Your own helper: instructions it remembers
Save your best prompt as a helper — a Gem in Gemini — and let it run routine tasks on a schedule.
A Gem of your own for a task you repeat, tested on three real cases.
Lesson 9 of 12 · Part 3: Go further
Your own helper: instructions it remembers
If you paste the same long instructions every week, you can save them once. In Gemini that is a Gem: a helper with your instructions — and, if you like, your own files — built in. ChatGPT calls the same idea a custom GPT, and Claude a Project. Gemini can also run a prompt on a schedule, such as every Monday morning, depending on your plan.
The idea
A helper is a saved brief
Everything from Lesson 2 — who it is for, what it should know, the shape — written once. You then just paste in the new material each time.
Give it your files
Add your syllabus, your school’s style of report, your shop’s price list. It will use them every time.
Small and specific wins
A “Class 8 science worksheet maker” works better than a “teaching assistant”. Make several small helpers, not one big one.
Step by step
- 1
Choose a task you do every week
Worksheets, parent messages, report comments, product descriptions, minutes of a meeting.
- 2
Create a Gem
In Gemini open Gems → New Gem. Name it for the task. Paste your five-part brief as its instructions. Add any files it should always use.
- 3
Test it on three real cases
Where it goes wrong, add a line to the instructions — “never use more than 150 words”, “always end with the date”.
- 4
Optional: schedule it
If your plan has scheduled actions, ask Gemini to run a prompt every week — “Every Monday at 7am, list the topics I teach this week from my plan”.
Prompts to copy
Change the parts in [brackets], and the details to fit your own day.
Teacher
You help me write report-card comments for Class 6. For each child I give you three short notes (strengths, one thing to work on, effort). You write a 40-word comment: warm, specific, in plain English a parent understands, ending with one thing the child can do at home. Never compare children with each other. Never mention marks. If my notes are too thin, ask me for more instead of inventing.
Shop
You write product descriptions for my handicraft shop in Srinagar. Each one: 50 words, what it is, who made it and how, its size and care. Honest — never “best”, never “guaranteed”. Then the same in Urdu.
Anyone
Turn my rough meeting notes into minutes: date, people present, decisions, actions (who, what, by when). If an action has no owner or date, list it under “To settle”.
Try it
Your task
Build one Gem for a weekly task and use it on three real cases, improving its instructions each time.
When you are done: A task that took twenty minutes now takes two — and the instructions are yours to keep improving.
Check yourself
Think of your answer first, then open it. Nothing is marked or saved.
Your helper sometimes invents details. What do you add to its instructions?Show answer
A rule to ask instead of invent: “If my notes do not say it, ask me — never fill the gap yourself.”
Why several small helpers rather than one big one?Show answer
Each one has clear, tested instructions. A do-everything helper is vague, and vague instructions give vague results.
Keep the trust
Keep the person in your helper’s instructions.
Write in the rules you care about — never compare children, never mention marks, never exaggerate. A helper repeats its instructions faithfully, good or bad.