How to Get AI to Actually Listen to You (Instead of Doing Way Too Much)

Okay so real talk… AI tools are great until they’re ridiculously annoying. 😂

Like when you ask for ONE idea and you get a response with 1,000 more ideas you could implement.

Or when you hand it a sentence you actually liked and it rewrites the whole thing like “here, I fixed it” and you’re like… weird, I didn’t ask you to. 😳

It stops feeling helpful and sneaks into overwhelming really fast in my experience.

The worst part is that every single new chat is a blank slate.

Most robots don’t remember that you hate bullet points or that you said “NO EM DASHES” fourteen times last Tuesday.

You have to re-explain yourself every time like some kind of AI Super Nanny trying to get a kid to stay in bed.

ANYWAY. I found a fix that’ll show you how to get AI to listen to you, and it took like two minutes! 💥

The move: a keyboard shortcut that drops your preferences into any new AI chat instantly.

No copy/paste. No digging through notes. Just type a little trigger word and your robot is reminded of the rules.

The cool thing is that it works with ALL of the robots. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity… Whatever AI tool you’re using in a browser or app on your Mac, this works because it’s a Mac system thing, not a specific tool thing.

Here’s how to set it up:

Step 1: Write your “how to work with me” rules so your AI knows the rules every time

Open Notes, Google Docs, or wherever and jot down how you actually want AI to respond.

Here’s the rules I wrote for my robot:

• Default to one best answer unless I ask for brainstorming
• Don’t rewrite my writing unless I specifically ask
• Keep all answers short and practical
• Don’t ask follow-up questions or offer more ideas unless I ask
• Do not use em dashes ever, under any circumstances

That’s it. Easy peasy. You’re basically writing a little instruction manual for your AI.

You definitely don’t have to copy my rules, make your own!

But you probably already have a list of things your robot does that annoy you on the tip of your tongue as you read this. 😂

I wrote about my love hate relationship with the robots and people freaking loved it, so I totally understand.

Step 2: Set up a Text Replacement on your Mac

This is built right into your Mac so there’s nothing to download, which I love.

1. Go to System Settings
2. Click Keyboard
3. Click Text Replacements
4. Hit the little “+” button
5. In “Replace” type your trigger word — I’ve used ;rules and ;chill
6. In “With” paste your list of preferences

That’s it! Now whenever you type ;followed by your word, and hit space, your whole list appears like magic.

🔥 Hot Tip: When you add the rules, you can’t copy and paste, you have to type them out. Kind of annoying, but you’ll only have to do it once.

I also add a beginning like this: Here are the rules for our conversation: (then type your rules) I separated mine with a semi-colon because it’s in one long sentence.

Just type your little trigger word and “ta-da!” it knows how to chill the eff out and just do the things you want it to. 😅

And if you’re on a PC, I gotta be honest: I haven’t set this up on Windows personally…

But I’ve heard really good things about Microsoft PowerToys for creating text shortcuts like this.

So I’d start there if you’re on a PC!

Step 3: Use it every time you open a new chat

New chat → type your shortcut → hit enter → it magically sends all the rules!

Now your AI of choice is focused and on your side instead of going rogue and offering you eleven unsolicited options or giving you 500 em dashes that you didn’t want!

Have fun while you train your AI tools!

You don’t have to call it ;rules.

You can totally call it anything you want to! ;chill or ;becool or ;dontannoyme 🤪

Whatever will help you remember to add it, the more you’ll actually use it.

And that’s the trick, the systems that stick are the ones that feel fun and easy!

Two Minutes to Get AI to Actually Listen to You

AI is supposed to make your life easier, not add to your to-do list! 🥰

This two-minute setup will save you an enormous amount of time and frustration when you’re working with these AI tools.

If you’ve ever finished a chat session feeling weirdly exhausted, like you spent more energy managing the tool than actually using it, this is totally going to help you.