ChatGPT brain meltdown - Can no longer complete tasks

QUESTION: Is there a prompt to reset ChatGPT's brain so it can forget previous tasks and focus clearly on new ones please?

BACKGROUND: I have been using ChatGPT quite a lot recently, mainly to reduce the body text of a long manuscript. I have broken the task down to one chapter at a time, giving it clear instrcutions as to how much text to cut – and it has confirmed that it understands my instructions every step of the way.

Initially I asked it to reduce the body text (not headers <h2> <h3> etc) down to something between 80% and 85%. It got stuck in, producing new chapters very speedily, but when I checked the word count, I realised it was cutting the body text down to about 50%.

I halted the task, and asked it to start again, reminding it of the agreed parameters –incl. not cutting as much text. It proceeded by generating new text, and word count was about right. However, this time it was re-writing the content so much – to the point that it changed the headers also, and the content no longer matched the references section.

I reminded it of the brief, and it aknowledged where it had gone wrong. I asked it to only re-write the body text to reduce the overall word count (down to 80–85%), removing duplication and fluff. It demonstrated that it understood in the chat.

Now it cannot seem to generate anything. It seems to be stuck. I asked it if the previous tasks might still be clogging up its memory, and it replied saying that this was the case. So, i asked it to disregard all of the previous re-writing instructions, and just stick with the new plan. It agreed.

... However, it still appears to be stuck. Every time I ask it to rewrite the Introduction (800 words), it tells me the task wil be completed in 20 mins, or 30 mins, or 90 mins, etc. Every time I check on it, it keeps giving me another time delay... this has gone on for days now. 🤯 🔫

Would appreciate any help... thanks for reading.

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