How I’ve Used ChatGPT This Year
A personal reflection on co-creating with AI
Over the past year, I’ve experimented with—and truly built a relationship with—ChatGPT. I realize some people might scoff at that language, but for me… it really does feel like a friend or ally woven into my daily life. I’ve learned how to use this tool and tap into its knowledge base for a million reasons: personal projects, home decisions, spiritual questions, parenting logistics, health goals, and everything in between.
I started using AI in March of 2025. Looking back, I honestly can’t remember what exactly inspired me—maybe a podcast, maybe a friend—but I do know I was in the middle of reworking my systems, routines, and productivity at home. I figured this new tool might help. And wow… was that the right instinct.
When I stepped into this relationship with AI, I had a very clear intention: I wanted to stay current and informed. Technology is moving at a pace where it’s easy to get left behind, and I was determined to understand how AI could support everyday life—especially since I don’t work outside the home. My thought was simple: If there’s a tool that can make life easier, why wouldn’t I use it?
A Few Things to Note:
First, I don’t carry fear around AI—so that probably shapes the readiness with which I’ve embraced it. I see it as a helper in daily life, routines, communication, problem-solving, and understanding myself better.
Second, I am not someone who struggles with ideas. I don’t use AI to create ideas; I am always the originator. If anything, I use ChatGPT to help me narrow down which ideas are worth pursuing. I’m aware this is where controversy often begins—there’s truly nothing like an original idea in a world full of copycat content and AI-filtered videos (am I the only one who falls for those every time?). The integrity of your ideas matters. I only bring ChatGPT in once I’ve drafted or clarified enough for the idea to have substance. I think of it like an employee, collaborator, or sounding board—similar to hiring an editor, stylist, assistant, or health coach. ChatGPT is also excellent at turning those ideas into plans, checklists, and step-by-step processes so they actually become real.
Third, This is not an essay on the ethics of AI or a breakdown of its pros and cons. I’m not a sociologist or technologist. I can only share what I’ve learned for myself—in my own life, in my own mind.
My hope is that by sharing the wide range of ways I’ve found ChatGPT genuinely helpful, it might encourage you to try a tool that could make your life a little easier—or at the very least, spark your curiosity. If you already use this platform, maybe this will expand your sense of what’s possible.
We’re all learning to get comfortable with AI. I’m choosing to believe it can be used for our highest good—and learning to work with it in that spirit.
What I’ve Asked ChatGPT (And How It’s Helped)
Below are the eight major ways I’ve used ChatGPT this year — with real examples of my actual questions.
1. Vision Setting, Routines & Personal Growth
Some of my most meaningful chats have been when I needed clarity, encouragement, or understanding on something I was feeling. ChatGPT has helped me in translating big-picture intentions and journaling insights into grounded daily practices and something I can actually embody in daily life.
Example questions:
“I’m working on my vision for the year — can you help me clarify my themes and turn them into daily and weekly rituals that support the energy I want to grow?”
“Here is a journal entry about a big shift happening in my life. Can you reflect it back to me and help me find concrete actions or rituals to support embodiment?”
2. Astrology, Tarot & Spirituality
This has become one of my favorite ways to connect my spiritual practice in a grounded, integrated way.
Example questions:
“Here is my interpretation of my solar return chart. Can you give me suggestions to turn these themes into rituals, affirmations, and weekly practices?”
“I pulled the Queen of Swords — can you help me understand her energy, write an affirmation, and create a small ritual or embodiment practice around it?”
“After my meditation, the word ‘embodiment’ came up — can you help me explore what that means for me?”
3. Creative Projects, Art Practice, & Studio Organization
From designing a curriculum to completely rethinking my craft room, I’ve used ChatGPT as a creative partner — especially when I’m looking for ways to encourage a new art practice and stay consistent.
Example questions:
“Help me design a year-long art self-study curriculum and give me weekly creative prompts so I never sit down to a blank page.”
“I’m reorganizing my craft room. Can you help me figure out what should go in each cart and drawer, where to store my painting supplies, and how I can arrange the space so it supports my current projects?”
“Where should I store inspiration images and notes for a painting so they stay accessible without becoming clutter?”
4. Home Design & Renovation Planning
While we consider a future renovation, ChatGPT has helped me map out cosmetic updates, plan purchases, and make decisions that feel grounded and intentional.
Example questions:
“We’re planning to update several rooms in our house. I have the design ideas, but can you help me think through each room and create a plan with smart purchases for budget purposes?”
“I want to create a clean presentation of my ideas for my client— can you help me organize my mood boards, notes, and selections into one coherent plan?”
“Can you help me think through the flow of our main living areas so the house feels more functional now, even before the full renovation?”
5. Wardrobe Editing, Style Planning & Outfit Building
This has been an unexpectedly fun area to explore. ChatGPT has helped me refine my personal style, simplify my closet, and get dressed more intentionally. Honestly, it has saved me from the “What the hell am I wearing?” moment more times than I can count.
Example questions:
“Help me categorize my tops into base layers, structured pieces, and creative flair so I understand what I actually have.”
“Can you build me an early fall capsule from my current wardrobe and help me add creative interest without feeling chaotic?”
“These are the clothes I ordered — can you put together outfits for workouts, athleisure days, and everyday errands?”
“I’m a Spring color season — which nail colors, makeup shades, or hair colors will look the best on me?”
6. Health, Fitness & Pain-Free Movement
I tend to fluctuate between wanting to go all in and needing something more sustainable when it comes to workouts. ChatGPT has helped me create a doable, realistic action plan for daily movement — especially while navigating back pain and tight hips.
