I changed these 5 ChatGPT settings to instantly increase productivity (and how they work)
Can not deny that ChatGPT is a highly capable tool that can assist you with a variety of tasks. However, using chatbots can pose challenges, such as requiring multiple reminders and raising privacy concerns. Luckily for you, a few quick and easy settings can help solve those problems.
To get the most out of OpenAI’s chatbot, you just need to tweak a few settings. While switching these settings only takes a few minutes, it will completely enhance your experience. Don’t believe me? Try it yourself by customizing ChatGPT’s settings below.
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Before you begin, make sure you are logged into your existing OpenAI account or create a new one. While you can access ChatGPT without an account, you must log in to access the settings. Once you have adjusted your settings, they will be saved to your account and automatically enabled for your next ChatGPT sessions.
Now for the fun stuff.
1. Customizable instructions
This setting is probably the biggest time saver. With Customizable instructionsyou can enter commands for ChatGPT to execute each time it generates a response for you, allowing you to skip adding those commands each time you enter a prompt.
For example, if you’re a teacher or parent and want all materials created to be age-appropriate for your kids, you might use Custom Instructions. In that case, you might say, “I’m a third-grade teacher and will be using ChatGPT to help me create back-to-school content. I’d like you to use third-grade vocabulary and keep the tone engaging and upbeat.” Then, every subsequent response will follow that criteria.
How to: Click on your profile picture in the upper right corner and “Customize ChatGPT”. You will see a pop-up with two text boxes asking you, “What do you want ChatGPT to know about you to provide better feedback?” and “How do you want ChatGPT to respond?” as shown in the picture above. If you need inspiration for a tutorial, click on the text box and bulleted “starter ideas” will appear.
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After entering instructions, make sure the toggle next to “Enable for new chats” is turned on so it will be used every time you enter a prompt in the future. You can turn the setting off if you want ChatGPT to ignore instructions for a particular reply.
2. Memory
Like Custom Instructions, Memory allows users to avoid repetition each time they use the chatbot and the experience is more customized. With Memory, the chatbot remembers any details provided by the user that can be useful when formulating subsequent responses.
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For example, if I mention in a prompt that I have a Yorkie named Jimmy, with Memory enabled, ChatGPT will use this information as context when generating relevant responses in the future. So if I say, “What food should I feed my pet?” in a later prompt, it will remember that my pet is a Yorkie and make suggestions accordingly.
How to: Tap your profile picture in the top right corner > Settings > Personalization > Memory and toggle it on or off. You can also tap Manage settings to delete any saved memories you don’t want to use in the future or don’t want to remember.
3. Temporary chat
One of the biggest concerns users have regarding ChatGPT is whether their data is kept private and secure. This concern is exacerbated because creative AI model like ChatGPT uses user input to further train their model. Ephemeral chats provide a quick and simple way to ensure your chats stay private.
When Ephemeral Chat is enabled, your conversations won’t be used to create memories, train models, or appear in history. Be careful: OpenAI notes that even with Ephemeral Chat, it may keep copies of conversations for up to 30 days for security purposes.
How to: All you have to do is click on the drop-down menu in the top right corner where it says “ChatGPT” and select the Temporary Chat option.
4. Improve the model for everyone
Continuing on the topic of privacy and security, if you feel more comfortable with not having any chats used to further train the model, you can turn off the “Improve model for everyone” setting. This is especially important since it’s on by default.
How to: To turn this feature off, click your profile picture in the upper right corner > Settings > Data control > Model enhancements and toggle the feature on or off.
5. Theme
While it may seem trivial for your ChatGPT interface to appear in a light or dark theme, it can significantly improve your experience. For example, I always lean towards dark mode on all my devices because it’s easier on the eyes. As a result, as seen in the screenshot above, I also selected the dark theme in ChatGPT.
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How to: Personalizing this setting is easy because as soon as you visit the Settings page, you’ll see a “Themes” drop-down menu at the top of the pop-up window. When you click on the drop-down menu, you can choose between “System”, “Light” and “Dark”.
