One Clear Statement
The most concrete things AI can do are often not “answering questions” — they are “helping you go from start to finish on a task.”
Ten Categories
1. Build a Personal Website, Portfolio, or Resume Page
Concrete scenario: You want a personal homepage but do not know where to start.
Prompt:
I want to build a personal website with:
- A home page with my introduction
- A list of my work or articles
- A contact page
Tell me what you want to show people, and I will build it for you.
The site only needs to work — not be complicated.Why Codex can do it: It reads your files, generates webpage files in your directory, opens a local preview so you can see the result.
2. Organize Folders, Batch-Rename, Sort
Concrete scenario: Your Downloads folder has hundreds of files and you do not want to organize them one by one.
Prompt:
My Downloads folder has a mix of images, documents, and compressed files.
Please sort them by type and rename the files to names I can recognize.Why Codex can do it: It can read your file system, batch-rename by your rules, without you dragging files one by one.
3. Write Articles, Bios, and Work Descriptions
Concrete scenario: You have ideas but do not know how to start writing or how to make it clear.
Prompt:
I want to write a [~300-word self-introduction / project description / work statement] for [who you want to show it to, e.g. a recruiter / potential collaborator / strangers].
Key information:
- The most important thing I do is: ...
- What I want them to know is: ...
- What I want them to do is: ...
Please write a draft for me.4. Rewrite One Article for Multiple Platforms
Concrete scenario: You wrote a WeChat article and need a Xiaohongshu version, an English version, and a Twitter version.
Prompt:
I have a piece of writing that needs to be rewritten for [target platform, e.g. Xiaohongshu card format, under 100 characters, with emoji].
Original:
[paste text]
Please rewrite it, keeping the core message in each version.5. Explain Something You Do Not Understand
Concrete scenario: You saw a contract, a bill, or an instruction manual and do not know what matters.
Prompt:
I have a passage I am not sure about. Please:
1. Explain what it is about in plain language
2. Tell me what I especially need to pay attention to
3. Tell me what I need to confirm before agreeing
[paste text]6. Check Your Files for Errors
Concrete scenario: You wrote a public article and want to check for typos, logical issues, or privacy risks before publishing.
Prompt:
Please check the following text for:
1. Typos and grammar errors
2. Any content that exposes private information (address, phone, ID, family details)
3. Anything I might regret publishing
[paste text]7. Turn Recordings or Meeting Notes into Text
Concrete scenario: You recorded a meeting and want a readable transcript with action items.
Prompt:
I have a meeting/recording transcript. Please:
1. Clean it up into readable text
2. List the main topics discussed
3. List the follow-up actions
[paste recording/transcript]8. Make Travel Plans, Study Plans, or Reading Plans
Concrete scenario: You want to travel somewhere but do not know how to plan it.
Prompt:
I am planning a [duration, e.g. 3-day May Day holiday] trip to [destination], budget [amount], going with [whoever].
Please give me a travel itinerary, telling me what to do each day without going overboard on detail.9. Turn Repetitive Tasks into Fixed Workflows
Concrete scenario: Every time you publish an article you do the same things: reformat the title, add an image, trim the summary.
Prompt:
Every time I publish an article I do these things:
1. Reformat the title to [format]
2. Add a cover image
3. Trim the summary to under 140 characters
Can you help me turn this into a fixed workflow? What should I do next?10. Document Your Skills and Experience into Shareable Content
Concrete scenario: You are good at something but do not know how to articulate it or have never written it down.
Prompt:
I want to document my experience with [something, e.g. making pour-over coffee, renovating a house, growing plants] into readable text to share.
What I can tell you:
- How long I have been doing it: ...
- The biggest problem I ran into: ...
- How I do it now: ...
Please help me write a [200-500 word] shareable piece about this.How to Know You Are Done
You do not need to try all ten categories today.
After reading this page, just find one thing you want to try right now:
Pick something you happen to need to do soon, use the prompt above, and let Codex help you get started.
Next: When Not to Use AI — establishing safety boundaries.
Hint: Codex is best suited for categories 1, 2, 6, and 9 — tasks involving files, folders, and local operations. Other categories (writing, explaining, planning) can use any conversational AI.
Public social links
