Stop Re-Explaining Yourself
Beyond the Prompt · Issue 01 · AI Tips · 6 min read
Stop Re-Explaining Yourself
Welcome to Beyond the Prompt, a new season of Monday Morning AI. Over the first six issues, you built a set of prompts for the moments that matter most in your week. Now we're going to make those prompts work harder, starting with the simplest upgrade there is: teaching your AI tool who you are, once, so you never have to explain it again.
The Conversation You Keep Having
You open your AI tool to ask a quick question. But before you can ask it, you find yourself typing background first: who you are, what you do, and how you want the answer written. "I'm a senior leader in operations." "Keep it professional but warm." "Please keep it short."
Then you close the window, and the next time you open it, you do it all over again.
It's a little like working with a brilliant assistant who forgets you every single morning. The work gets done, but you spend the first ten minutes of every conversation re-introducing yourself.
Most AI tools have a fix for this, and most people have never touched it.
"Fifteen minutes of setup, and every conversation after that starts already knowing you."
What Custom Instructions Actually Are
Custom instructions are a short set of notes you save in your AI tool's settings. The tool reads them before every conversation, automatically. Think of it as the briefing you'd give a new team member on their first day: who you are, who you work with, how you like things done, and what to avoid.
You write it once. After that, every answer starts from your context instead of from zero.
Where to find it
Every AI tool names this a little differently. Look in your tool's settings for a section called something like personalization, custom instructions, preferences, or "about you." If you use an AI tool at work, your company may manage these settings, so check what's available to you.
Going Deeper: 5 Things to Put in Your Instructions
Tip 01 of 05
Tell it who you are
Start with the basics a new colleague would need on day one: your role, your industry, how long you've been doing this, and what you're responsible for. This one change stops AI from giving you beginner-level answers to senior-level questions.
Try this prompt
"I want to write a short description of myself for my AI tool's custom instructions. Ask me five questions about my role, experience, and responsibilities, one at a time. Then turn my answers into a clear three-to-four sentence 'About Me' paragraph."
Tip 02 of 05
Tell it who you're usually talking to
Most of what we write has a regular audience: a leadership team, clients, a board, direct reports. When your AI tool knows who usually reads your work, its first drafts land much closer to the right level of detail and formality.
Try this prompt
"Here are the people I most often write for: [e.g., senior leaders, clients, my team]. For each one, help me describe in one sentence what they care about and how they like information presented, so I can add it to my instructions."
Tip 03 of 05
Teach it your voice
This is the one that saves the most editing time. Instead of trying to describe your writing style from scratch, give AI a few samples of your own writing and let it describe your voice back to you. Then save that description.
Try this prompt
"Here are three things I've written that sound like me: [paste samples]. Describe my writing voice in five short bullet points (tone, sentence length, words I use, words I avoid) that I can paste into my custom instructions."
Tip 04 of 05
Set your format preferences
Do you want bullet points or paragraphs? A quick answer first, or the full explanation? No long introductions? Every preference you write down once is one you never have to type again.
Try this prompt
"Help me write three to five format preferences for my AI instructions. Ask me how I prefer answers to be structured, how long they should be, and what I find annoying in AI responses. Then write the preferences as short, clear rules."
Tip 05 of 05
Tell it how to push back
This is my favorite. By default, AI tends to be agreeable. You can change that. When I set up my own AI business partner, I wrote instructions telling it to challenge my ideas instead of just agreeing with me. It's made my thinking sharper. Your experience is your advantage, so ask AI to test it, not flatter it.
Try this prompt
"Help me write two or three instructions that tell my AI tool how to push back: when to ask clarifying questions, when to flag assumptions I'm making, and how to tell me honestly when an idea has a weak spot."
Your 15-Minute Setup Routine
Do this once, on a Monday morning or whenever you have a quiet quarter hour. You'll feel the difference in your very next conversation.
Get interviewed (5 minutes)
Paste the full prompt below into your AI tool and answer its questions honestly. Talk the way you would to a new colleague.
The full prompt
"I want to set up custom instructions so you understand me before every conversation. Interview me one question at a time about: my role and experience, who I usually write for, my writing voice, how I like answers formatted, and how I want you to push back. After eight to ten questions, write my custom instructions in two short sections: 'About me' and 'How to respond.' Keep the whole thing under 250 words."
Review the draft (3 minutes)
Read what AI wrote. Does it sound like you? Cut anything that feels off, and add anything it missed. This is your briefing, not AI's.
Save it in your settings (2 minutes)
Copy the final version into your AI tool's custom instructions or personalization settings, and save.
Test it (5 minutes)
Open a new conversation and ask for something you do every week, like drafting an email or summarizing notes. Compare it with what you used to get. Adjust your instructions until it feels right.
Prefer to write it yourself? Fill in the blanks below and paste it into your settings.
Your "About Me" template
About me: I'm a [role] with [number] years of experience in [industry]. I'm responsible for [key responsibilities]. I most often write for [audiences].
How to respond: Write in a [e.g., direct and warm] tone. Keep answers [short / detailed], and use [bullet points / paragraphs] when [situation]. Avoid [things you dislike]. If my request is unclear, ask me a question first. If you see a weak spot in my thinking, tell me honestly.
One note on privacy: keep your instructions about how you work, not sensitive details. There's no need to include things like account numbers, health information, or confidential company data.
What Actually Changes
Custom instructions sound like a small technical setting. They're really a shift in how you work with AI.
Before, every conversation started with you adapting to the tool. After, the tool adapts to you. The answers match your level of experience, sound more like you, and push back where you want them to.
And here's what I love most: the most valuable part of your instructions isn't technical at all. It's your experience, your judgment, and your standards, written down. That's exactly the part no tool can supply on its own.
The people who get the most from AI aren't the most technical. They're the most intentional. Writing your instructions is one of the most intentional things you can do.
This week's challenge
Give your AI tool a proper introduction.
Take 15 minutes this week to run the setup routine above and save your custom instructions. Then use your AI tool the way you normally would, and notice how many times you don't have to explain yourself.
If you try this this week, hit reply on any of my emails and tell me the one instruction that made the biggest difference. I genuinely read every one.
