers for readability while keeping the open questions. Save the numbered recap with your notes if you want to check the message later. Before using a real deadline, confirm what a relative date such as “Friday” means with the people involved.

Check before you copy the answer into your work

For this exercise, compare the reply with the four notes. In your own tasks, use the original email, document or data as the reference.

The note numbers help you find the relevant line, but they do not prove the answer is correct. Check the line yourself. For research tasks, open the linked sources and read the passage behind each important claim.

Should you use chat, files, search or voice?

For our four-note exercise, stay in ordinary text chat. When the material changes, choose a tool that gives ChatGPT the input it needs. OpenAI’s capabilities overview describes file handling, web search and voice; access depends on your plan and settings.

Search will not tell you what your private meeting decided. An uploaded document may contain enough information, but a fluent summary can still omit something you care about. State which questions you need answered and keep the source open beside the result.

If the feature you need is unavailable, use a short text excerpt where that still serves the task. For fresh facts, open an authoritative source yourself and supply the relevant passage with its date. Do not assume a confident answer has checked the web.

Fix an answer that is not working

Changing one specific thing makes a revision easier to judge. If you ask for a new tone, a different length and a new conclusion together, it becomes harder to see which instruction caused a useful change.

A second answer can be wrong too. If the source itself is ambiguous, ask the person who owns that information. Rephrasing the prompt cannot establish a decision that nobody made.

What should you try after a meeting recap?

Keep the same pattern: describe the task, supply the material and say how you want the answer presented. These starting points work with information you add yourself.

For the email exercise, list the promises you are allowed to make before drafting. For the study exercise, try explaining the passage yourself first; then use the generated explanation to find what you missed. These checks differ because a good email and a good learning exercise serve different purposes.

For a repeatable work process, save the instruction separately from that day’s notes. On your next attempt, replace the notes, run the prompt again and compare the result with the new source. Our meeting-summary workflow develops this task further.

What should you keep out of a chat?

Use the fictional material here while learning. For real tasks, follow your organization’s rules before sharing customer records, private documents or other restricted information. Removing a person’s name may not remove identifying details from the rest of a document.

OpenAI’s Data Controls FAQ explains the “Improve the model for everyone” setting. Turning it off prevents chats from being used for training while allowing them to remain in your history. Temporary Chat is not saved in history and is not used for training; OpenAI describes retention for up to 30 days for safety purposes. Neither option grants permission to share someone else’s information.

Questions about your first conversation

ChatGPTCourse12 lessons

Practise ChatGPT with a guided lesson

Choose a task, write your instruction and check the result. Start the first lesson on the site, then continue learning in WexAI.

Explore ↗

For another ready-to-use task, browse ChatGPT prompts.