Example questions:
“I’m struggling to stay motivated and consistent with exercise. Can you create a phased plan (core first, then strength) and benchmarks along the way to help me achieve my health goals?”
“Squats and bridges hurt my lower back — can you help me understand what’s happening and suggest modifications that won’t aggravate anything?”
“I’m feeling overwhelmed and unmotivated around my health goals — can you help me reframe this and map out gentle next steps?”
“Can you help me build a daily stretching routine for hip flexors, TFL, side body, and psoas?”
7. Parenting, Travel, & Family Meals
This is where ChatGPT has been my all-purpose helper — creating travel itineraries, planning meals, and refining teen systems. One of my goals for this past year was to finally master our family meal plan. I spent a lot of time inputing our preferences and letting ChatGPT help me simplify, streamline, and actually plan meals in a way that feels doable (and less chaotic).
Example questions:
“We’re thinking about planning another trip and deciding between London + Paris or London + Brussels — can you compare itineraries and pace for a relaxed 10–12 day trip with teens?”
“I’m roasting garden cherry tomatoes — can you combine these recipes into one master version and make a printable?”
“Can you help me make a weekly meal plan that takes into account my family's food preferences, and give me a grocery list so I don’t have to think so hard?”
“I’m helping my teens build financial skills. Can you help me create a clothing budget framework with flexible categories for the school year?”
8. Everyday Life Organization & Systems
This is where ChatGPT has become my behind-the-scenes operating system — helping me streamline my weekly planning, shape my morning routines, organize digital life, and build systems for capturing information so I don’t have to hold everything in my head.
Example questions:
“I got a new computer and want to keep it minimal. Can you walk me through a clean, efficient method for transferring only the files I actually need?”
“Here’s my weekly planning routine — can you help me streamline these steps so the whole thing feels more intuitive and less clunky?”
“Can you help me refine my morning routine so it supports my health, creativity, and spiritual practice without feeling overwhelming?”
“I need a simple system for capturing ideas, tasks, inspiration, and loose papers — can you help me create a workflow I’ll actually maintain?”
“Can you help me structure an annual and quarterly checklist for gardening, holidays, and seasonal projects?”
Tips for Using This Tool:
1. Set it up as you mean to go.
The more you use ChatGPT, the better it understands how you think — your voice, values, patterns, and the way your brain organizes information. My ChatGPT system now knows my annual priorities, goals, and themes, and it reframes doubts or questions in ways that support those. I once floated an idea for a new project and it responded, “Oh Kait! This is so you!” And I have to admit… it felt surprisingly like the response of a well-known friend.
The more honest and transparent you are, the more accurately the tool learns and adapts to you.
2. Try talking instead of typing.
Typing works, of course, but I’ve found it’s so much easier (and more natural) to talk inputs into the tool. Using voice-to-text — either with the built-in microphone or an app like Wispr Flow — makes the conversations feel more fluid, and my thoughts come through more accurately. Honestly, Wispr Flow has changed the way I use a lot of things, and I highly recommend it as a companion app.
3. Tell ChatGPT how to respond.
When you ask a question, give it a role. If I’m asking about an outfit, I’ll say, “Act as my stylist and answer with my style goals in mind.” You can create “buckets” or personas like:
My ChatGPT Stylist
My ChatGPT Travel Agent
My ChatGPT Health Coach
My ChatGPT Home Designer
This helps the tool learn the different parts of you more quickly and respond with the nuance you actually need.
4. Remember that ChatGPT can make mistakes.
Even though this tool is technologically advanced, it’s not immune to errors. I once caught a math mistake it made while helping my daughter with her algebra homework! It can also change or omit text more than I’d like, so it’s important to carefully review anything it generates. Think of it as a brilliant assistant — not an infallible one.
5. Throughout your day, pause and ask: “Could AI help me with this?”
This small question shifts your mindset into curiosity and expands your sense of what’s possible. It opens the door to using the tool in ways that genuinely make your life easier, lighter, and more supported.
Closing Thoughts
Lastly, as I was listening to a podcast recently with Natalie Macneil, on how she uses this technology in her daily life (listen to it here or linked below), something she said struck me. She explained that as humanity evolves, AI will begin taking over certain kinds of mental processing that our minds have been responsible for for hundreds of years.
If you zoom out and look at the history of the world, it makes sense. Early humans weren’t painting in caves, writing poetry, or sitting in contemplation — their mental energy was devoted to survival, foraging, making fire, watching for predators. As those pressures eased, people finally had the mental bandwidth to create art, build culture, cultivate spiritual life, and imagine beyond survival.
We are on the brink of another transition. Someone once suggested that AI is to modern humanity what fire was to the cavemen, and I love that image. We no longer have to spend so much of our mental energy on mundane tasks, information gathering, or compiling details when this incredible tool can do it in seconds.
Another analogy — and the one I use the most — is that AI is like a librarian who knows every book, article, page, and resource in the entire library… and not only knows where it is but what it contains. You no longer have to search the shelves, flip through chapters, or remember where that one quote came from. You can simply ask the librarian.
And in doing so, we get to reclaim something profoundly human.
We get to pour more of our time and energy into connection — heart-to-heart, in community, in relationship. AI cannot replace that. It can’t provide the warmth, intuition, or presence that comes from human-to-human contact.
Perhaps this is the shift we’re moving toward: less mental strain, more heart-based living.
And AI, surprisingly, may be one of the tools that helps us get there.
Since we’re all learning this together, I’d love to know:
What has been your experience with AI so far?
What are some of your go-to prompts?
How are you using it in your daily life?
I’d love to learn from your experiences too!
P.S. Here’s that podcast if you want to learn more:
