Companion videos

Custom instructions and memory — companion videos

The article's argument is simple: invest fifteen minutes once in custom instructions plus memory and stop reintroducing yourself in every chat. The picks below show those settings panels on screen, so you can see exactly which toggles to flip and what good entries look like.

Primary pick

36:23

Every ChatGPT Feature In 37 Minutes

Tina Huang

The personalization, memory, and custom instructions panels are walked through inside a wider tour of every ChatGPT feature, which is the right framing — these settings only pay off when you also know what they're configuring (projects, GPTs, scheduled tasks, voice, etc.). Use it as a guided tour while you actually open Settings → Personalization in another tab.

What you should get from this: Configure personalization deliberately instead of letting memory, instructions and project context blur together.

Watch or know first: Use a test account or low-risk examples while learning the settings.

AI Expert note: OpenAI's memory and personalization controls are active product areas. Verify the current settings UI, saved-memory behavior, training controls and workspace policy before advising employees to rely on memory.

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Also worth watching

2:11:12

How I use LLMs

Andrej Karpathy

Skip to the "ChatGPT memory, custom instructions" chapter at 1:53:29. Karpathy shows what he actually has in his own custom instructions, talks about when he tells ChatGPT to remember a fact versus letting it auto-capture, and notes the trade-offs — closer to the article's "set it up once with intent" framing than most beginner walkthroughs.

What you should get from this: Understand how a power user separates durable preferences from one-off context.

Watch or know first: Know where custom instructions and memory live in your current ChatGPT settings.

AI Expert note: The reasoning about durable preferences is solid; the exact memory behavior may differ by product version, region and workspace setting. Do not store confidential client, employee or legal details as "preferences."

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