Wonder Tools

Now that fall is here, my focus has been fragile.
Noise, notifications, news, and email grab at my attention.
To help cope with distractions, I've stitched together a focus toolkit with apps, sites, and sounds. Some are new, others old. My goal this season is to concentrate for a bit longer when my attention might otherwise drift. I hope this collection will be useful for you too.
Stop email interruptions 📧
Inbox Pause
This simple email add-on temporarily freezes what you see in your inbox. Any new messages will show up as soon as you un-pause.
Price and platforms: Free for basic use. For extra features, like custom scheduling or hearing from select senders during pauses, get the $15/month pro account. Works with Gmail and Outlook online or on the iPhone. An alternative free option: Pause Gmail
Avoid distracting sites 💻
News Feed Eradicator
Get rid of the addictive endless feed on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Look instead at whatever accounts you’re actually interested in.
Price and platforms: Free. Chrome only.
Raycast Focus Mode
Block email and distractions during short, focused, work sprints.
Price and platforms: Free. It can automatically block sites for you in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox (and related browsers modeled on WebKit, Chromium, and Firefox).
SelfControl ⏳
Pick a list of sites to block. Set a timer for deep work. While it’s active, you won’t be able to use Facebook, email, or whatever you’ve blacklisted, even if you restart your computer.
Price and platforms: SelfControl is free for Mac. It’s open-source and not fancy.
Alternative: Cold Turkey is a more polished free Windows and Mac alternative for blocking sites. The pro version costs $45 for a lifetime license ($36 for students) for advanced features like blocking applications.
Forest App
Rather than blocking sites or apps, Forest helps you avoid wasting time on your phone by rewarding you for not touching it. Your virtual trees grow until you pick up your phone. The approach seems to resonate: 60 million people have used this app. 🌳
Price and platforms: Free for iOS and Android. A paid subscription unlocks extra features.
Apple Screen Time
Set time limits on apps that tempt you to doomscroll. Count how many notifications your apps send, and see how much screen time you’re logging. The downtime feature is what I use most. It closes my apps at 11pm. I can override that when I need to. But I like that friction nudging me to stop late-night work.
Price and platforms: Free for Macs and iOS devices. Android has a related “Digital Wellbeing” feature. And Windows has focus options. There’s a related Do Not Disturb mode for Mac and iPhone.
Wonder Tools Quick Survey
Help me understand who reads Wonder Tools and what matters to you. It takes about a minute. As a thank you, you’ll get my updated list of 100+ favorite tools in an email within days of submitting it. Your responses are confidential.
Block noise 🔊
Sony Noise Cancelling Headphones
The New York City subway is painfully loud. So I splurged on these over-the-ear WH-1000XM6 headphones. (My previous XM3 pair lasted for seven years until I accidentally bent them.) The battery lasts for several weeks on a single charge.
Price: $460. The XM5 model, also excellent, is $300. Wirecutter’s review (which agrees that Sony’s XM6 model is the best) includes a $100 alternative.
MyNoise
Pick your favorite type of focus sound: a waterfall, a purring cat, white noise, rain, or a dozen others. I like the cafe, where you can adjust the ratio of chatter to kitchen noise. The creator, Stéphane, records real sounds and wrote a manifesto about avoiding AI-generated noise. The newest release: Pigeons of NYC.
Price and platforms: Free, browser-based.
Headspace
This was designed as a meditation app, but I use the focus music without lyrics to block noise around my Times Square office.
Price: $70/year or $10/year for students. Or share six accounts (family, roommates, teammates, etc.) for $100.
A Soft Murmur
Mix a range of sounds to block out city noise or whatever annoys you. Customize and save your own sound mix. Here’s my blend of waves, wind, and white noise.
Price and platforms: Free, browser-based.
Give your body a break 🧍
Wakeout
Take quick exercise breaks with short video loops showing real people doing cardio moves. I like one-minute exercises. The newest version adds little movement games. Body breaks improve my focus.
You can also use Wakeout to pick apps that pause when you’ve been sitting too long. Moving brings back access. (Manoush Zomorodi’s new Body Electric book makes an excellent case for the value of quick movement breaks.)
Price and platforms: The Chrome browser extension is free; a subscription for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch is $70/year or $13/month.
Time Out
Rest your eyes periodically if you work at a screen. I set Time Out to remind me to give my eyes a screen break every 15 minutes. You can choose your own interval. It nudges me to look out the window and stretch. It’s an old app, but it still works.
Price and platforms: Free, optional contributions of $5 to $60. Mac only.
Alternatives: BreakTimer is simple, free, and works on Mac, Windows, and Linux. Restier is a little more polished and also works across platforms; $9 for one device or $15 for two. Lookaway is an elegant Mac option that starts at $19.
Nex Playground
I spend most weekdays standing in front of my computer, so I love how the Nex gets me moving. Its 60+ motion-sensing games are played with your body, not thumbs or controllers. My daughters, wife and I have it linked to our New York City apartment TV and I appreciate how it boosts my energy for evening work. It’s also great for short breaks that reset my focus when I work from home.
Price: $300, plus an optional $89/year subscription for all 60+ games
Hold yourself accountable 🤝
Focusmate
Pair up with an accountability partner online. Pick a time on the site’s calendar when you want to get work done. Choose an interval of 25, 50, or 75 minutes. You’ll be paired with a real person who also wants to stay focused. Log in at the appointed time.
I was originally skeptical about this “body doubling” tactic. I found, though, that an appointment with another human made it feel like a special work interval. It did feel a bit silly to have to meet a random person over Zoom to trick myself into concentrating. But if that’s what works, I’ll do it on occasion.
