3 ways ChatGPT’s free Projects feature upgrades your daily routine

OpenAI has opened up ChatGPT Projects to the free tier, bringing the organizational options of the feature to all users. Anyone can now create little compartments inside ChatGPT and upload up to five files to it, as well as set up custom instructions for conversations in the Project, and even give it a unique color and icon.

I’ve long used Projects, and found more than a few opportunities to use the feature to improve my experience with ChatGPT. Here are three potential ways anyone can employ Projects to a similar effect.

1. Personal book and movie club

I always used to want to make a perfectly curated list of books to read and movies to watch, but I often end up ignoring it for reruns of old favorites and whatever the algorithm suggests. Same with books. But an experiment with Projects led to me uploading some of the lists I’ve randomly made for both, which resulted in a nicely organized to-do list. I then enhanced it by setting up a custom instruction for ChatGPT that said: “Be my book and movie club friend who remembers where I left off and suggests new stuff only if I ask.”

Now, when I’m deciding what to read before bed or want a weekend movie pick, I open that Project and can get right to where I left off and even get more suggestions. As for a starting prompt, once you’ve put in your files and set up the custom instructions, you can simply ask, “I’ve uploaded my current reads and watchlist. Where did I leave off in each? Give me a recap, then suggest what fits my vibe tonight: something funny but not dumb.”

You can riff from there: “Summarize the last two chapters” or “Remind me why I even started this book,” for instance.

2. Memory capsule

My wife and I love to share ideas for activities with each other and then exchange photos and memories of those events. We always end up forgetting to go to some we were excited about and never really put together proper albums for those fun weekends, though. That’s all changed since I made a ChatGPT Project called “Family Fall Stuff.” I’ve uploaded photos of us at past events and even some lists of the kinds of activities we like, and set up a custom instruction telling the AI to “be my family memory assistant and help me find what we liked last year so I can do it again.”

When I revisit the Project next year, ChatGPT will remember which farm had the caramel apples, what day my toddler took a nap in the wheelbarrow, and which recipe we used for the best apple pie. I haven’t tried, but the AI even suggested it could make for a real nostalgia bot if I upload voice memos from the events, packing lists, or just goofy quotes we laughed at during the day. Then I could ask it to “Plan a similar trip this year based on what we liked,” or “Suggest a memory book layout using these images.”

3. Recipe tracker

Cooking while looking at recipe on tablet — (Image credit: Anna Shvets/Pexels)

So often I’ll see something made in a cooking show or in a book and think that I should make it, yet rarely do I follow through. Setting up a ChatGPT Project called “Meals to try” has changed things for me. I started by uploading some favorite recipes, including screenshots and PDFs, and a list of what is usually in my fridge and pantry. I then made a custom instruction telling the AI to “Be my home cooking guide who remembers what I like and what I want to try.”

Now I can just open the Project to remind myself what I’ve made recently and what I’ve told myself to try next. Instead of wandering through random recipes like a lost garlic clove, I’ve got a focused culinary co-pilot. For instance, I might ask ChatGPT in the project, “Based on the recent recipes I uploaded and a limited amount of time to cook, suggest a weeknight meal I can make with what’s probably in my fridge.” From there, you can say, “Give me a grocery list for two of these,” “Rewrite this recipe in a way that sounds encouraging,” or “Turn this into a one-pan meal.”

None of these are necessarily earth-shattering hacks. But they are a useful way to improve how you use ChatGPT. Projects give your requests to the AI a helpful structure, like drawers in a mental filing cabinet. And because the memory from Projects doesn’t bleed into your other chats, you don’t get misplaced recommendations from other conversations. It’s just the AI with practical context and without chaos.