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Often lost in the generally breathless coverage of generative AI, ChatGPT sports a few genuinely useful features that arent quite so obvious. These options dont get splashy demos or make the headlines, but instead quietly make your life as a gen-AI user a bit easier. Let’s take a quick look at some of ChatGPT’s unsung heroes. Edit Prompts We’ve all been there. You type out a prompt, hit enter, and immediately spot a typo that fundamentally changes the meaning. Or perhaps you realize you forgot a crucial piece of context. But lo and behold, hover over your prompt and youll find a simple “Edit” button, which allows you to refine your input in real time. Iterate on your questions, add details, and guide the AI more effectively without losing the thread of the conversation. Custom Instructions A must-tweak for anyone who uses ChatGPT regularly, tucked away in the settings (click your profile photo up in the right-hand corner) is the “Custom Instructions” feature, which lets you tell ChatGPT how you want it to behave. Want it to respond in a particular tone? Prefer bullet points over paragraphs? Want to avoid jargon? This is where you set the rules, ensuring consistency and making the whole experience feel a lot more personal. Regenerate Responses Whether ChatGPTs response is a total dud or simply good, but not perfect, the Try again feature is worth playing around with. Click the recycling arrows-looking icon that appears when hovering over the AIs response and choose Try again to regenerate its response. Each iteration should give you a slightly different angle, new phrasing, or an updated perspective. It’s a quick way to explore variations and ensure youre getting the best output for whatever task youre working on.
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This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. Curious about my actual tech tool kit? I’m sharing the apps and tools that powered me through a recent morningfrom wake-up alarm to lunchtime break. This builds on my recent focusing and timeboxing posts. Id be delighted to hear about the tools youre relying on today in a comment below or an email reply. 7 a.m.: Get ready for the day I welcome the morning by getting my body and brain moving, picking a few words of gratitude, and gauging my wellness. When Im exhausted, running late, or otherwise off-center, this gets blurred. Oura Ring: I check my sleep quality and resilience score to calibrate my expectations for the day. Having an objective measure of how well Ive slept, my heart rate volatility, and other metrics helps me decide whether to push my exercise harder or give myself grace. It also helps motivate me on dreary days. Brain Games: Playing The New York Times Spelling Bee, Wordle, and Connections with my wife and daughters is a fun breakfast ritual, and less stressful than scanning headlines. I also like Pointed, Bloombergs new (first) game, and various other quick thinking games. TickTime Cube Timer: I flip this onto its 1-minute side to initiate a simple countdown. Having this nearby helps me stick to a new habit: a trio of one-minute core exercises. Doing these at the start of the day helps get my energy going. It also means a busy day later wont rupture my routine. 8 a.m.: Walk my daughter to school No tech. No tools. 8:30 a.m.: Plan the day While commuting to work, I listen to podcasts with Snipd. If my subway isnt too crowded for me to lift my arms to read, I use Readwise Reader to catch up on articles Ive saved for later. I also use Superhumans email app to check for work emergencies. When I get to work, I map out what’s ahead with a digital/analog mix. Google Calendar: I check GCal for meetings. I experiment with other calendarsincluding Vimcal, Akiflow, Fantastical, and Notion Calendarbut on this day, the simple and free GCal is sufficient. Apple Reminders: I keep at most three priority tasks at the top of my list. I only add to that top tier when Ive completed one. I adopted that tactic from Oliver Burkemans excellent Four Thousand Weeks. ReMarkable Paper Pro: I timebox my day hour by hour, based on priorities, energy level, and scheduled meetings. Having a detailed plan helps me avoid decision fatigue later. And when I lose focus, it pulls me back on track. Sometimes I use Sunsama, a digital planner. I like varying my routine, so I rotate between planning there or on my Remarkable tablet [heres why I use it], my office whiteboard, a Rocketbook erasable notebook, or paper. 