2024‑05‑20, Tom's Guide published an article analyzing a frequently overlooked but very practical ChatGPT feature: Custom Instructions. The article lists how to set this feature as your "personal assistant" configuration in minutes, and provides ready‑to‑use templates for daily workflows.
How to get started: open chat.openai.com, click your account name or avatar in the lower‑left, go to Settings → Custom Instructions. The page shows two prominent input boxes: "What would you like ChatGPT to know about you to provide better responses?" and "How would you like ChatGPT to respond?". Enter concrete role information (for example, "I'm a product manager; prefer brief conclusions + bullet points") and output format preferences (for example, "use bullets, each point no more than two sentences, include action items and priorities"). After saving, these preferences will be read on every new conversation.
Tom's Guide gives several practical scenarios:
‑ Email and weekly‑report templates: put expected fields (recipient tone, paragraph structure, required data) into the second box; afterward a short prompt like "generate this week's product report" will have ChatGPT automatically apply your format and tone.
‑ Meeting notes and action items: describe the meeting type and focus in the first box, for example "focus on decisions, milestones, and blockers", and you'll automatically get structured notes with "owner/due date" fields.
‑ Coding and code review: specify preferences such as "comments in concise English, prioritize security and performance issues"; ChatGPT will prioritize improvement suggestions and give fix examples.
‑ Study and exam preparation: enter your schedule, difficulties, and goals, and the generated plan will be broken down by day with checkpoints.
The article stresses practical details: don't write vague "make me more professional"; be specific about length, tone, and output format (for example, "5 points, each under 20 words, final paragraph lists 3 action items"). It also recommends keeping multiple "presets" for different uses; copying and adjusting a preset when a new task appears saves more time than starting from scratch.
Notes: Custom Instructions affect all new conversations, but settings won't automatically sync across multiple OpenAI accounts or within team environments. Tom's Guide also reminds users to consider privacy and avoid entering sensitive credentials directly into preference fields.
The conclusion is not empty exhortation: the article demonstrates tangible benefits across individual writing, product management, and engineering review. Writing clear preferences, fixing formats, and saving common templates can turn ChatGPT from a one‑off tool into a long‑term productivity multiplier.
If you've been treating ChatGPT as a quick Q&A tool, spend five minutes in Settings to complete Custom Instructions and you'll immediately notice differences in daily workflows.