Since ChatGPT was first made public, the conversational chatbot has been harnessed by millions to streamline work processes, grade essays, and even create sub-bar comedy material.
But its use isn’t reserved for workspaces and classrooms. Thanks to its massive corpus of training data and sophisticated algorithms its applications are quite literally endless – creating valuable opportunities for users looking to unlock their best self in 2024, and beyond.
Whether you’re in your ‘new year, new me’ era, or you simply want to build healthier habits and stick to them year-round, we’ve rounded up some of the top self-improvement prompts to feed ChatGPT this January. We also offer advice on what makes a great prompt, to help you get the most out of generative AI.
The best ChatGPT prompts for:
What are ChatGPT Prompts?
If you’re new to ChatGPT — what rock have you been living under? And secondly, you might be wondering what we mean by prompts.
A ChatGPT prompt is a specific instruction fed to an AI chatbot to generate a response. Prompts essentially act as a starting point for conversations with chatbots, can take the form of a question or statement, and can be as detailed, or as vague, as the user chooses.
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What makes a good ChatGPT prompt?
Whether you’re writing your own or embellishing on the examples below, follow these best practices to make sure ChatGPT delivers the best results possible.
- Be as specific as possible – To help generate your desired response, specify the tone, length, and format of the output. Also, try to avoid using wishy-washy, subjective language.
- Add context – Don’t shy away from details. The more contextual information you include in a prompt the more accurate the response will be.
- Add examples – If you want your responses to reflect domain-specific knowledge or a specific style and tone, add reference material so ChatGPT can generate a response to your liking.
- Ask ChatGPT to assume a profession – ChatGPT is great at taking on points of view, so if you’re looking for advice relating to distinct fields – from fitness to horticulture – we’d recommend asking the chatbot to take on that profession.
Best ChatGPT Prompts For January
Whether you want to tap into your inner guru with mindfulness or create a fitness plan you’ll actually stick to, here is a selection of ChatGPT prompts designed to nurture your personal growth in a variety of ways.
All of these prompts are customizable and can be tailored to your exact needs and preferences. And remember, prompts are just a jump-off point – asking follow-up questions is a great way to fine-tune your responses until you’ve got the most useful output possible.
1. Setting 2024 New Year resolutions
We may be well into January, but it’s never too late to set a New Year resolution. If you’re after something a little more creative than working out more and lowering your screen time, ChatGPT should be able to help you out.
The prompt: “Help me come with my New Year’s resolutions. Here is a little about me to help you: [enter information about your lifestyle, goals, and the direction you want to be heading in 2024.] I’d like the resolutions to be tangible and for them to be achievable by the end of the year.”
You can also limit the number of resolutions ChatGPT generates and cap the amount of detail it offers by adding “Make [insert number] resolutions that are no longer than [insert word limit] words each.”
2. Building a 2024 vision board
News just in: vision boards aren’t just for teenagers. Creating a collage that represents your wishes and goals can be used as a powerful method to visualize and manifest success — and ChatGPT just made the process easier than ever. It’s worth noting that you will need a paid-for subscription to ChatGPT or Dall-E for this one.
The prompt: “Compose a creative vision board to visualize my goals for 2024. Some of my personal, professional, and academic goals include: [include examples of goals]. Use a mixture of inspiring imagery and language, and don’t make the vision board any bigger than [insert size limit here].
If you have a particular aesthetic or design style in mind, you can also mention this and even input examples, to make sure the end result is tailored to your liking. For example:
“Use a neutral color palette and cursive fonts like this vision board: [insert photo of vision board here].”
3. Creating daily affirmations
Daily affirmations are positive mantras you repeat routinely to encourage optimism and success. Depending on your goals and ambitions, they can be used to speak a variety of positive thought patterns into existence.
Ask Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington, and Rhianna – all examples of incredibly successful figures who practice daily affirmation.
The prompt: “Generate a daily affirmation mantra personalized to these following challenges, desires, and aspirations: [insert more context]. Make sure the affirmation is achievable and positive, and no longer than [insert word limit] words.”
