Projects, memory and custom instructions

0:00 Projects, memory and instructions

How many times this month have you typed who you are into an AI chat? I'm a marketing coordinator. Use American spelling. Keep it short. If the answer is more than a few, you're doing work your assistant can do for you. In this lecture you'll learn the three layers that make an assistant feel like it knows you: custom instructions, projects and memory. You'll see a simple example and a realistic freelancer setup, you'll watch me build a project from scratch, and you'll leave knowing exactly what goes in each layer, and what should never go in any of them.

0:44 Why set this up

Why bother? Three reasons. First, better first drafts. When the assistant already knows your role, your audience and your rules, the first answer is closer to usable. Second, less typing. Your everyday prompts shrink to the task itself. Third, and this one matters for anyone with clients, separation. When each client's files and rules live in their own workspace, you never get client A's tone, or worse, client A's prices, in client B's email. Set up well, these features turn a clever stranger into something much closer to a trained assistant.

1:24 The filing cabinet analogy

Here's an analogy. Custom instructions are your ID badge. Everyone who works with you sees it, every time. So it should say who you are and how you like to work, nothing secret. Projects are drawers in a filing cabinet, one per job. Inside each drawer: the rules for that job, the reference files, and the conversations. Open the drawer, and everything relevant is right there. Memory is a board of sticky notes the assistant writes as it learns about you. Handy, but sticky notes pile up and go out of date. So every so often, you clear the board. In ChatGPT these are custom instructions, Projects and memory. Claude has preferences and styles, Projects and memory. Gemini has saved info, Gems and Gemini Notebook. Copilot has Notebooks.

2:20 What goes where

So what goes where? On the badge, your custom instructions: your role, the kind of work you do, spelling, preferred format, and a rule like never invent numbers, write check instead. In the drawer, the project: instructions that apply only to that job, reference files that rarely change, like a style guide, a glossary of product names, and one excellent past example as the quality bar. And for memory, let the assistant learn, but review it once a month. Delete anything outdated, anything sensitive, anything wrong. And here's the key rule. Client material never goes on your badge or your sticky notes. It goes in that client's drawer, in a work approved account.

3:09 Example 1: a weekly report project

Let's start simple. Say you write a weekly operations report. You create a project called weekly ops report. The instructions say who reads it, the structure you want, and never invent numbers. You upload last month's best report as the example. Now each week you open the project, paste the new figures and say draft this week's report. It follows the structure, uses the right terms, and wherever you didn't supply a number, it writes check instead of guessing. The first week, you'll tweak the instructions once or twice. By week three, it's a five minute job.

3:51 Example 2: the freelancer's three clients

Now a realistic business setup, with illustrative details. Daniela is a freelance virtual assistant in Austin with three small business clients: a yoga studio, a bookkeeping firm and a catering company. She creates one project per client. Each has a one page brief, services, tone, key contacts by role, and what she may and may not promise, plus the client's email signature and a few approved sample messages. Her global instructions only describe her. I'm a virtual assistant, American spelling, flag anything that commits the client to money or dates. Now when a catering inquiry arrives, she opens the catering project and says draft a reply. The draft sounds like that client, uses their menu names, and flags the date for her to confirm. Three clients, zero mix ups.

4:47 Watch me do it

Let me build one with you. I click new project and name it social posts for the bakery. In the instructions, I paste the template from the lesson. Purpose: help me write three social posts a week. Audience: local families and office workers. Always follow the attached brand notes and use the example as the quality bar. Never invent prices or opening hours. Format: caption, three hashtag options, and a suggested image. Next, I upload three files: brand notes, a glossary with our product names, and our best performing post. Now I test it. Write Monday's post about the new cardamom buns. And look, it uses our real product name, our tone, and it adds check price, because I didn't give it one. In a plain chat, the same request invented a price.

5:45 Memory hygiene in practice

Let's talk about memory hygiene, because it's the layer people forget. Once a month, ask your assistant a simple question: what do you remember about me? Or open the memory page in settings. Then do three things. Delete what's outdated, like a job you've left or a project that's finished. Delete what's sensitive, like anything about health, money, or other people's personal details. And move anything client specific out of memory and into that client's project, where it belongs. If you ever want a completely clean answer, with no memory and no history, use a temporary or incognito chat. It won't use or update memory. Five minutes a month keeps the assistant accurate about you, and keeps your private details where you want them.

6:39 Common mistakes

Here are the mistakes to avoid. One giant project for everything. The context gets muddled and the assistant blends rules from different jobs. Keep one project per stream of work. Stale files. If last year's price list is in the project, the assistant will happily quote it. Replace files when they change. Memory that's never reviewed. After a few months, it's full of old jobs and half true assumptions. Put a monthly reminder in your calendar. And confidential client files in a personal account's project. Projects are convenient, but they don't change which terms apply. Client work goes in a work approved account.

7:24 Recap and try this now

Let's recap. Custom instructions are your badge: who you are and how you like answers, applied everywhere. Projects are drawers: one per recurring job, with rules, reference files and an example of great output. Memory is sticky notes: useful, but audit it monthly. Here's your try this now. Pick the one task you do every week. Build a project for it using the template in the lesson text, upload two or three reference files, and run your next real task inside it. Then count how many follow ups it took to get a usable draft, compared with a plain chat. If it's fewer, you've just bought back time every single week.