Ev Chapman | Creative Entrepreneur

This small instruction completely changed how I'm work with AI ↓ For the past year, I’ve been using AI as a thinking partner. My rule has always been: "Ask me questions first." I want AI to pull out MY thinking, not just give me generic answers. But every now and then? It backfires. Like this morning when I was planning my January content. I'm ready for a great brainstorming session. And the first question I get from AI is "OK, Ev what annual planning rituals should people focus on in the new year?" Perfectly acceptable question, is what you're thinking right? It's open-ended. It allows for freedom. But for me, it actually shuts me down. I literally go blank. I just want to scream "I DON'T KNOW." And the reason comes down to my Human Design Type. I’m a Generator with Sacral Authority. You don't need to be an expert in Human Design charts to understand this. All you need to know is that Generators move through the world in a responsive way. We need stimuli to respond to. We struggle to initiate from a void. So I wrote a really quick paragraph explaining exactly this to my Creative Co-Pilot Agent. The shift was instant. The questions immediately changed from open ended to.... here's a couple of things you might want to respond to. Give me a Hell Yes, Nah or Meh. Suddenly I lit up. I felt a literal HELL YES in my body and sparks started flying. It completely opened me up. If you're a Generator, you know exactly how this feels. Does this mean you have to go and discover your Human Design type? No. But if you know your DISC profile, Myers-Briggs, or just how your creative brain works—it is a massive advantage to include it in your Custom Instructions when working with AI Assistants. Trust me. You'll be much less frustrated with the conversations you have when you do. And if you do happen to be a Generator try using this prompt with AI and watch how your conversations change.

The biggest problem most people have in their note-taking app? They can’t get things to surface again when they actually need them. I’ve been obsessed with this problem for months. Because it’s not a capture problem. It’s a connection problem. And while AI can absolutely help us surface ideas in the chaos (especially in a noisy workspace)… you can also design your system for surfacing, too. That’s what my connected workspace in @tana_inc is built around. Every time I create a new note, I connect it to something — a project, a product, a piece of content. And instantly, everything else connected to that same thing shows up. Today I started writing the sales page for my new Meeting Intelligence Toolkit. The moment I linked it, two notes I’d written earlier in the week popped up about my target audience. I had totally forgotten about them. But my system hadn’t. And every time it happens I still get a little rush of excitement. This is how knowledge systems should work. Notes flow to me rather than me having to go hunting for them. So I can work faster with more flow & focus.