4. Improving time management
If you want 2024 to be the year of getting stuff done, it might be wise to leverage ChatGPT to improve your time management. You can use the following prompt to design a daily, weekly, or monthly timetable, with tasks stacked in order of priority. You can also edit the prompt to serve specific personal or professional goals.
The prompt: “Create a schedule that will help me achieve the goal of [insert daily goal]. Here’s a list of my tasks, in order of priority: [insert tasks in order of priority]. My day will start at [insert start time] and end at [insert end time]. My lunch will last [insert length of lunch time] and I want to have [amount of breaks] daily breaks.”
5. Building a fitness plan
If you’re looking to improve your fitness, but don’t know where to start, you don’t have to fork out on a personalized training plan or custom workout software. All you need to do is ask ChatGPT the following prompt, after determining your fitness goals:
The prompt: “You are a certified professional trainer. Your goal is to help me build a personalized workout plan based on the following information: I’m a [insert age] years old [female/male], weigh [insert weight], am [insert height] tall, and my primary fitness goal is to [insert goal].
I’m available [insert the number of hours a day you’re free] a day, [insert the number of days a week you’re free] days each week, and my preference is [aerobics/ cardio/ strength training/anaerobic/ flexibility training ] exercise.”
6. Practicing mindfulness
Mindfulness and meditation benefit the mind and body in myriad ways, with research finding that sustained practice can lower levels of depression and anxiety, and improve memory and self-esteem. If you’re looking to get more zen in 2024, why not call on ChatGPT when building your mindfulness routine?
The prompt: “You are a mindfulness guru. Suggest a daily mindfulness routine, including meditation, visualizations, and journaling, to help me [insert primary reasons for practicing mindfulness]? I have [insert time limit] of free time to invest into the practice each day.”
Feel free to list more specific reasons for engaging in the practice, like “lowering blood pressure” or “falling asleep”. Or, if you’re stuck for reasons, common pointers include “being present” or “reducing anxiety”. And as ever, give ChatGPT specific length guidelines to adjust for levels of detail.
7. Creating a budget
In 2024, budgeting is one of your best weapons against the spiraling cost of living. You don’t need to splurge to get your spending in check, either – ChatGPT can be used to create custom budget planners, with the simple prompt below:
The prompt: “You are a professional budget planner. Create a monthly budget plan for me. I earn [insert earnings per month] per month, and my expenses are [insert expenses per month] per month. I want to save at least [insert saving goal] by [insert time frame].”
ChatGPT will then generate a rough budget plan based on your input. You can then cross-reference this with your financial situation, and fine-tune the response by adding in details like specific purchases and payment dates.
8. Asking for a promotion
Looking to level up in your career in 2024 but aren’t sure how to ask for a promotion? How about using ChatGPT as a jump-off point?
Remember though, you don’t want your request to sound too formal or robotic, so be sure to add personal details and inflections to make it sound as human as possible.
The prompt: “You’re a recruitment manager. Can you give me a script to communicate my aspirations to move from my current position as a [insert current position] to [insert desired position] at [insert company name]? This script will be addressed to my manager. I want the tone of this message to be [formal/casual] and capped at [word limit] words.”
Follow up with details about both positions and information about specific achievements for best results.
9. Creating a healthy meal plan
While you shouldn’t trust a bot for all your dietary needs, using ChatGPT to create a rough healthy eating plan can be an effective way to improve your nutritional intake without having to employ a nutritionist.
The prompt: “As a health and nutrition expert, create a balanced diet plan for a [insert age] year old, [female/male] that weighs [weight], is [insert height] tall and has these health goals: [specific fitness or health goal]. Tailor the plan to include [vegetarian/ vegan/ omnivore] options, ensuring adequate protein intake and nutrient diversity, and my preferred preferences and culinary styles which are [insert preferences].
This guide should include sample meal plans with step-by-step instructions, and a list of what foods to include and avoid.”
Remember that ChatGPT isn’t infallible, and it’s worth sense checking any advice that it gives you, especially if it seems strange.
For more tips on how to write chatbot instructions that deliver, especially in a workplace setting, check out our guide to the best ChatGPT prompts for businesses.
