The Law of the Loop

The five steps map onto specific controls here, and knowing which one you are reaching for is most of the skill. Your standing aim and context - who you are, what you are working on, how you like answers - belong in Custom Instructions and saved memory, so step one is done before you type. The Refine step has two different buttons: Regenerate re-rolls the same prompt and gives you another attempt, while editing your own message rewrites the prompt and branches the conversation, which is what you want when a round went wrong and you do not want it influencing the next one. For anything you will refine more than twice, ask for it in Canvas so you are correcting one document instead of collecting six copies of it.

From the book Use regenerate to see another attempt, or edit your message to change the prompt itself. For a long piece you will refine round after round, ask it to open the text in Canvas so you can point at the exact lines to keep, cut or change.

• Edit your message to branch; regenerate only re-rolls the same prompt.
• Put your standing aim and context in Custom Instructions once.
• Ask for Canvas on anything you will refine more than twice.
• Name the lever - Keep, Cut, Add, Change - never "make it better".
• Turn the winning prompt into a Custom GPT with blanks.

**Step one - do this once, in Settings, under Custom Instructions.** Paste this where it asks what it should know about you, so you never type it again:

> Class 10 CBSE student in Patna. Boards this year. Weak in Chemistry, especially chemical reactions and carbon compounds. Comfortable with Biology. I get 2 hours on school days and 5 hours on Sundays. Answer in simple language, give me tables rather than paragraphs, and never add motivational advice.

**Step two - the prompt itself, now that the background is standing:**

My aim: a revision plan for the Science board paper on [exam date], four weeks from today, printable and stuck above my desk.

Put it in Canvas as a table - Week, Day, Topic, Task (read / practise / test) - with a full mock paper each Sunday and a slot that evening for marking it. Weight the days towards what I am weak at rather than spreading time evenly.

Open with two lines before the table: what you assumed about my chapters, and anything you need me to confirm.

I run a small ladies' tailoring shop in Aminabad, Lucknow. Write a WhatsApp message to my regular customers about Eid orders.

**Must include**
- Last date for new orders: [date]
- Suit stitching starts at Rs [price]
- Urgent orders cost extra
- Please bring a well-fitting sample suit

**Rules**
- Under 80 words.
- Simple Hindi in Devanagari, then an English version below it.
- Tone: warm and respectful, as if I am speaking to them myself. Not an advertisement.
- No emojis beyond one at most. No "Dear Valued Customer".

Give me two versions that differ in approach, not in wording - one that leads with the deadline, one that leads with the festival greeting. Label them A and B. I will pick one and we will refine that.

**The failure I am trying to prevent:** in a long planning chat, the instructions I gave early quietly vanish. So we will keep a ledger.

**A standing rule for every reply from here on.** Begin by reprinting my numbered list below, exactly as it stands, then answer underneath it. If anything in your answer breaks one of the numbers, name the number and tell me why you broke it.

**The numbered list**
1. Two of us, retired, late sixties, setting out from Coimbatore.
2. Five days in Varanasi, in [month].
3. By train, or a direct flight if such a thing exists.
4. Somewhere quiet to stay, within walking distance of the ghats.
5. Two outings a day. Not three.
6. A rest after lunch. Every day. This is not negotiable.
7. Nothing before sunrise.
8. Sarnath is out. We discussed it and decided. Do not reintroduce it, even as an optional extra.

**What we came for:** Kashi Vishwanath darshan, one Ganga aarti, one boat ride.

**Now, in Canvas:** the five days as a table - Day, Morning, Rest, Evening, Notes - then the realistic ways of getting there from Coimbatore with honest journey times, then everything we must settle before booking. Write [confirm] against any timing or fee you are not sure of, instead of inventing one.