6 AI Productivity Hacks That Actually Last

Why You Need This Checklist

What if the AI tips you learned today were already obsolete by next month? That's the frustrating reality most people face — they binge tutorials, try new prompts, and then watch them stop working when the next model drops. It's exhausting, and it makes you feel like you're always one step behind no matter how much you invest in learning.

Here's what nobody tells you: the problem isn't the tools. It's that most AI advice is built around specific features instead of durable principles. The tokens you waste, the manual copy-pasting you repeat, the AI that never quite learns your style — these problems compound every single day you don't have a system.

Now imagine opening your AI tool tomorrow and it already knows your preferences, reads your files in seconds instead of minutes, drafts emails exactly the way you would, and executes complex tasks without you babysitting every step. That's not a fantasy — that's what happens when you apply the right framework consistently.

Jeff Su has been using every major AI tool since ChatGPT launched, and he's taught these exact techniques at Google, PwC, and Stanford. He doesn't chase shiny features — he identifies the principles that hold up across model updates, platform changes, and whatever comes next. This checklist distills his top six practical AI productivity techniques into a step-by-step action plan you can implement today.

This PDF checklist walks you through every actionable step from Jeff's proven framework: converting PDFs to lightweight markdown files so AI processes your documents faster and cheaper, building folder indexes so AI never wastes time reading irrelevant files, setting up text expander shortcuts for your most-used prompts, using the intent check method before any high-stakes task, unlocking API keys to automate things that used to require a developer, and building personalized tool rulebooks so your AI behaves like a trained assistant rather than a generic chatbot. Plus all four bonus lightning round tips are included.

Stop re-learning AI every time something changes. Download this checklist and build a system that gets smarter the longer you use it.

What's Inside — Preview

Every checklist item comes with actionable notes to guide you — things like "Don't forget to do this before you start," "Avoid this common mistake," or "Set a reminder for 30 days out." Nothing vague, just clear next steps.

DO Convert text-heavy PDFs to markdown files before uploading to any AI tool

DO Use the desktop version of ChatGPT or Claude with a mounted folder to auto-convert PDFs

BUILD Set up a two-folder system: one for source PDFs and one for lightweight markdown files

DO If using web-based ChatGPT or Claude Projects, upload both the PDF and markdown file as context files

BUILD Create a folder index (index.md) for any folder with more than a dozen files

+ 14 more action items inside...

6 AI Productivity Hacks That Actually Last

Why You Need This Checklist

What's Inside — Preview

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