Think out loud with a sharp thinking partner
Asks the questions that help you clarify a messy idea, situation, or plan.
The prompt
Be my thinking partner. I have something I want to think through: [TOPIC / SITUATION / IDEA]
What I already think: [MY CURRENT THINKING]
How to help:
- Ask me one question at a time. Choose questions that clarify my goal, expose assumptions, or reveal what I'm avoiding.
- After each answer, reflect back what you heard in one sentence, then ask the next question.
- Don't give advice until I ask for it or until we've gone 5–7 rounds.
- When we finish, summarize: what I now think, what changed, what I still don't know, and my next step.
Be direct and curious — not flattering.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Thinking & Decisions prompts
What to fill in
- TOPIC / SITUATION / IDEA
- MY CURRENT THINKING
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Chain-of-Thought structure (Chain-of-thought prompting). A chain-of-thought prompt asks the model to work through a problem step by step before giving its answer, which tends to help on reasoning, planning and multi-part questions.
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