9 a.m.: Writing I tackle creative work early when my focus is freshest. Tools help minimize distractions and friction so I can concentrate and think. Letterly: I dictate my thoughts into this app, which cleans up filler words and formats my dictation into an outline, summary, or series of questions to explore. It’s good for getting ideas flowing before more detailed thinking and editing. When I want an AI assistant to challenge my ideas, I use ChatGPTs Advanced Voice Mode, but Letterly is great for bionic dictation. Lex: This writing tool provides a simple interface plus an AI editor that lets me check grammar, spelling, syntax, repetition, and more. Google Docs/iA Writer: Reliable blank canvases with minimal friction. Raycast: Without switching apps, I can quickly add items to my Reminders or Calendar, maintaining my writing flow. Headspace: Focus music without lyrics helps with concentration and blocks out city noise around my Times Square office. 10 a.m.: Wrangle Email I set up periodic sprints to process email so it wont consume my day. Superhuman: I use keyboard shortcuts to move through routine emails quickly. Superhuman also has helpful tags and filters so I dont drown in messages. The automated reminders ensure I follow up on open threads. Boomerang is a great alternative for follow-ups if you use Outlook or Gmail. Shortwave: I like this AIpowered email app for easily finding, organizing, and summarizing messages. Lazy: I use a quick keyboard shortcut to clip and file important info from an email into Lazy, my notes app, with contextual info automatically included (sender, date, subject line) without having to switch out of my email app. Flow: Dictating messages saves my hands from typing fatigue. Its remarkably accurate compared with old-fashioned dictation software. Unlike Letterly, this plugs text directly into whatever app Im working with. 11 a.m.: Break Wakeout: This app features GIFs of ordinary people doing stretching and cardio. I can imitate their movements for a variety of one-minute exercises. The exercise is minimal, but at least my brain briefly pauses and my body moves. These breaks help clear my head three times a day. 11:05 a.m.: Craft a presentation When preparing workshops or classes, these tools help me craft engaging visual materials. I like app-smashingusing multiple apps together to benefit from their best features. ChatGPT-4o Image Generation and Ideogram: These help me generate custom images for slides when needed. Beautiful.ai: Slides automatically adjust as I add content, saving design time. Keynote: This reliable Mac presentation software works offline, supports in-person plus remote presentations, and offers slick moving slide backgrounds. iA Presenter: I use this to create a visual presentation out of an outline. When Im turning text materials into visuals, I import my words into this (non-AI) app, which displays markdown text as visuals alongside presenter notes. Claude Projects and NotebookLM: These AI tools help me find common themes, key ideas, and examples in prior materials Ive created, so I can build on my own past work. Perplexity: Provides thorough, citation-backed search results powered by AI models that understand my detailed queries. The helpful search summary ensures Im not left with hundreds of raw (Google) links to sort through. This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.
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Summer is here, and “workcations,” a blend of business and personal travel, are on the rise. According to data from Engine, a group travel startup, nearly two-thirds (65%) of full-time employed Gen Z workers say theyre likely to combine business travel with leisure travel. Also known as bleisure, this trend sees Gen Zers consistently adding extra nights to their work trips. Why? For many, it feels like a free trip. Others say it gives them a chance to visit cities they wouldnt normally travel to (35%), helps them maintain work-life balance (33%), and allows them to recharge and reduce stress (33%). If workcations are here to stay, what makes them successful for both employers and employees? In this article, we share expert and employer insights on how to make workcations work. Be transparent Ive combined business travel with family adventures across 60-plus countries, working during the mornings and exploring in the afternoons. My best tip? Be open with your company. I chose roles at global companies because I wanted my family to see the world with me. I told each company up front: “My kids will travel with me, but it wont conflict with my work.” They were always super supportive. In the end, blending work and travel not only sustained my careerit raised my kids to be fearless, adaptable global citizens. Jenny Dearborn, Chief People Strategy Officer and Talent Insights Practice Leader, BTS Companies may need to establish a formal program Prudentials Work From Anywhere program allows employees to work fully remotely for up to four weeks in the U.S. Recently, three employees utilized our Work From Anywhere program to work from San Diego for two weeks. They stayed together in a short-term rental, connected and collaborated in person, took time off to explore the city, and even