Your first ten minutes with ChatGPT

1. Ask it something you actually want to know (two minutes)

Not “what is the capital of Peru”. Something real: “how do I get red wine out of a wool jumper”, “what is a good reply to a neighbour who keeps parking across my drive”. Read the answer. Then type “shorter” and watch it shrink. That back-and-forth is the whole idea.

2. Show it something (two minutes)

Tap the plus, take a photo of any letter, bill or label near you, and type:

Explain this to me in three sentences. What is it, what does it want, and is there a deadline?

That is the moment most people get it. It can see.

3. Hand it a mess (three minutes)

Find a message you have been putting off writing. Type the messy version, exactly as you would say it out loud, then:

Turn that into a short message I can send. Keep it in my words, polite, no fluff. Give me
two versions: one gentle, one firmer.

Pick one. Edit a word or two. Send it.

4. Talk to it (three minutes)

Tap the headphones or microphone icon and just speak. Ask it to help you plan dinner from what you have in. Interrupt it. Change your mind. It keeps up.

How you know it worked. You have had one useful answer, one explained letter, one message sent and one conversation out loud. If none of those landed, it is not for you yet, which is a fair result for ten minutes.

Before you go further: two minutes on what never to paste in, and five on telling it who you are, make everything after this better. And when you start wondering why it cannot open your files, that is the difference between a chat window and an agent.