If you haven’t heard already, ChatGPT is a new chatbot from OpenAI that has seemingly catapulted us overnight into the beginning of the Fall of Man. I say that with a hint of sarcasm, but this chatbot’s grip on the collective psyche is really fascinating. Though chatbots are far from new technology, it’s one of the first to be so user-friendly that it is actually usable by the general population. Read: power is now with the people. While it’s caused a lot of controversy and discussion about whether this technology is ethical, I am firmly in the camp that believes that, when used properly, it’s a boon rather than a burden. Here are 3 ways that I use ChatGPT in my day-to-day life as a tool to help me get more done (without treading into any moral gray areas).

1. Getting Unstuck

This is my favorite use for ChatGPT. We’ve all been there: we’re trying to brainstorm ideas for a new blog post, tagline, or pithy email signature, and we’re coming up short. Enter ChatGPT. Just hop over onto the server, enter your prompt into the bot, and see what it says. You can have as much or as little fun with it as you like. Ask it, “How would a sea otter sign an email to his boss?” Or “What would a blog by Benjamin Franklin be titled?” Chances are, you’re going to get some wild answers that you can riff off of, effectively sparking your creativity and getting you out of your rut.

2. Correcting syntax/grammar

Let’s say you’re in the middle of writing something and it just feels clunky. You can’t quite seem to get the words right. Pop it into ChatGPT and ask it to give you a more concise version. Of course, you can always use services like Grammarly if that’s more your thing. But you can’t ask Grammarly questions about its suggestions, and ChatGPT doesn’t withhold any tips if you’re not a premium member. In these contexts, ChatGPT is like having an on-demand writing coach.

3. Checking for tone

Have you ever started to write a work email and struggled to phrase it in a delicate and diplomatic way? This happens to me all the time, particularly when dealing with conflict. If you type what you really want to say into ChatGPT and then ask it to rewrite your message for [insert your intended audience here — be it a colleague, a stakeholder, or a manager], the results are astonishing. It scrubs all of your thorny emotions into smooth corporate jargon that makes it easy to hit “Send” on those more difficult emails.

Conclusion

I follow one general rule of thumb when it comes to ChatGPT: treat it like your work bestie. You wouldn’t steal a colleague’s idea and present it in a meeting as if it were your own, would you? Hopefully not, and you shouldn’t do that with ChatGPT either. But it’s an ideal sounding board for your writing and for helping generate ideas, so treat it like you would someone who you can always count on to get the brain juices flowing. The bottom line is, ChatGPT is a creative tool, and it can certainly be misused. But with a little education and personal responsibility, anyone can learn to use ChatGPT to their best advantage.

This post was originally published to Medium on March 7, 2023.