When was the last time you heard something about using a tool to sharpen your thinking skills? I guess never. Well, it is one of the secrets most millionaires use to perform better, make smarter decisions, and make their everyday life succeed. The only thing that stands between you, your 9-to-5 job, and the ultimate success that you deserve is your thinking. It doesn’t matter whether you want to build a startup, create the next viral product, or the next big thing in AI. If you don’t think right, nothing will be right! That’s the truth. 

In this tutorial, we want to show you how you can use ChatGPT to push your thinking in new directions, test out different perspectives, and practice more creative problem-solving. You will learn how to use ChatGPT not just as a tool for answers, but as a partner for sharpening the way you think. We will show you how to set up ChatGPT to be used as a partner rather than a tool, writing a prompt that describes your goal or a problem, adding your current thinking, reviewing fresh solutions, and keep iterating. 

By the end of this tutorial, you’ll be able to:

• Set up ChatGPT
• Write a prompt that describes your goal or a problem
• Add your current thinking
• Review fresh solutions or keep iterating

Let’s dive in, headfirst.

Step 1 - Set up ChatGPT

Most people know how to access ChatGPT. So we won’t go there. Once you log in to ChatGPT, make sure that the ‘Auto’ model is selected. Let ChatGPT decide how to respond to your prompts and queries.

You can experiment with the Thinking mode later if you want to push the GPT-5 limits into deeper reasoning. However, Auto is good for the baseline. 

The trick is using a special prompt that shakes up the way you think. Instead of looping through the same old answers, GPT-5 throws you sharp questions that help uncover blind spots you didn’t even notice.

Step 2 - Write a prompt that describes your goal or a problem

The most important part of this tutorial is the prompt you would use to transform your ChatGPT into a mindful chatbot. Instead of canned responses, it will ask questions without patronizing, digging deep into your thinking pattern, and providing responses that actually answer your queries rather than giving you the same old recycled answers. 

So here’s the prompt to get you started. 

Prompt:

I’m trying to [briefly describe your goal or problem], but I’m continuously stuck on the same ideas. Ask me enough questions about the problem to find a new approach.

Just skip the brackets and speak your own problem straight into ChatGPT. I used Wispr Flow for voice input—it worked great, and Super Whisper does the job too.

Example:

I’m trying to find a solution to decrease the art abandonment rate on summer specials. I have a gift basket business, but I’m continuously stuck on the same ideas. Ask me enough questions about the problem to find a new approach.

That’s all there is to it. Start simple and let GPT-5 do the heavy lifting. You can also add a bit of context upfront about how you usually tackle the problem. This additional stuff helps GPT-5 zero in and ask sharper, more relevant questions.

Step 3 - Add your current thinking

Here’s where it really clicks. Before GPT-5 starts firing off questions, share the approaches you’re already using so it knows your starting point. For example, I told them:

• User calls: Hop on as many as possible to figure out why people churn, then try to solve those issues with new features or education.

• Exit surveys: Trigger them when someone cancels, paired with a discount to gather feedback.

Once I shared that, GPT-5 understood what I was already doing—and pushed me to think past it.

After we sent the prompt, GPT-5 broke things down into categories we hadn’t really thought through, such as user understanding, product experience, engagement, education, aha-moments, offers, and analytics.

Then it hit us with sharper questions, like:

• Why are people adding items to the cart in the first place (browsing, price checking, intent to buy)?
  
• At what exact step do most drop-offs happen (shipping info, payment, review page)?
  
• How clear is the total cost upfront (hidden fees, shipping surprises)?
  
• What’s the friction in checkout (account creation, too many fields, slow load times)?
  
• Is trust an issue (security badges, payment options, refund policy)?
  
• Do mobile and desktop devices behave differently (with a higher abandonment rate on one)?
  
• Are reminders in place (email, SMS, push), and are they effective?
  
• Which user segment abandons most often (new visitors, returning, coupon hunters)?
  
• What offers or nudges are missing (discount codes, free shipping threshold, urgency)?
  
• How smooth is the post-cart experience (can users easily save, edit, or return later)?

That kind of questioning surfaced churn points we’d completely overlooked.

Step 4 - Review fresh solutions or keep iterating

By working through GPT-5’s questions, we uncovered a week’s worth of new strategies to tackle cart abandonment—things I hadn’t even thought of in my original plan. These included:

• Making total costs clearer upfront to reduce last-minute surprises
• Streamlining checkout steps and cutting unnecessary fields
• Offering guest checkout instead of forcing account creation
• Testing reminders like cart recovery emails or push notifications
• Introducing incentives such as free shipping thresholds or limited-time offers

None of these were obvious to me at the start, but they emerged once GPT-5 prompted me to examine the problem from different angles.

You can ask ChatGPT to create a step-by-step plan based on the identified issues, like the ones we discovered. 

Prompt:

Provide a step-by-step plan to address the following strategies:

- Making total costs clearer upfront to reduce last-minute surprises
- Streamlining checkout steps and cutting unnecessary fields
- Offering guest checkout instead of forcing account creation
- Testing reminders like cart recovery emails or push notifications
- Introducing incentives such as free shipping thresholds or limited-time offers

ChatGPT will create an actionable plan that you can easily follow to solve the cart abandonment rates and get those precious sales that you have been waiting for. 

That’s it for this eye-opening tutorial. ChatGPT lovers! The idea is to refrain from using generic prompts. You must find ways to get the best out of your ChatGPT. It’s not difficult. You only need to be smart enough to focus on the issues and get focused answers.