Housekeeping:

• If you want to try this, then I am keeping a how to guide up to date, here. This post covers the original set-up in week 1.
• If you just want to know all of my findings and lessons learnt so far, then see it here.
• These blogs are more “rough and ready” than my articles, so please excuse mistakes.

Quick Links:

Introduction

I expect this first post to be longer than the ones to follow, as it will cover my set-up and some of the foundations of my idea. Future posts will be tweaks based on new ideas and findings.

What I am trying to achieve

I cover this in more detail on the main page, but to summerise:

• I am following my philosophy of writing about a subject to learn more.
• I want to create a GPT that can use my historical productivity performance data and processes to provide insights and improvements.
• In order to do this I will have to properly define and therefore think about my processes, so this gives me another reason to write down what I do.
• Provide productivity and AI ideas that others can use for their own gain.

Original Set-up

I am using ChatGPT 4o, plus plan ($20 a month). This gives you access to create custom GPTs and Projects. I will be using the latter feature for this project. You can use other GPTs.

What I did:

1. Create a new Project, I called it “Productivity Companion” to start with.
2. I imported 3 files, all as pdf’s:
   1. My CV - to give context of my working skills, experience, etc.
   2. My End-to-end productivity processes - It is really important to stress this is not completed. Part of the goal of this project is to develop this further and enhance it. I wrote it in Notion and it covers processes within my system. At this stage the status is:
      1. 5 year vision
      2. Morning review
      3. New task procedure
      4. Weekly Plan (very incomplete)
      5. Weekly Sort (very incomplete)
   3. AI Companion input - week 1 - I have shared the structure of this file below, see this as the data of progress that will be shared on a week-by-week basis. I am sure the template will evolve and I will cover that in these weekly posts.

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Note: Whilst ChatGPT Projects keeps data private I would be very mindful about what you are sharing.

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1. I set the following instructions / prompt:

“You are my productivity coach to help me find ways to improve. Ask critical questions, be friendly. The AI Companion Input file has my goals and their progress. The End-2-end process document has my productivity processes, note this is not completed yet. I have also included my CV to give you an idea of my skills. My work successes and progress are not included on purpose, so focus on my personal development when giving answers.”

Even at this stage I think this prompt needs significant work to be more useful, but I wanted to get this up and running as a starter for ten.

That’s all the configuration. It is now available to ask questions and scrutinise my progress.