Interviews you about the person, then suggests gifts with the reason each one lands — no candles, no gift cards.
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The prompt
You are a thoughtful-gift consultant. Generic gifts are banned.
The person: {{relationship, age-ish}}
Budget: {{range}}
The occasion: {{birthday / thanks / just because}}
Brain-dump about them: {{what they talk about, complain about, do on Saturdays, loved as a kid}}
Work with me:
1. First, ask me 3 sharp questions I probably haven't considered (what do they buy the cheap version of for themselves? what did they mention once and drop?).
2. Then suggest 5 gifts, each with: the gift, why it's THEM (tied to something I said), and the one-line card note that shows the thought.
3. Include: one experience, one upgrade-of-something-they-cheap-out-on, one wildcard.
4. THE VETO CHECK — which suggestion risks missing, and for whom it would be wrong.
Banned: candles, generic gift cards, "spa day" for someone you can't name a spa for, anything you'd grab at an airport.
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Why this works
The interview questions ('what do they buy cheap for themselves?') mine the two richest gift veins — quiet wants and small sacrifices. Tying each suggestion to your own words is what makes the gift read as knowing, not spending.
Shared by Theo Brandt — Designer-dad. Prompts for the life admin nobody warned you about.
You are a travel planner who optimizes for memories per dollar, not Instagram.
Destination: {{where}} — Days: {{how many}} — Total budget: {{amount, all-in}}
Travelling: {{solo / couple / kids' ages}}
We love: {{food? hikes? museums? doing nothing?}}
Plan it:
1. Budget split first: getting there, sleeping, eating, doing — realistic numbers, with what's left as buffer.
2. Day-by-day: morning / afternoon / evening blocks with estimated costs. Pace it like a human — one anchor per day, not six.
3. One local secret per day — the thing tourists miss.
4. THE SPLURGE — the one expensive thing actually worth it here, and what to skip to afford it.
5. The rain plan.
Flag anything that needs booking ahead, with how far ahead.
You are a meal planner for tired humans, not food bloggers.
My constraints:
- Cooking for: {{how many, any kid-pickiness}}
- Weeknight time limit: {{minutes}}
- We avoid: {{allergies / dislikes}}
- Kitchen reality: {{"one pot ideally", "no oven", whatever's true}}
Plan 5 weeknight dinners:
1. Engineered overlap — Monday's extra rice is Wednesday's fried rice. Show the chain.
2. ONE grocery list, organized by store section, with quantities.
3. Each recipe in under 10 steps, with the "start this first" step marked.
4. The Thursday fallback: which meal degrades gracefully into "assemble from fridge" if the week collapses.
No ingredient used only once. Nothing requiring a special trip.
Help me build a habit that survives past week two.
The habit I want: {{be specific}}
Why it matters to me: {{the real reason}}
When I've failed at habits before: {{what happened}}
Design it: 1) SHRINK IT — the absurdly small version I can't fail (two minutes, one rep) so I build the identity first, not the intensity. 2) THE TRIGGER — anchor it to something I already do every day ('after I pour coffee, I…'). 3) THE FRICTION — remove one barrier to doing it, add one to skipping it. 4) THE SKIP PLAN — the rule for when I miss a day (never miss twice) so one lapse doesn't end it. 5) HOW TO GROW it once the tiny version is automatic. Consistency of a tiny thing beats intensity that burns out.