Yesterday you gave AI instructions. Today you give it an example. This is the single highest-leverage change you can make to the quality of AI output, and almost nobody does it.
The principle is simple: showing AI what "good" looks like produces dramatically better results than describing what "good" looks like. If you want a specific tone, paste a paragraph written in that tone. If you want a specific format, paste something already in that format. The AI will match the pattern much more accurately than it will follow a verbal description.
Today's task
Take the same task from yesterday, or a similar one, and add an example to your prompt:
I need to write something in a specific style. Here is an example of the style I want:
[paste a short piece of writing that has the tone, format, and level of detail you want, could be an email someone sent you that you liked, a newsletter intro, or a paragraph from a blog post you admire]
Here is my raw content: [paste your draft or notes]
Please rewrite my content to match the style of the example. Keep all the facts and meaning the same. Match the tone, sentence length, and level of formality.
The difference in output quality between Day 1 and Day 2 will be larger than the difference between any two AI tools you could choose. This is not hyperbole, examples constrain the output space in a way that instructions alone cannot.
When you give someone an example of what you want, you remove the hardest part of communication: translating an abstract idea into a concrete output. This is why code reviews with examples are better than code reviews with style guides, and why the best managers show, not tell. The AI just makes the feedback loop instant.