Creative and Professional Prompt Templates
Harnessing AI effectively often comes down to the quality of your prompts. Below are two powerful, ready-to-use templates for creative and professional tasks that can save you significant time and effort. These examples demonstrate how specific instructions can lead to high-quality outputs.
Restore Old Photos with ChatGPT
You can use ChatGPT's vision capabilities to breathe new life into faded or damaged photographs. By providing a detailed prompt, you guide the AI to perform a professional-level restoration. This is one of the top AI prompts for productivity in creative fields.
[upload old photo] Restore this old photo into a professional portrait of DLSR - quality colour and detail, using an advanced upscaling algorithm comparable to the results from a Canon EOS R6 II. Ensure the restored image looks natural, retains exact facial features, has great clarity......Generate a Tailored Cover Letter
Crafting a unique cover letter for every job application is time-consuming. This prompt provides a structured template that forces the AI to be concise, specific, and impactful, directly connecting your experience to the employer's needs.
Prompt:
Write a 4–5 sentence cover letter tailored specifically to the following job description: [paste job description].
Requirements:
Personalize it to the role and company (no generic language).
Reference one concrete, measurable achievement that aligns directly with the job’s core requirement (use numbers, outcomes, or impact).
Clearly connect my skills or experience to one key problem this role is meant to solve
Use confident, concise language—professional but human.
End with a strong, proactive call to action (e.g., interest in discussing how I can contribute, not “looking forward to hearing from you”).
Avoid buzzwords, clichés, and long introductions. Every sentence should add signal and credibility.Expert Guide: Match the AI Tool to the Task
Not all AI models are created equal. Productivity expert Jeff Su provides a clear breakdown of when to use specific AI tools based on their unique strengths. This strategic approach prevents frustration and maximizes efficiency.
By understanding each model's superpower, you can build a workflow that leverages the best of each platform instead of trying to force one tool to do everything. This is crucial for anyone serious about using AI prompts for productivity.
AI Tool | Superpower & Best Use Case |
|---|---|
ChatGPT | Obedience. Ideal for following complex, multi-step instructions and detailed checklists without deviation. |
Gemini | Multimodality. The best choice when you need to process video, audio, images, and text simultaneously. |
Claude | First Drafts. Excels at producing polished writing and functional code that often works on the first try. |
Perplexity | Speed Search. Use it for quickly grabbing specific facts and sources, leaving the deeper thinking to other models. |
NotebookLM | Zero Hallucinations. The safest choice for accuracy, as it will only provide answers based on the source documents you upload. |
Automating Excel Reporting with Claude
With the new Claude integration for Microsoft Excel, you can turn hours of data cleaning and report building into a ten-minute task. The key is to ask Claude to create a plan first, which dramatically improves the quality of its output.
Start by installing the Claude app from the Microsoft Marketplace. Then, use a sequence of prompts to guide the process:
Create a Cleanup Plan: "I have [data type] data from [sources] for my website. Make a plan to rename each tab and clean the data up to make it more readable."
Design the Dashboard: "Based on all tabs, what’s the best way to tie this data into a Master Dashboard?"
Visualize the Data: "Create a combo chart for Clicks vs. Average Position."
This structured, conversational approach makes spreadsheet analysis faster and more accessible.