← back to guides

You’re wasting your limit 📊

From @techyai_cj. Most people think they're hitting a wall. They're not. They're spending their usage in the wrong places. Once you see how this works you can't unsee it.

01 · Every message re-reads everything

the mechanic nobody explains

When you send a message, the whole conversation up to that point goes with it. Message 50 in a long chat carries 49 messages of baggage. Message 1 in a fresh chat carries nothing. Same question, very different cost, and the long one often gets a worse answer, because your actual question is competing with everything above it.

02 · New chat when you switch tasks

the single biggest habit change

Not once a day. Once a topic. The moment you move from one thing to a genuinely different thing, start fresh. This one change does most of the work.

RULE OF THUMB: if you'd have to explain the switch to a person, start a new chat instead.

03 · Reference material goes in a Project, not the chat

stop re-pasting the same document

If you keep pasting the same document, spec or resume into chat after chat, put it in a Project once. Then it's available without riding along in every single message.

WHERE: Projects in the sidebar, then New Project, then add files.

04 · Match the model to the job

you don't need the heavyweight for everything

There's more than one model, and next to the name there's usually a setting for how much thinking it does before answering. Quick questions don't need the strongest option. Save it for the things you actually care about.

WHERE: tap the model name at the top of the chat, or beside the message box on a computer.

05 · Ask it to check itself

when a chat has gotten heavy

If a conversation has been running a long time and answers are drifting, don't fight it. Summarise and move.

Paste at the end of a long chat:

Summarise everything from this conversation that I'd need to continue in a fresh chat: decisions made, what we ruled out and why, and what's still open. Keep it tight enough that I can paste it as a starting message.

None of this costs money. You're already paying for the usage. This is about not spending it on re-reading old messages.

If you take one thing: new chat per topic, and reference files in a Project. That's most of the win.

I'm a software developer and I post what I actually use every day.
Follow @techyai_cj on TikTok and Instagram 🚀
More free guides: see all of them