What if ChatGPT truly understood how you think, what you care about, and how you work? Instead of feeling like just another chatbot, imagine if it responded like a real assistant—tailored just for you. That’s exactly what you can achieve with one powerful prompt and a few smart settings.
In this article, you’ll learn how to customize ChatGPT using built-in settings and a detailed prompt. The goal? To make ChatGPT respond in a way that fits your communication style, your preferences, and your workflow.
Why Customizing ChatGPT Matters
ChatGPT is already powerful, but out of the box, it’s generic. It doesn’t know you. It doesn’t understand how you like to work. That’s why customizing it can save time, reduce frustration, and make your experience much more productive.
When you adjust the custom settings, ChatGPT starts to behave like a real assistant. It asks better questions, gives better answers, and helps you get more done.
How to Access ChatGPT Custom Settings
It all starts with your profile. Click on your profile picture in ChatGPT and choose “Customize ChatGPT.” This will open up a settings window with two important sections:
- What would you like ChatGPT to know about you to provide better responses?
- How would you like ChatGPT to respond?
If you’ve never filled these out or used vague language, you’re missing out on the true power of the tool.
The Magic Prompt That Changes Everything
This prompt is the key. It helps ChatGPT generate a set of personalized questions that reveal how you think, work, and communicate. Once ChatGPT understands those things, its responses become significantly more useful.
Don’t worry, the full prompt is included below so you can copy and paste it:
____________________
Context:
You are assisting a professional who wants to dramatically improve the quality, tone, and usefulness of ChatGPT’s responses. The goal is to craft tailored Custom Instructions that can be pasted into ChatGPT’s settings — enabling more personalized, helpful, and context-aware replies. The user values clarity, practical advice, and responses that align with their communication style and workflow.
Role:
Act as a veteran investigative journalist with 20+ years of experience at top-tier publications. Your specialty is profiling high-performing professionals to understand how they think, work, and communicate. You ask revealing yet respectful questions that get to the heart of what makes someone effective — and then translate those insights into powerful, concise language. You are known for your ability to draw out someone's unique voice and values in just a few well-crafted questions.
Action:
Follow these 4 steps to complete this task:
- Begin by briefly explaining the purpose of Custom Instructions in ChatGPT and how they benefit the user.
- Ask up to 7 sharp and engaging interview questions designed to uncover how the user thinks, communicates, and makes decisions.
- Once the user answers all 7 questions, distill their responses into two well-crafted Custom Instruction fields:
- “What would you like ChatGPT to know about you to provide better responses?”
- “How would you like ChatGPT to respond?
- Format your final output as clearly labeled text blocks, suitable for copy-and-paste into the ChatGPT settings.
Format:
Your response should follow this structure:
- A short introduction (2–3 sentences)
- A numbered list of 7 interview questions
- Once answers are received, return two clearly formatted blocks:
- Block 1: What would you like ChatGPT to know about you to provide better responses?
- Block 2: How would you like ChatGPT to respond?
Each block must be:
- Under 1,500 characters
- Written at a reading level no higher than Grade 8
- Polished and easy to understand
- Reflective of the user's unique voice, goals, and preferences
Target Audience:
The intended user is a solo professional, consultant, or knowledge worker whowants ChatGPT to function more like a thoughtful assistant than a searchengine. They prefer responses that are clear, direct, and tailored to theirgoals and working style. Reading level: Grade 7–8. Values: efficiency, clarity,warmth, usefulness.
____________________
The Prompt in Action: 7 Key Questions
Once you enter the prompt, ChatGPT will ask you seven detailed questions. These questions uncover how you think, what you value, and how you prefer to work.
Here are a few examples:
- What kind of support do you need most often? Brainstorming? Drafting? Organizing?
- What’s your preferred communication style? Do you like bullet points, direct answers, or step-by-step guides?
- How much context should ChatGPT remember? Are there tools or workflows you use regularly?
The more honest and detailed your answers, the better ChatGPT will perform for you.
Answer Directly in the Chat
You might be tempted to copy these questions into a separate document and answer them there. Don’t. Instead, respond directly within the same ChatGPT conversation. This lets ChatGPT generate custom instruction blocks based on your answers.
At the end, ChatGPT will convert everything into the format required for the custom settings. You’ll see two blocks:
- What ChatGPT should know about you
- How ChatGPT should respond
Copy and paste these into your settings to lock them in.
Example: Custom Settings in Action
Here’s what a final set of custom settings might look like:
What to Know About You: "I’m a productivity coach who uses Notion, Trello, and Google Workspace. I value clarity and brevity. I usually need help drafting outlines, summarizing content, and generating ideas."
How to Respond: "Use bullet points when listing ideas. Keep responses under 150 words unless I ask for more. Ask clarifying questions if the task isn’t clear."
With these inputs, ChatGPT can give you answers that actually work for your needs.
Save and See the Difference
Once you’ve pasted the responses into your settings, ChatGPT will remember them every time you interact. This means no more explaining your preferences over and over again.
You’ll get faster answers, better suggestions, and more relevant help.
Give It a Try
Now it’s your turn. Copy the prompt, answer the questions honestly, and paste the results into your settings. The improvement in your ChatGPT experience will be immediate.
Customizing ChatGPT isn’t just a trick—it’s a game changer. When your tools understand you, work gets easier. And being productive doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, it can be very simple.
