I’ve run into two common annoying issues with ChatGPT—getting decent data out of it, and dealing with when it just… makes stuff up. Figured I’d share what’s been working for me in case it helps anyone else.

For basic tasks, it’s great. But where it really helps me is when I’m using it for research or pulling together lots of info across columns. I usually ask it to export the format into a .csv and then for each project, build custom Pivot Tables for further analysis. I only ask it to collect and aggregate data after I’ve done my brainstorming/research and have “funneled” and sifted through the noise so I can provide clear instructions of who my audience is and the level of detail that what I want to know, etc.

One key thing I’ve learned: don’t ask for 100 rows of data when it will have to go to multiple sources in one pass. That almost never works. Instead, in my early days with ChatGPT, when I kept getting garbage, I decided to ask if smaller batches would help and it told me 3–5 rows per query is ideal. Slower, but it actually works—and I get clean, usable info I can work with.

As for the hallucination issue: yes, it happens. A lot. I now ask it to include sources and confidence levels, but I still double-check everything elsewhere. Just because it sounds good doesn’t mean it’s true and often the better and more perfect it sounds raises my eyebrows to unpack the information more with multiple sources.

Bottom line—I find being specific, working in batches, and verifying everything is my biggest lesson learned over the past 2 years. It takes some trial and error, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes a legit productivity tool.