One Prompt Away
The art of knowing when to stop
What's this about?
When does a prompt become a trap?
A story about cold dinner, 49 tabs, and the art of stopping at the right time.
Plus an AI skill for objectively assessing your own prompting behavior.
(Steffi Kieffer, Midjourney)
Saturday evening. 8:49 PM.
Dinner's ready. "It's getting cold," Ben calls from the kitchen.
"Just a sec," I mumble. Eyes glued to the screen.
49 tabs open. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Midjourney. Same topic, different angles. I'm in deep.
"Just one more paragraph... just one more source..."
One prompt away from greatness.
Truth is: it's a loop. Trading real life for the illusion of productivity. Same tracksuit pants since morning. All day at the laptop. But nothing to show for it.
Prompting is the new scrolling
Know that feeling? The weird certainty that the next prompt will be the breakthrough even though the last 20 were just “okay”?
Prompting works like social media: unpredictable outcomes, little dopamine spikes every time. You know you should stop, but maybe the next one will be the one...
Why is it so hard to stop?
FOMO*: “What if the next prompt delivers the perfect outcome?”
Perfectionism: “Surely this can be better.”
Doubt: “Am I even on the right track?”
And just like that, I'm stuck in the loop between productivity and self-sabotage.
(*Fear of missing out)
The Art of Stopping
At the art museum, I come across Thich Nhat Hanh’s book How to Focus.
“If we cannot stop, we cannot have insights.”
We talk a lot about prompt skills, but never about stopping and what comes afterwards. But that’s often where real thinking starts: processing, evaluating, integrating.
I have to admin, I’m terrible at stopping but I’m getting better at noticing some red flags:
Frustration Mode
I snap at the AI, especially when it randomly drops good ideas or rewrites things I didn’t want changed.Quality Collapse
I skim instead of thinking. I stop evaluating outputs and just go with whatever sounds plausible.Body Alarm
My shoulders are tight, I haven’t moved in hours, I’m barely breathing. And there's a full mug of cold tea next to me.
AI Skill: Expert-Mirror-Prompting
Self-awareness with AI.
The problem:
You can’t tell when you’re productive and when you're just spinning your wheels.
The idea:
Have the AI analyze your behavior from an expert’s perspective. Use one of the three prompt templates below. Feel free to tweak them.
Three expert roles, three perspectives:
The Efficiency Coach:
You're an efficiency coach.
Analyze our chat: What were my 3 most valuable prompts? When did I start wasting time? Give me a clear stopping rule for next time.The Behavior Analyst:
You're a behavioral psychologist.
Spot patterns in my prompting behavior: When did I shift from productive to perfectionist? What warning signs should I notice?The Productivity Expert:
You're a productivity expert.
Rate our chat: What was my strongest prompt? Which 2 improvements would make the biggest difference?How to use it:
Mid-session: Get feedback when you’re stuck.
Afterwards: Run all three for a full debrief.
Observe: What patterns do you recognize?
My takeaways:
Apparently, I’m a productive perfectionist optimizing myself into a loop...
Since running an AI expert analysis, I’m running experiements:
Set a “good enough” benchmark before long prompting sessions
Take a movement + check-in break every 45 minutes
Ask myself: What’s the better use of my time right now?
Celebrate the “good enough” moment (music, coffee, dance) to shift the dopamine reward
Flip the FOMO: “What do I miss out on if I don’t stop?”
My new reality
“Dinner’s ready,” Ben calls.
Old me would’ve launched three more prompts — one for ChatGPT, one for Claude, one for Gemini.
Today: Laptop closed. Inhale. Exhale.
The AI will still be there tomorrow. Hot dinner won’t.
P.S. I finished this newsletter in exactly three writing sessions. Not because it’s perfect — because it’s good enough.
Skipped session four for some stretching on the deck. My cat was lounging in the sun, giving me a look like, “Finally figured it out, huh?”
Cats have understood conscious laziness for thousands of years.
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