used our volunteer PTO to volunteer with a local nonprofit. This is an example of our commitment to flexibility and employee well-being, which is supported through comprehensive benefits and programs. Im glad that this approach continues to help our people drive great outcomes for our business. Robert Gulliver, Chief Talent & Diversity Officer at Prudential Financial Time-box to make progress My wife and I have been living the nomadic lifestyle for about 10 years now. If you’re traveling every few days, it’s almost impossible to be truly productive. We stay in each place for at least two weeks, but ideally for one to three months. While it’s possible to respond to emails and chats and do other busy work while in transit, I’ve found that it’s crucial to build in workdays while traveling. These are days with zero plans other than work. Or at least, mornings with zero plans. If we’re going to explore in the afternoon, I’ll block about four hours in the morning to get some work done. I’ll spend the first hour responding to emails and any unanswered support questions. Then I’ll have three hours to focus on one or more larger projects. Time-boxing allows me to make significant progress in a short amount of time. I know I’ve only got a few hours, so I work quickly and efficiently. I’m far more productive when I know time is limited, and I use that time much more effectively. Ryan Desmond, CEO & Co-founder of CodingNomads Address resources, needs, and unhook The secret to recharging your batteries is ensuring that you fill three specific buckets, referred to as the ReNU buckets. The “Re” in ReNU stands for resources. To refresh yourself in your leisure time, you need to ensure that you replenish the resources that get depleted at work. The “N” stands for needs. To get a boost in your leisure time, you need to satisfy your physical need for sleep and your psychological needs, such as the need for autonomy. The “U” stands for unhooking, which involves psychologically detaching from work. It’s not enough to physically leave the office; you must mentally leave the office. Workcations won’t be recharging because they don’t allow you to fill the ReNU buckets. By continuing to work, you fail to replenish depleted work resources, and are likely to feel just as run down after a workcation as you felt before it. Jamie Gruman, PhD, Professor and Senior Research Fellow, Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, University of Guelph Consider embracing a workcation lifestyle Back in 2020, I was seeing my coaching and therapy clients in person, rushing between meetings, navigating packed sidewalks. It was a life I had carefully built. But when the world changed, I realized I was ready for something different. So I packed my laptop and headed west to Utah. Between client sessions, I explored hiking trails instead of crowded streets, soaking in the fresh air and wide-open views. After nine weeks, I decided to sell most of my belongings, let go of my office lease, and drive cross-country. I was thinking, “Why wait until retirement to live in the places I love?” For the past four years, I’ve embraced a flexible, minimalist lifestyle while working with clients online. Do I still miss in-person sessions sometimes? Absolutely. But being able to show up fully for my clients and live a life aligned with my values has been an incredible gift. Caitlin Magidson, NCC, LCPC, Coach and Psychotherapist, The Coaching & Counseling Company Find accommodations with strong Wi-Fi I help travelers experience both remote adventure and refined comfort across Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet. As someone who manages international clients year-round, I find that picking accommodations that are more than just Wi-Fi friendly is essential to a successful workcation. Youll need space, quiet, and reliable backup if youre on video calls when blending work and travel. My top tip for balancing work and exploration is to find a strong hotel Wi-Fi connection. Naresh Dahal, Operations Manager, Everest Luxury Holidays Treat workcations like a rhythm My family and I just returned from two months at seaall while working remotely and world-schooling our then-6-year-old daughter. My top tip? Having set “office hours” on sea days helped us maintain structure while still leaving room for the spontaneity and joy of travel. Even better, not having to manage the daily demands of our at-home lifestylecooking, cleaning, and laundry, all of which were taken care of on boardgave us a surprising amount of extra free ime we hadnt anticipated. Treat workcations like a rhythm, and be willing to make adjustments. By clearly separating time for work, time for exploration, and planning ahead with your clients or team, you can be both present and productive. Christianne Klein, Founder, FoodFamilyTravel.com
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