Day 3 – Introduction to ChatGPT + 100 Starting Prompts Lesson

Lesson Overview

This lesson introduces ChatGPT with a focus on the free account, essential settings, and practical use of prompts. You will see where to type a prompt, how to continue a conversation with follow up prompts, and how to organize your work using the left sidebar and chat search. You will also learn to turn on personalization and memory so ChatGPT can remember details like your nickname or occupation and use that context across chats. If you prefer more privacy, you will see how to switch off model training in Data Controls.

Inside a chat, you can upload photos and files for analysis, generate images, and allow ChatGPT to browse the web when needed. You will preview paid options like ChatGPT Plus for more advanced models, and the Team plan for small groups that need sharing and stronger controls. Temporary chats give you a quick way to keep a conversation out of history and memory.

To help you practice, you will use starter prompts to draft outlines, create paragraphs from selected sections, and refine the tone with follow ups like shorter or simpler. This approach treats ChatGPT as a writing partner instead of a full replacement, which often leads to stronger, more original work. The lesson closes by setting you up for structured prompting in the next session.

Who This Is For

If you want a clear starting point with ChatGPT and a simple way to get quality results, this lesson will help. It is a good fit for:

• Beginners who are new to ChatGPT and want a guided first setup
• Professionals who need drafts, outlines, or quick research support
• Students and educators who want organized conversations and repeatable prompts
• Creators and freelancers who draft emails, posts, and basic plans
• Team members who need privacy controls and the option to share internally

Where This Fits in a Workflow

Use the setup steps and prompt basics early in any project to save time and reduce back and forth. For example:

Writing and marketing: Start with a prompt to generate a blog post outline on a topic like remote work. Select any section and ask for a paragraph, then refine with a follow up such as make it shorter or simplify the language.

Personal productivity: Ask for time management strategies for a busy professional, then request an expanded explanation of the items that matter most to you.

This lesson helps you configure ChatGPT once so you can focus on the conversation, not the tool. Turning on memory and using chat search makes repeated tasks smoother, and temporary chats give you a way to work without saving context.

Technical & Workflow Benefits

The manual way to draft content is to start from scratch, search for examples, and rewrite repeatedly. With this approach, you type a clear prompt once, use follow ups to refine, and reuse chat history and memory to keep context. You can pause generation when it drifts and regenerate to try a different angle, which is faster than rewriting by hand.

Two places you will feel the difference:

1. Structured writing: Outlines first, then paragraphs from selected sections. You stay in control while ChatGPT does the heavy lifting.
2. Ongoing requests: With personalization and memory on, you do not have to restate basic info, and chat search helps you find past prompts instantly.

If your work gets complex or you need more room in each chat, Plus offers more advanced models that can handle longer, more nuanced tasks. Teams can standardize settings and share internally, which is useful for work projects.

Practice Exercise

Try a simple setup-to-output workflow:

1. Open chatgpt.com and sign in to a free account. In Settings, turn on customization and add your nickname and role. Turn on memory and reference chat history. In Data Controls, choose whether to allow training on your content.
2. Start a new chat. Paste this prompt: Generate a blog post outline about a benefit of remote work. Select any one section of the outline, click to bring it into the prompt box, and ask: Write one paragraph about this. Then ask for a shorter version or a simpler rewrite.
3. Start another chat and paste: Suggest effective time management strategies for a busy professional. Ask to elaborate on the strategy that interests you most.

Reflection: Which settings or follow ups improved your results the most, and why would you use them again on your next task?

Course Context Recap

This lesson gives you a working setup and a solid starting flow with prompts so you can get useful results fast. You saw how to configure a free account, adjust privacy and memory, and practice with starter prompts in common scenarios. Next, you will learn a simple four-part prompt structure that consistently improves responses. Continue through the course to build on this foundation and turn quick prompts into reliable, repeatable workflows.