Start here
Five short steps that leave you with tasks AI already helps with, a privacy rule, a file that tells it who you are and a check routine. Then pick the page for the job in front of you.
- What this is
- The starting point for this site: five short steps on using an AI assistant well, then a list of pages sorted by task.
- Why it matters
- You pick up the habits that prevent the most common early mistakes, then go straight to the page for the job you have.
- The short version
- Work through five short steps: three first tasks, prompting, what not to paste, a file about you, and a check routine.
- If you already use AI most days, skim the privacy and checking steps, then go to the page for your task.
- All five steps take about 2 hours, and you can spread them over a week.
This site is short on purpose. Every page answers one question and gives you steps, a prompt (a message to type to the AI) or a hands-on tool that works on the page. Nothing is for sale.
The five steps
- Your first useful hour. Three everyday tasks: tighten an email, turn notes into a to-do list, get the case against a decision.
- Prompting in one page. How to ask so the first answer is usable.
- What not to paste. A three-tier rule: fine, redact first, never.
- Tell it who you are, once. A short text for your assistant's custom instructions (a settings box it reads before every chat), so you stop repeating yourself.
- Check before you trust. A five-minute routine before you act on an answer.
Already use AI most days? Skim steps 3 and 5, then pick from the list below. Wondering whether to pay for a plan? Read Do I need to pay for AI, and for which plan? first.
Then pick the job in front of you
Work and writing
- Writing: brief, draft, check
- Make a presentation with AI: your outline first, then check every slide
- Make an image with AI: describe it well, check it, and know what you can use it for
- Research a topic with citation checking
- Read the source, use the summary as a map
- Meeting notes to decisions and owners
- Transcribe a recording, then check it before you quote it
- Job search and interview prep
- Prepare for a negotiation with AI: a pay rise, a job offer or a price
- Write a speech, toast or eulogy with AI that still sounds like you
Home and life admin
- Personal admin with AI: inbox, letters and bills
- Taxes with AI: what it can help with, and what you check on the official site
- Read a contract, lease or terms with AI before you sign
- Complain about a faulty product or poor service, with AI drafting and you checking your rights
- Fix a computer, phone or app problem with AI, safely
- Plan a week of meals and a shopping list with AI, and check what matters
- Plan a trip, then verify every stop
- Point your phone at it: what AI can and can't tell you from a photo
- Photos in, data out: forms, receipts, whiteboards
Data and spreadsheets
- Asking questions of your data when you're not an analyst
- Get a spreadsheet formula from AI, then test it
- Reconcile two exports
- Run one prompt over hundreds of rows, then measure how often it's wrong
- Find near-duplicates and group a long list by meaning
Using it well
- Getting disagreement instead of agreement
- Learning with AI without losing the learning
- Learn to code with AI without skipping the learning
- When not to use AI
- Health, money and legal questions: green lights and red lines
- Talking to AI when you're struggling: what it can help with, and where it stops
- Kids, homework and a family AI plan
- College and university applications: what AI use is allowed, and how to use it honestly
- Help an older relative start using AI, safely
- AI detectors: what they can and can't tell you
- Writing in a second language, or with dyslexia
- Talk, then edit: dictation and voice mode
- Translating with AI: when it's good enough, and how to check
- Practise a new language with AI: speak daily, get corrected, track progress
- AI answers or search results: when to use which
- Check a claim you saw online, with AI as a helper, not the judge
- Ads and sponsored answers in AI chats: how to spot them and get a straight recommendation
- Where could AI help this week?, a hands-on tool that finds candidates in your own week
- Am I actually faster?, a hands-on tool that compares your timings
Agents and tools
An agent is an AI that carries out steps for you, such as clicking or running code, rather than only answering.
- Coding agents for people who don't write code
- Letting an agent near your email, browser and files
- Test any new model on your own tasks
- Describe the failure: reports an agent can act on
- Your first API call, with a spending cap
- Build an assistant other people will use
- Prompt, retrieve or fine-tune? Getting a model to use your material
- Get data you can trust from an API: schemas, validation and retries
- Script, workflow or agent: how much to automate
- Build a small agent yourself: one tool, a step limit and a log
- Long agent jobs: pieces, milestones and stop rules
- Checking agent work you didn't watch
- Local or cloud: when a model on your own device is enough
- Open-source AI tools: one pick for each job
Safety and privacy
- AI voice scams: hang up and call back on a number you know
- Payment changes at work: check the request, not the voice
- Was this image made or changed by AI? A five-minute check
- AI-written phishing: stop looking for typos, set up passkeys
- Privacy settings pass: 15 minutes, once a quarter
- The AI already in your phone, email and office apps: what it reads, and how to turn it up or down
- AI memory: what it keeps, and a ten-minute audit
Who keeps this site
Hayz Labs is a small lab led by Ben. We add a page only when it helps someone do something, and we update pages when the tools change. Every page carries the date it was last checked.
Changes
- v1.010 Oct 2026first version
- Time to do it
- about 2 hours for all five steps, fine to spread over a week
- Updated
- 10 Oct 2026
- Last checked
- 10 Oct 2026