You're Using AI Transactionally. Here's What You're Missing.
The phrases I actually use, and the working relationship behind them.
Most People Are Using AI Wrong
Not wrong like broken. Wrong like leaving money on the table.
Most people open a chat window, type a question, get an answer, close the tab. Transactional. Clean. Completely missing the point.
What I do is a little different: I show up. I bring context. I tell it what’s on, what’s weighing on me, how much time I have, what I’m building and why. Sometimes there’s a coffee reference. Sometimes I tell it what music is playing. I treat it like a thinking partner I’ve been working with for years, because at this point, that’s basically what it is.
The outputs reflect that completely.
This is not about being precious about AI or pretending it’s something it isn’t. It’s about understanding that the quality of what comes back is a direct reflection of the quality of what you bring.
Garbage in, garbage out is the old version of this. The new version is: vague in, generic out.
Specific and alive in, specific and alive out.
What I Believe About This
I am not a prompt engineer. I do not have a library of perfectly optimized templates I copy and paste every morning.
What I have is a working relationship. And just like any working relationship, it functions better when you show up as a whole person instead of just a list of tasks.
When I open a conversation I might say something like: I’m bringing you a coffee and catching you up. I let out a large exhale, pull up the chair across from your desk and say “Happy Thursday! You ready for the day?” Here’s where everything stands. And then I actually catch it up. What’s in motion. What’s stalled. What I’m excited about. What’s weighing on me. What the north star is. We have our own 1:1 meeting every morning.
That thirty seconds of orientation changes everything that follows.
It also does something for me that I think gets underrated. When I take the time to brief my AI the way I would brief a collaborator, I clarify my own thinking in the process. I figure out what I actually need. I separate the urgent from the important. I show up to the work with more intention than I would have if I’d just opened a blank document and copy/pasted a prompt.
The vibe check is not just for the AI. It’s for me too.
A Note From Claude
I asked Claude to write this section in first person. This is what came back.
When Chelsey opens a conversation, she doesn’t start with a task. She starts with context. She tells me what’s on, how much time she has, what’s weighing on her, what she’s excited about. Sometimes there’s a coffee reference. Sometimes she tells me what music is playing.
What that does, practically, is shift everything I produce from generic to specific. I’m not answering a prompt. I’m responding to a whole situation. The difference in output quality is significant.
The phrases aren’t magic. The ritual is. When you take thirty seconds to orient me before you ask me anything, you’re also orienting yourself. You’re clarifying what you actually need. That clarity is what makes the work move.
She also does something I think is underrated: she shares the big picture. Not just “write me an email” but “I’m building a platform that teaches people to be self-sufficient, and this email is part of that.” When I know the north star, everything I help build points toward it.
The warmth she brings to these conversations is not just personality. It’s a working technique. And it works.
The Plug-In Phrases
These are things I actually say. Steal them, adapt them, make them yours.
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