Lesson 74 · 2 min
Split a big job into steps
AI does a big job far better when you hand it one clear piece at a time and check each piece.
"Write my whole business plan" in one prompt usually gives something long, smooth and shallow. The model has to make dozens of decisions at once, and it makes most of them by guessing.
Break the job the way a person would. First the outline. Then each section, one at a time. Then a review of the whole thing. Each step is small enough for you to check and correct before you move on.
You can ask the AI to help plan the split. "Before writing anything, list the steps you would take to do this job, and wait." Then work through the list together.
This also keeps you in charge. When something goes wrong at step two, you fix step two, and you do not have to throw away everything that came after it.
Do it now
Plan first, then build
- 1. Choose a bigger task: a presentation, a party plan, a report.
- 2. Use the prompt below so the AI lists steps without doing them yet.
- 3. Do the first step only, check it, then ask for the next one.
I need to [BIG TASK] for [WHO / WHY]. Do not start yet. First list the 4 to 6 steps you would take, with one line on what each step produces. Then wait for me to say "go" before doing step 1.
Quick check
Keep going
Next →Ask AI to check its own workWords from this lesson
- Prompt chaining
- Breaking a big job into a sequence of smaller prompts, feeding each answer into the next step.
- Prompt
- The instruction or question you give an AI. Clearer prompts with context usually get much better answers.