Last week we ran ten AI tips you could use straight away, and the feedback was blunt in the best possible way. More of the practical ones, please.
So here are ten more. Every one can be done in under two minutes, none of them cost anything, and none need new hardware. Three are genuinely new this month. The other seven will still work in a year.
If you are completely new to this, start with our AI for absolute beginners guide and come back. Everyone else, in we go.
1. Put Gemini one keystroke away on your Windows PC
Google released a proper desktop app for Gemini on 10 September. It runs on Windows 10 and Windows 11, it is a free download from gemini.google/desktop, and the whole point of it is the shortcut. Press Alt and Space together and Gemini opens over whatever you are already doing. No browser tab, no hunting for a bookmark.
That sounds small. It is not. The reason most people give up on AI is friction, and this removes almost all of it. Install it, then next time you are stuck mid task, hit Alt and Space and type something like:
"I am halfway through writing an email to a client about a delayed delivery. Give me three ways to say sorry without sounding like I am making excuses."
There is a Mac version too. A few of the fancier Gemini features still sit behind a paid Google subscription, but the app itself and the everyday question and answer side of it do not.
2. Tell it who you are once, then stop repeating yourself
This is the highest value two minutes in the whole article and almost nobody does it.
Every major AI tool has a settings area where you can store standing instructions. In ChatGPT it lives under personalisation or custom instructions. Gemini and Copilot have their own versions. Whatever you write there gets applied to every conversation from then on, so you never have to explain yourself again.
Go and put something like this in yours:
"I am in Australia, so use Australian spelling, dollars and dates. I run a small business with four staff. Keep answers short and practical. If something depends on my situation, ask me rather than guessing. Never use bullet points unless I ask for them."
Adjust it to suit you. A retiree helping grandkids with homework would write something different to a plumber quoting jobs. You write it once and every answer after that is better.
3. Stop typing and just talk to it
If you find a keyboard slow, or your hands are not what they were, this changes everything. Every major AI app on a phone has a microphone button. Tap it and speak normally. It handles Australian accents fine these days, including place names.
The trick is that you do not need to be neat about it. Ramble. Then finish with:
"That was me thinking out loud. Tidy it into a clear message I can send to my sister."
We watch customers type with two fingers for ten minutes on something they could have said in forty seconds. Try it once on something low stakes, like a birthday message.
4. Paste the error message word for word
This is the one our technicians wish everybody knew. When something goes wrong, computers usually tell you exactly what is wrong, in language designed for someone else. Do not paraphrase it. Do not describe it. Type it out or photograph the screen, then ask:
"This is the exact error message on my screen. Tell me in plain English what it means, then tell me the safest first thing to try. Do not suggest anything that risks deleting my files."
That last sentence matters. A lot of generic online advice for storage and drive errors involves reformatting or running repair tools, and on a drive that is physically failing, those steps can turn a recoverable problem into a permanent one. If the error mentions the drive, clicking noises, or files that have vanished, stop and read what to do in the first ten minutes before you try anything at all.
5. ChatGPT now lives inside Microsoft Word
Also new this month. There is now a ChatGPT add-in for Microsoft Word, and unlike most integrations of this kind, free accounts can use it. You install it from the add-ins area in Word, sign in, and it sits in a panel beside your document.
Useful because you are no longer copying text between a browser and Word, which is where mistakes creep in. Open a document you have already written and try:
"Read this whole document and tell me the three places where a reader would get confused. Quote the sentences."
Good for quotes, proposals, policies, anything you are sending to someone who matters.
6. Read the fine print before you sign it
Quotes, contracts, insurance renewals, phone plans, tradie estimates. Photograph it or paste the text in and ask:
"I am about to agree to this. List the three things in here most likely to cost me money later, and quote the exact wording for each one. Then tell me what questions I should ask before I sign."
The questions part is the bit people skip, and it is the most useful output. You walk into the conversation knowing what to ask, which changes the conversation. Works as well on an energy plan as on a building quote.
Do cover or remove your account numbers first. More on that below.
7. Get the exact words for the message you are dreading
Chasing an invoice that is six weeks overdue. Telling a customer their job has slipped. Pulling out of something you already said yes to. Most people put these off for days, then write them badly because they are annoyed.
Describe the situation in one line and ask for the words:
"Write me four sentences chasing a customer for an invoice that is six weeks overdue. Firm, polite, no apology, no threats. I want to keep working with them."
Then change a few words so it sounds like you. Four sentences is usually the right length for anything awkward. Long messages read as defensive.
8. Turn anything into flashcards
ChatGPT added a flashcard feature on 22 September. It works on the web and on mobile, on every plan including free, and the cards save into your library so you can come back to them. You flip them, you shuffle them, that is the whole thing.
Handy for students in the house, and for anyone learning something at work. Paste in notes or name a topic:
"Make me flashcards on the twelve road rules most commonly failed in the learner theory test in New South Wales."
Or for a small business, the induction facts a new staff member needs in week one.
9. Make it write the checklist once, then reuse it forever
Anything you do repeatedly should exist as a checklist, and you should not be the one writing it.
"I close my cafe every night. Write me a closing checklist a seventeen year old could follow without asking me questions. Twelve steps maximum, in the order they should happen."
Then print it and stick it on the wall. Same approach works for monthly bookkeeping, setting up a new laptop, or getting the house ready before a holiday. The magic words are the ones about who is following it, because they force the right level of detail.
10. Ask it to argue against its own answer
The single best habit you can build. AI is confident by design, which makes it sound right even when it is not. So make it check itself. After any answer that matters, reply with:
"Now argue the opposite. What are the strongest reasons this advice is wrong for someone in my position?"
You will get a more honest picture, and occasionally the answer you actually needed. We do this before recommending hardware to customers and it has saved us from a few confident mistakes.
Two things not to do this week
Do not paste private details. Never type your tax file number, Medicare number, bank account or card numbers, passwords, or a customer's or family member's private information into an AI chat. Cover them with your thumb before you photograph a document. Once it is typed into a chat box, you have lost control of where it sits. If you think an account of yours has already been exposed, work through what to do in the next hour.
Do not trust a number without checking it. AI is fluent and occasionally wrong, and the two look identical on screen. Anything with a consequence gets verified at the source: prices, dates, phone numbers, opening hours, legal requirements, medication doses, warranty terms. Use it to work out what to ask, then confirm the answer with the business, the government website, or your doctor.
The one to start with
Number two. Spend two minutes putting standing instructions in your settings and every answer you get from that point on will be closer to what you actually wanted. It is the only tip here that improves all the others.
Back next week with ten more.
Want a hand setting any of this up on your own computer, or getting your household and business tech working properly in the first place? Our technicians come to you across Australia, so book a HelloTech technician and we will sort it out in person.
