*Updated with prompt* Today, ChatGPT helped me break through two years of procrastination

I wasn’t planning to share this, but today cracked something open using ChatGPT and I hope this helps someone out. Getting clarity on my path forward was effortless and effective. This prompt was so effective in guiding me through something I’d been avoiding, all the way to task completion, and lifted a huge burden off me.

For two years, one corner of my bedroom sat untouched with boxes, and the weight of various physical reminders of grief, loss, and the version of myself I hadn’t figured out how to become again during two grueling years of hands on caregiving for my mom, while still working full time and caring for my multi generational family of 7.

It became a place I hated looking at, I avoided, the place where overwhelm won. A place that quietly strained my marriage and my spirit.

I kept telling myself I’d deal with it “when I felt ready,” but I never did.

Today, for the first time, I didn’t try to do it alone. I got clarity and immediately was able to focus, start, AND FINISH a task I’ve been avoiding for two years.

I teamed up with ChatGPT — not as a tool, but as a teammate.

A calm voice.

A steady mirror.

A gentle push.

Step by step.

Breath by breath.

And somehow… something shifted.

That corner — the one tied to two years of emotional weight — is completely clean tonight. It took three hours to complete the task.

And in clearing it, I felt a piece of myself come back online.

The part that’s rebuilding.

The part that’s reinventing.

The part that’s ready to live forward again.

This wasn’t about cleaning a room.

It was about reclaiming myself after a season of loss.

If you’re carrying something heavy — even if it looks “small” to everyone else — please hear this:

You don’t have to push through the grief alone.

You don’t have to white-knuckle your reinvention.

Sometimes the breakthrough begins with a single corner… and a teammate who doesn’t get tired.

Tonight, I’m proud of myself.

And for the first time in a long time, I feel hope rising again.

THE PROMPT: EDITED FOR CLARITY

Due to a high number of requests, here is the prompt:

I have edited it so that you can get clarity by adjusting it to your own situation.

Copy and paste after editing to your own specifications.

“I’m stuck and unable to move forward with cleaning up (name the area) and I’ve been avoiding it for a long time. I feel ashamed of not being able to get started. I am (insert your own emotion here: grieving, stuck, procrastinating because….)

The end result is clutter everywhere, too many boxes to sort through, and a big mess I don’t know where to start working on. I feel so sad and stuck. Please guide me through clearing up the mess one step at a time.

Please ask me questions about what I see and then guide me for three immediate steps that I can do and then come back to me.

I need to get clarity on the path forward.

First, Allow me to do a full brain dump of everything that needs to get done and then work with me one item at a time to prioritize it into a list of most important first.

Don’t give me a list.

Don’t give me a long explanation.

Keep your responses short and focused, and don’t use a condescending tone.

Ask me one small question that uncovers the path forward about what needs done, wait for my reply, and then give me the next micro-step. Help me through until I’m done and the task is completed.

Keep all responses gentle, simple, short, and focused on helping me make steady progress without overwhelm.

Use bullet points in responses building lists for actions required, not paragraphs.

Please gently encourage me during this process and help me get clarity and overcome the mess.”

END OF PROMPT

Theresa Elliott

Elliott AI Foundry

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