The six key components that make up a strong prompt are:

1. Task: Clearly define the task you want the AI to complete.
2. Context: Provide relevant background information to help the AI understand the context.
3. Exemplars: Include examples or sample outputs to guide the AI's response.
4. Persona: Specify the persona or perspective you want the AI to adopt.
5. Format: Indicate the desired output format, such as a table, bullet points, or paragraph.
6. Tone: Specify the tone you want the AI to use, such as professional, casual, or persuasive.

When crafting a prompt, it's important to include the task component, as this is the core of what you want the AI to do. The context, exemplars, persona, format, and tone can then be used to further refine and shape the AI's response. While you don't need to include all six components, the more information you provide, the better the AI can understand and fulfill your request.

As you become more experienced with prompting, you'll learn how to strike the right balance between providing enough context and keeping the prompt concise. Experimenting with different prompt structures and analyzing the results can help you develop a better understanding of what works best for your specific use cases.

The trick to building a habit of applying prompts is to:

1. Identify a repetitive task in your life that you must do.
2. Create and refine a prompt to help with that task.

Just like learning to code by building an actual project, starting with a simple personal example can be effective.

For instance, as a 70kg male looking to maintain muscle mass, you can create a prompt to get a training plan based on the popular Push-Pull-Leg (PPL) workout routine. The prompt should include the task, context, and an exemplar output in a table format for easy integration into a spreadsheet.

After reviewing the initial output, you may identify issues, such as the exercises being spread out across the week instead of being grouped by push, pull, and leg days. Refining the prompt by adding another exemplar can help address this problem and provide a completely usable workout plan.

You can take this a step further by asking for alternatives to exercises that require specific equipment you don't have, further customizing the output to your needs.

Applying this approach to a work-related example, as a senior marketing manager, you can create a prompt to summarize the results of a recent email campaign. The prompt should include the task, context, and a request to write the summary in a confident tone, avoiding corporate jargon and hashtags.

The key is to default to thinking, "Can ChatGPT help with that?" when faced with a new task. By building a habit of applying prompts, you can save time and improve the quality of your work over the long run.

To minimize the friction of using the prompts you create, apply the productivity concept of organizing information by where you will use it, not by where you found it. For example, save prompts that help you write better newsletter articles and generate better email titles within the Notion page template where you actually draft the blog post or newsletter. This way, you can use these prompts right away.

Similarly, if you need to write the same email every week, save a prompt template using the Gmail template function. This allows you to bring up the prompt right before composing the email, instead of having to look for it somewhere else. Additionally, keep the ChatGPT tab pinned in your browser to quickly access your prompts.

The key is to identify locations within your workflow where you can store your prompts to minimize the number of clicks required to get to the final output.

When it comes to continuous learning, there are two things that can make the most impact:

1. Dedicate two hours every week to taking a free online course on prompt engineering. This will help you deepen your understanding of prompt engineering and stay up-to-date with the latest techniques and best practices.

2. Spend five minutes a day reading a free daily newsletter that curates the latest news on AI. This will keep you informed about the latest developments in AI and give you inspiration on what to learn next.

It's important to note that staying consistent with one course and one newsletter matters more than trying to find the "best" ones. For the course, the author personally recommends learnprompting.org as it is user-friendly and has an active Discord community where you can ask questions and engage with other learners.

For the newsletter, the author has tried a few options, including Superhuman, but found that it has become too bloated with random news and advertising. The author has heard good things about "Frontier," "The Rundown Prompts Daily," and "Big Brain," and recommends subscribing to one of these and unsubscribing from the rest after a week to avoid information overload.

The goal of the course is to help you learn and get better at prompt engineering, while the goal of the newsletter is to keep you up-to-date with the latest developments in AI and give you inspiration on what to learn next. For example, the author saw that ChatGPT rolled out a new feature, "custom instructions," and this prompted them to do further research on how best to use it.

As we've discussed, the journey of using AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Barge involves three key steps:

1. Writing Good Prompts: Understanding the six components of a strong prompt - task, context, exemplars, persona, format, and tone - and how to effectively combine them to get the desired output.

2. Building a Habit: Identifying repetitive tasks in your life and creating prompts to streamline them, continuously refining those prompts for better results.

3. Developing a Learning Plan: Dedicating time each week to take free online courses on prompt engineering, and reading a daily newsletter to stay up-to-date with the latest AI developments.

By mastering these steps, you can become proficient in leveraging AI tools to boost your productivity and stay ahead in this rapidly evolving AI-driven era. Remember, consistency is key - stick with one course and one newsletter, and integrate your prompts seamlessly into your workflow. With dedication and a growth mindset, you'll be well on your way to becoming an AI-powered productivity powerhouse.