How to prompt well
All about thinking and prompting clearly
The internet is drowning in "10 prompts that will change your life" posts. Copy this template. Use this framework. Paste this magic string and watch the AI do backflips.
Most of it is garbage. And here's why: prompting is not a vocabulary problem. You don't need better words, but better thinking.
The people who get incredible results from AI are doing something much simpler and much harder: they're being specific about what they actually want. They're giving AI enough context to work with. And they're treating the interaction like a collaboration, not an order.
That's it. That's the whole skill. But let me break it down so you can actually do it.
Forget the acronyms
You've probably seen frameworks like RCTFCE (Role, Context, Task, Format, Constraints, Examples) or COSTAR (Context, Objective, Style, Tone, Audience, Response format). There are dozens of these. They all say the same thing in different letters.
They're not wrong. They're just unnecessary if you understand the principle underneath them:
Tell AI what a smart colleague would need to know before doing this task for you.
That's the whole framework. No acronym required.
The five things that make any prompt better
These aren't rules. They're habits. And every single one of them works because it gives AI more signal.
I run a boutique branding agency. We specialize in B2B SaaS companies going through a rebrand...
See the difference
Write me a cold email to a potential client.
The prompt structure I actually use
I don't follow an acronym. But there's a natural order I default to when the task is complex enough.
Context and role
Who I am. What I'm working on. What AI needs to know about my situation.
The task
What I want. Be specific. If there are multiple steps, number them.
Constraints
What to avoid. Length limits. Tone. Format preferences.
Examples or reference
A sample of my writing. A screenshot of what good looks like.
The ask
"Now do X." Or better: "Ask me any clarifying questions first."
Note: Not every prompt needs all five blocks. A quick question needs one sentence. A complex content task might need a full page of context. Match the structure to the complexity.
The one thing that beats every template
Here's what nobody telling you to "use this prompt template" mentions: the best prompts come from people who know what they want.
If you're unclear about what you're trying to achieve, no prompt structure will save you. AI amplifies your thinking. If the thinking is muddy, the output is mud.
Before you even open Claude, spend 60 seconds asking yourself:
Answer those in your head and you're already 80% of the way to a good prompt.
When prompting isn't enough (and what comes next)
Good prompting will get you better one-off results. Dramatically better. But you'll still be typing context from scratch every conversation. You'll still be improvising your instructions each time.
At some point, the smart move isn't a better prompt. It's a system.
A system that already holds your context. A system that guides AI through a complex task with a proven methodology. A system you plug in once and reuse every time. That's what a skill is.
Something to try right now
Take a prompt you've used before that got a mediocre result. Rewrite it using what you just read.
Then, check off each step:
Where to go from here
One more thing
Prompting is a skill, but it's a means to an end, not the end itself. The goal isn't to become a "prompt engineer." The goal is to think clearly enough that your tools become useful.
The best prompt in the world is the one where you knew exactly what you wanted before you started typing. Everything else is just formatting.
And when you're ready to stop typing everything from scratch and start plugging in systems that do the thinking for you, the free newsletter is where we build those. Every Wednesday.