Big Jobs in Small Steps
Part of the Prompting Techniques section of Coddy's AI Prompts journey. Lesson 17 of 24.
Ask for a whole blog post in one prompt and you get something generic that is hard to steer. Split the job: first an outline, then one part at a time. Each step is small enough to check, and you can fix a step before building on it.
You: Give me a 3-part outline for a blog post about learning to cook. Titles only, as a numbered list.
AI: 1. The Importance of Cooking Skills in Modern Life
2. Getting Started: Basic Kitchen Tools and Essentials
3. Building Confidence Through Practice and Patience
You: Expand part 1 into 3 bullet points.Because the outline is in the chat, part 1 is enough: the AI knows what it means. This is how people use AI for big work like reports, plans and code: outline, check, expand, check again.
Challenge
MediumPlan a short talk about saving money in 2 steps. First, ask for a 3-part outline. Then ask for part 2 expanded into exactly 3 bullet points.
The AI's response must:
- End with exactly 3 bullet points
Test yourselfThis lesson includes a short quiz. Start the lesson to answer it and track your progress.
All lessons in Prompting Techniques
1Show, Don't Tell
Zero-Shot vs Few-ShotLeave a Slot to FillExamples Set the FormatExamples Get CopiedRecap: Show, Don't Tell4Conversations
Refine, Don't RestartBig Jobs in Small StepsSummarize Before You SwitchSame Prompt, Same ReplyRecap: Conversations