The 7-Day AI Starter Plan
If AI feels like something everyone else already understands, start here. One short exercise a day, ten to fifteen minutes each, in any assistant you like — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or another. No jargon, no signup.
Each day teaches one skill and builds on the last. By day 7 you will have a prompt you reuse every week and know which AI suits you.
Day 1 · Telling the AI who you are
Ask it to explain something at your level
The fastest win: the same question gets a far better answer when the AI knows what you already know.
Explain [TOPIC YOU HAVE BEEN MEANING TO UNDERSTAND] to me. I am [YOUR BACKGROUND, e.g. "a nurse with no finance background"]. Use one everyday analogy, keep it under 200 words, and end with the 3 questions I should ask next to go deeper.
Day 2 · Constraints: length and tone
Rewrite something you wrote this week
Editing your own words shows how much a clear length and tone change the result — without risking anything new.
Rewrite the message below so it is [SHORTER / FRIENDLIER / MORE DIRECT]. Keep every fact, name and date exactly as written. Under [N] words. Show me the new version, then list what you changed and why. [PASTE AN EMAIL OR MESSAGE YOU WROTE]
Day 3 · Asking for a specific format
Turn a brain-dump into a plan
AI is excellent at sorting mess into structure — if you tell it what structure you want.
Here is everything on my mind this week, unsorted: [BRAIN-DUMP]. Sort it into a table with columns: Task, Must / Should / Could, Time needed, Day. Do not add tasks I did not mention. Then tell me the one thing to do first tomorrow.
Day 4 · Few-shot prompting
Teach it your style with two examples
Describing a style is hard; showing it is easy. Two examples beat a paragraph of adjectives.
Here are two things I wrote that sound like me: <example>[SAMPLE 1]</example> <example>[SAMPLE 2]</example> Write a [NEW THING, e.g. "short LinkedIn post about my new job"] in the same voice — match the sentence length, word choice and tone, not the topic.
Day 5 · Checking AI answers
Catch it guessing
AI sounds equally confident when it is right and when it is guessing. Learning to spot the difference is the most important skill on this list.
Answer this question: [A FACTUAL QUESTION YOU CAN CHECK]. Then, separately, list (1) every assumption you made, (2) any part you are not sure about, and (3) what I should verify and where.
Day 6 · Templates with fill-in fields
Save one prompt you will reuse every week
This is where AI stops being a novelty and starts saving you time — a weekly job done in two minutes.
Pick something you do every week (a status update, a meal plan, a report). Write it as a template with [BRACKETS] for the parts that change, for example: Write this week’s update for [CLIENT]. Done: [DONE]. Next: [NEXT]. Needs from you: [BLOCKERS]. Under 200 words. Use only these facts.
Day 7 · Choosing the right model
Try the same prompt on two AIs
Different assistants are better at different things. One side-by-side test tells you more than a dozen reviews.
Use your Day 6 template (or any prompt from this week). Run it on two different AI assistants and compare: which followed every instruction, which was more accurate, and which would you actually use?
Two rules for the whole week
- Don't paste anything you wouldn't email to a stranger — passwords, other people's private details, confidential work. Use made-up examples while you learn.
- AI can be confidently wrong. Check names, numbers and facts before you rely on an answer; day 5 shows you how.
Want the whole toolkit on one page? Grab the printable prompt cheat sheet.