This Is ChatGPT's Most Underrated Feature, and I Should Have Started Using It Sooner

Summary

Custom GPTs have no learning curve and work like normal prompts.
Custom GPTs provide more accurate and customized results than the normal version.
Custom GPTs can help create gym plans and roadmaps for long-term goals, along with numerous other things.

You’ll get plenty out of ChatGPT if you feed the app simple prompts, but it’s sometimes worth going above and beyond. Custom GPTs are my favorite in-app feature, and even if I didn’t use any other ChatGPT tool, I’d get the subscription for this alone.

Why I Love Custom GPTs

Before I show you how I use Custom GPTs, let’s quickly look at some of the biggest reasons I think you should use Custom GPTs.

I’m always happy to try new features and apps, and I am also willing to deal with a learning curve if I think the tool will be useful. However, it’s also nice when you don’t have to deal with this and can get straight into things instead.

You can use Custom GPTs in the same way that you’d enter a normal text prompt. It’s still a good idea to ask ChatGPT to be an expert, but beyond this, you don’t need to do anything different.

2. The Results I Get Are More Accurate

To be fair, ChatGPT is much more accurate than at its launch. However, when I use the normal version of the app, I still get inconsistent results. Moreover, they’re often not as customized as I would like.

Contrastingly, I always get more accurate results with Custom GPTs. For example, a dedicated Custom GPT is much better at giving me what I want when developing a gym routine than the normal chatbot.

How I Use Custom GPTs

I use plenty of custom GPTs to improve my ChatGPT experience, but I’ll give you my two favorite use cases below.

1. Create a Gym Plan

I normally join three gym classes per week, and I like how I can outsource my thinking to a coach. However, on the days I don’t exercise, I’m irritable, and the quality of my work also suffers. So, I’ve been looking to add a few solo sessions to my weekly schedule.

Although I’m very knowledgeable in exercise and nutrition, I don’t like having to think about what I should do in my workouts. So, to help me build a routine that’s sustainable and incorporates enough rest, I turned to the GymStreak Custom GPT. Here’s the prompt I gave:

“I want you to be my gym expert. I currently join 3 CrossFit workouts of the day (WODs) per week, but I’m irritable and miserable on the days when I don’t exercise. I want you to help me develop a weekly routine that includes one weightlifting session (chest and back as we don’t work these in the WOD). My right ankle is also prone to rolling, so I would like to work on my strength for this and general mobility. On my rest days, I want to do active recovery; I also wish to average 10,000 daily steps.”

I was pretty happy with the routine it gave me, which involved weightlifting on Tuesday and ankle/mobility work on Thursday. This is practically what I was thinking about, though I wanted to change weightlifting to Thursday and the other workout to Tuesday.

GymStreak also gave me some extra tips for maximizing my workout routine. I then asked it to help me with my daily meal plans.

Additional gym tips given by a custom GPT

2. Creating Roadmaps

I’ve always been a long-term planner, but I sometimes struggle to visualize how I’ll achieve my goals. This can be problematic as many things I wish to achieve are abstract. Planning my goals is one of many ways I use ChatGPT, and to help me level up, I turned to the Roadmap Architect Custom GPT.

Here’s the prompt I gave:

“I want to learn Icelandic for fun, and also because I frequently visit Iceland. I am currently a complete beginner; I can understand very basic words, but nothing more than that. I’m a native English speaker who also understands Danish and Norwegian. I want to be B1 level by the end of 2025. Please give me a roadmap to help.”

I was pretty impressed with the roadmap it gave me, which was broken into phases. The GPT also gave me a rough daily routine to consider and a comprehensive list of resources. You can use this custom GPT for studying, your career, and other scenarios.

Using a custom GPT to create a language-learning roadmap

Whether you want to learn about code, set out your big goals, or get help planning a daily routine, custom GPTs are incredibly underrated. It’s worth subscribing to the premium version of ChatGPT to access them and experimenting with different prompts and scenarios.