LLM Productivity
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4 minute read
You’ve probably heard this before: “Use ChatGPT to boost your output.” But what does that actually look like when you’re not just writing blog posts or copy-pasting code?
This page focuses on practical, professional, and even personal ways to use large language models (LLMs) to get more done - faster, smarter, and with fewer distractions. Not just a tip here or there, but a real shift in how you think about problem solving.
We’re not here to sell AI as magic. But if you’re not already using tools like ChatGPT, Claude, DeepSeek, or local models like Ollama as everyday copilots, you’re leaving a lot of leverage on the table.
Professional Uses
These are all real things you can do today to accelerate your tech projects, content creation, and even just your admin load.
Titles, Descriptions, and Summaries
You’re writing blog posts, GitHub READMEs, or YouTube videos - ask the LLM to:
- Tighten up your title
- Add a compelling summary or abstract
- Suggest alternate versions tuned for different platforms
“Here’s my blog post: [paste content]. Suggest 5 compelling titles, a short abstract, and a 2-line LinkedIn post summary with hashtags.”
Labels, Tags, and Categories
When organizing content - repos, blog posts, videos, notes - ask the LLM to:
- Generate relevant tags or keywords
- Suggest categories based on topic
- Optimize metadata for SEO
Documentation and Help Screens
Whether it’s a Bash script or an entire GitHub repo:
- Auto-generate
README.md - Add usage examples and CLI flags
- Write a
--helpscreen for your script
“Act as a seasoned DevOps engineer. Here’s a Bash script. Add input validation, usage docs, and helpful CLI flags.”
Emails, Proposals, and Reports
You don’t have to stare at a blank screen again.
- Generate a rough draft of a client proposal
- Rewrite technical language in “stakeholder speak”
- Summarize incident reports or tech audits
- Paste the contents of a web page and ask it for a summary
“Here’s a raw Slack thread about an outage. Write a short summary I can use in our monthly report.”
Task Breakdown and Project Scoping
Use it to break down vague goals into clear steps:
- Turn “build dashboard” into an actual plan
- Draft GitHub issues from a loose to-do list
- Estimate effort or timelines based on constraints
Personal Uses
LLMs aren’t just code monkeys or email rewriters. They’re pattern matchers with context awareness. Here are some creative uses that catch most people by surprise:
Resume and Job Match Analyzer
Paste in a job description and your resume. Ask the LLM:
- “What skills am I missing?”
- “Rewrite my resume bullets to align better with this role.”
- “What would a great cover letter sound like here?”
Refactoring Your Past Work
Give it one of your old blog posts or tutorials:
- “Update this to reflect modern best practices.”
- “Turn this into a checklist I can reuse.”
- “Make this easier to understand for junior engineers.”
Convert Anything to Anything
LLMs are great at structure translation:
- CSV -> JSON -> Markdown table
- XML -> YAML
- Raw CLI output -> formatted report
- Long list -> bulleted summary
“Here’s CLI output from df -h. Summarize the top 3 storage concerns.”
Stack Debugging and Error Interpretation
- Paste in stack traces or error logs
- Ask for possible causes, suggestions, or quick fixes
- Great for tools you don’t use every day
Everyday Uses
LLMs aren’t just for technical work. Use them as your second brain for life admin, planning, and creativity.
Grocery-Based Dinner Ideas
“I have chicken thighs, frozen broccoli, and rice. What can I make for dinner in under 30 minutes?”
Great for end-of-week fridge clearing.
Trip Planning and Research
“I want to take a 3-day trip in July somewhere near Asheville, NC. Suggest a few outdoor-heavy itineraries with food stops.”
Use it like a personal concierge.
Gift Recommendations
“My friend is into mechanical keyboards, hiking, and Japanese whiskey. Budget is $50. Got any clever gift ideas?”
Surprisingly thoughtful answers, even for niche interests.
Book Summaries or Chapter Notes
Paste in a few chapters, or even just a table of contents, and ask for:
- Summary of the key ideas
- Questions for discussion
- An outline of topics to blog about
Home Lab or Tech Stack Planning
“I want to build a self-hosted home dashboard with uptime checks, Grafana, and a weather widget. What stack would you recommend? Bonus points if it’s easy to update.”
You’ll often get a sane, startable plan.
Summary
LLMs aren’t just about code. They’re tools for thinking, writing, structuring, translating, and summarizing. Used well, they make you faster - not lazier. More focused - not dumber.
- Use them for every part of your tech stack: planning, naming, documenting, communicating
- Use them to simplify life tasks and reduce decision fatigue
- Challenge yourself to ask better prompts, and see where they take you
- Local models are great for automation; cloud models are great for polish
Once you get in the habit of using LLMs as co-thinkers, the real productivity gains show up. It’s not just what they output - it’s how they help you think more clearly, with fewer roadblocks.