Is everyone still loving ChatGPT or have you migrated elsewhere? I still use it daily but have noticed it crashing more and more... or lagging. It's becoming frustrating!

Hi! I've written some posts in the past about rebuilding my dog training business. I've done some searches in this community, but I thought I would post some specifics about my situation. I have so many tools I pay for, and I just can't figure out what to use, when to use it, and how to use them! I spend so much time trying to figure out how to use what I have, both independently and together, etc. There are many things I would like to do, but briefly, here are the things I would like to work on/create to get started. -I would like to create knowledge bases for different things. A couple of examples are: A knowledge base all about my dog training business Knowledge bases on different aspects of dog behavior (reactivity, puppies, anxiety, etc.) I was thinking I would try Google NotebookLM to create the knowledge bases. Then I could use ChatGPT or Gemini to create content from the info in the Google Notebooks. I currently mostly use ChatGPT for my business. I have a project that contains my chats. I don't know much about custom GPTs, but would it be better to learn how to create a custom GPT that's trained on my business rather than using projects? Should I still create the NotebookLM Knowledgebase? This is just scratching the surface for a place to begin. There are many things I want to do, and many different tools. There are also so many more tools I see all the time...maybe something else would be better? What about chatbots? AI assistants? I'm constantly seeing these tools, and they are always adding more and more options to create things. I have asked ChatGPT these questions, but I would like to get some advice from real people who know what they're doing. I'm learning as I go, and it's quite overwhelming! I'm hoping for a little guidance, suggestions, recommendations, and personal experiences from anyone willing to help me out. Feel free to ask me any follow-up questions that may give you some more specifics about anything...what tools do I have, more details on what I would like to accomplish, etc.

Most prompting advice tells you to write the perfect instruction up front. For everyday business tasks, I think that's backwards. You're guessing at what matters before you've really thought it through, and you end up with a vague answer because you handed it a vague brief. Here's a simpler move: tell ChatGPT to interview you first. Instead of asking for the finished thing, add one line to your prompt: "Before you answer, ask me up to five questions that would help you give a better response." Now ChatGPT does the hard part. It surfaces the gaps: who the audience is, what the goal is, what tone you want, what you've already tried. Then you just answer in plain language. The final output gets built on real context instead of assumptions. This works best on the messy, higher-stakes stuff: a sales email, an awkward client reply, pricing for a new offer, a job description. Anything where the quality depends on details only you know. Two tips. Cap the questions. Five is plenty, or it spirals. And if a question doesn't matter, just say "skip that one." You're steering, not filling in a form. It feels slower for about ten seconds. Then the answer comes back sharper than anything a one-shot prompt would have produced. What's the last thing you asked ChatGPT for that came back generic? That's exactly the kind of task to try this on. Drop it below. Jason 🙌

Most people use ChatGPT to write content from scratch every single time. That's the slow way. The faster play is to create one solid piece, then use ChatGPT to repurpose it into everything else. Here's the simple version. Start with your best asset — a blog post, a long email, a webinar transcript, even a detailed voice note you've transcribed. The key is that it already contains your real thinking, not a generic outline. Then work in passes. First pass: ask ChatGPT to pull out the five to seven core ideas as standalone points. Second pass: take each idea and ask for a short social post in your voice — this is where Custom Instructions earn their keep. Third pass: ask it to draft a follow-up email that ties two or three of those ideas together. The reason this works is that you're not asking ChatGPT to be original. You're asking it to reformat thinking that's already good — and that's the job it's genuinely reliable at. One caveat: always do a read-through before anything goes out. ChatGPT will occasionally flatten your sharpest line into something safe. Your edit is what keeps it sounding like you. Hope that helps. Jason 🙌

If you've ever set up Custom Instructions, then built a GPT, then added Project Instructions and wondered "wait, which one of these is actually being used right now?", you're not alone. They overlap, they sometimes conflict, and most people end up using just one and ignoring the others. Here's the simple frame I use: Custom Instructions → tell ChatGPT who YOU are. This is the stuff that's true in every chat: your business, your role, your voice, your defaults. Set it once, forget it, every conversation benefits. GPTs → package up a specific JOB. Build a GPT when you keep doing the same kind of task (generating LinkedIn posts, drafting cold emails, summarising calls) and you want a reusable tool with its own instructions, files, and behaviour. You can share GPTs with your team or the public. Project Instructions → give ChatGPT context for ONE body of work. Use Projects when you have a chunk of work with its own knowledge base, like a specific client, a course you're building, or a launch you're running. Inside that project, the instructions and files are scoped to it. The order of override, in plain English: In a normal chat → Custom Instructions apply. Inside a Project → Project Instructions take priority over Custom Instructions. Inside a GPT → the GPT's instructions take priority. So: Custom Instructions for who you are. GPTs for what you do. Projects for what you're working on right now. Pick the level that matches the lifespan of the task and you'll stop fighting yourself. Cheers Jason West 🙌