If you have started using AI properly, you will have noticed the same friction: every chat begins with you re-attaching the price list, re-explaining who your customers are, and re-describing how you want things written. It works, and it costs you 2 minutes and some patience every single time.
A project fixes it permanently. It is a labelled workspace with 3 things of its own: its chats, its instructions, and its files. Every conversation you start inside it can see all of that without you doing anything.
Think of the difference between a contractor you brief from scratch each visit and one who has a key and a folder of your plans.
Both major tools have projects on their free plans. You do not need many. 3 covers most businesses, and they are written out below so you can build all 3 in about 20 minutes.
What goes in a project, and what does not
The mistake is treating it as storage. It is not a folder, it is a briefing, and everything in it competes for the AI's attention on every request.
Belongs in a project: the handful of documents that area of the business always needs. Your prices. Your product or service list. 2 or 3 examples of writing that sounds like you. A one-page description of the business.
Does not belong: everything you own. Old versions. Anything you would not hand a new employee on day one.
A test that works: if you would not brief a competent new starter with it, do not upload it.
Project one: Marketing
Instructions:
This project is for marketing my business. I run [what you do, where]. My customers are [who, plainly]. What I sell and what it costs is in the attached files, and those files are the source of truth: never state a price or a product detail that is not in them.
Everything written here is customer-facing. Match the voice in the attached examples. No hype words, no exclamation marks, Australian English. When I ask for a caption or a post, give me one strong option rather than 5 weak ones, and tell me what you would change if it does not land.
If I ask for something that needs a fact you do not have, ask me for it instead of estimating.
Files to load: your product and price list, a one-page description of the business, 2 or 3 pieces of your own writing that sound right.
Project 2: Customers and sales
Instructions:
This project is for talking to customers: enquiries, quotes, complaints, follow-ups and the difficult conversations. I run [what you do]. My policies on refunds, warranties, deposits and cancellations are in the attached file and I do not want you to offer anything outside them.
Write like a person, warm and direct. Short. No corporate apology language. When I paste a customer message, tell me what they are actually asking for underneath what they wrote, then draft the reply.
If a message looks like it could become a legal or consumer law issue, say so before drafting anything.
Files to load: your policies, your standard quote or proposal, 3 past replies you were happy with.
Project 3: Admin and money
Instructions:
This project is for the back end of my business: suppliers, invoicing, quoting, planning and paperwork. I run [what you do]. [Solo, or with staff.]
Be direct and practical. Never invent a figure, a rate, a date or a legal requirement. If a question touches tax, employment law or insurance, tell me it needs a professional and help me get my question clear instead of answering it.
When I paste numbers, work with the numbers I gave you and show your reasoning so I can check it.
Files to load: your supplier list, your standard terms, your current plan or targets for the quarter.
Make this prompt yours
Draft your first project's instructions here. Nothing you type leaves this page.
The habit that makes them worth it
Start the chat inside the project. Obvious, and it is the step people skip. A conversation started in the sidebar cannot see any of this. If the answer looks generic, check where you are.
Update the price list the day prices change. An old file in a project produces confidently wrong prices in customer-facing writing, which is worse than no file at all. This is the single biggest risk of the whole approach and it takes a minute to avoid.
Once a month, ask each project what it is working from:
List the files you can see in this project and, in one line each, what you understand them to contain. Flag anything that looks out of date or contradicts another file.
That catches the stale price list and the 2 versions of the same document, which is the usual mess after a few months.
How projects go wrong
Files compete with your question. A project with 40 documents answers worse than one with 5. If you are tempted to upload everything, split into more projects instead of one big one.
One mega-project called "My Business" is the common failure. It ends up carrying marketing files, customer policies and supplier terms all at once, and every answer is diluted by the two-thirds of context that is irrelevant to it.
Projects do not share with each other. Something the marketing project needs and the sales project needs has to be in both. That is fine, it is a copy, not a problem.
The free plans have limits on how many projects and files. Both platforms have changed these more than once, in both directions. Check what yours allows rather than trusting a number you read somewhere, including here.
It still cannot do maths on a spreadsheet you did not give it. Projects fix context, not access.
Build the marketing one first
Build the marketing one. Just that one, with 3 files. Then write your next caption inside it and compare it to what you would have got in a blank chat.