Price and platforms: No app or download required. Works on any computer or mobile device with a camera and microphone. Free for up to three sessions a week, or $8/month billed annually for unlimited.
Stickk
Pick a goal and create your own commitment contract. You can pledge to donate to a cause you don’t support if you fail to follow through on your resolution.
Price and platforms: Web-based. No cost beyond what you decide to commit.
BeeMinder
Make commitments tied to data you sync. Works with categories like time spent on Facebook or whatever else you choose to sync from Toggl, Fitbit, or other time or health-tracking platforms. Here’s a video explainer.
Price and platforms: Web-based. Free or $8/month for extra features.
Learn new strategies 📚
Tranquility by Tuesday
My favorite book by Laura Vanderkam offers nine ways to make time for what matters. I like her suggestion about carving out a time slot toward the end of each week expressly for finishing things you’ve fallen behind on. I enjoyed talking with her about her latest book, and you can read more of her tips in her Vanderhacks Substack.
Deep Work
Cal Newport is a computer science professor and New Yorker writer who argues that computers and other devices can ruin our focus if we don’t use them thoughtfully. I found it helpful in exploring how to separate technical and menial tasks from work that requires slow, non-linear thinking.
Indistractable
Nir Eyal stuffed his excellent guide to staying focused with useful insights. It’s full of research-backed ideas for combatting internal and external distractions.
What Helps You Focus? Leave a Comment


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Today I’m sharing a guest post on how to strengthen your AI skills. It’s by Frank Andrade, an AI instructor who has helped thousands of people on Substack master ChatGPT and Claude with beginner-friendly guides and in-depth tutorials.
Frank: The gap between AI novices and experts is growing.
* One group is saving 5 minutes on emails.
* Others are running systems that work while they sleep.
The good news? You can progress faster than you might think.
The Five Stages:
* Stage 1: AI Beginner
* Stage 2: Prompt Crafter ⬅️ (where many people stall)
* Stage 3: AI Literate
* Stage 4: Workflow Builder
* Stage 5: System Builder
Regardless of which stage you’re at, the resources in each section below will help you sharpen your AI skills.
Stage 1: AI Beginner
This is where everyone starts.
You have a ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude account. You use it like a fancier Google. You ask one-off questions. Maybe you ask it to help write a quick email or generate a few images. That’s about it.
It’s useful, but it doesn’t feel like a superpower yet. Don’t worry. We’ll get there.
The first move at this stage is picking your tools.
AI tools fall into two categories:
* General-purpose: Handle multiple tasks including text and visuals
* Task-specific: Focus on a specific kind of content or media type
Frank’s Recommended Toolkit
Start Here
Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini
Worth Exploring
Gemini Notebook, Claude Cowork, and Claude Code
Specialized Tools
Gamma (presentations), Google’s Nano Banana Pro (images), ElevenLabs (audio), HeyGen (video), and Napkin (infographics)
The Big 3: Select a Starting Point
For beginners, the differences between ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude aren’t significant. Still, here are some things to keep in mind:
* ChatGPT: rich feature set, including voice and video modes and image generation
* Gemini: works well with Google Docs, Sheets, Gmail, YouTube, etc.
* Claude: strong at automation and building tools/apps; doesn’t generate photos or videos, though it does assist with design
If you’re a beginner, pick one to focus on. It’s fine to select what your company provides, what’s familiar, or one you’re curious about. Stick with it for a few weeks to see when it saves you time, how well it handles technical tasks, and where it’s most useful.
Frank’s current stack: Claude Cowork, and Claude Code for serious work, Gemini Notebook for learning, and ChatGPT for voice.
Your stack doesn’t have to look like mine. Build your own based on what you actually do.
Here are some of my resources for this exploratory stage:
* The Best AI Tools for 2026
* Your Guide to ChatGPT
* Claude for Beginners: Complete Guide
Stage 2: Prompt Crafter
When it comes to AI chatbots, how you ask is as important as what you ask.
At this stage, get to know this basic prompt structure:
* Instruction: what you want
* Context: background the AI needs to know
* Constraints: length, tone, format, things to avoid
* Example: when possible, provide an example of what “good” looks like
For more detail, refer to this robust prompt formula shared by Anthropic, which makes Claude:
You’ll rarely need to use all the elements of the formula, but it’s good to know they exist. Think of them as a menu to pick from.
At this stage, you should also know a few prompt-improvement tricks. For example, when you finally land on a great answer after a long back-and-forth, ask the AI to write the prompt that would have gotten you there on the first try.
Here are some resources for this stage:
* Prompt Formula
* Prompt Principles
Who Needs to Go Beyond Stage 2?
Stage 2 was enough in 2023.
In 2026, AI has evolved and can run multiple tasks at once on its own. There’s nothing wrong with being in stage 1 or 2 if you’re a casual user who proofreads emails and generates images once in a while
But if you want to master AI, you need more.
That’s what we’ll cover in the next stages:
* Stage 3: Develop AI literacy. Use it as a thinking partner.
* Stage 4: Build AI workflows for the work you do repeatedly.
* Stage 5: Build AI systems that run while you sleep.
Stages 3, 4, and 5 are for professionals, builders, and business leaders who want to turn AI into a competitive advantage.
Stage 3: AI Literate
Understanding how AI actually works changes how you use it.
People with AI fluency know when to trust AI outputs, when to push back, and how to frame problems to get more useful results. That’s what separates those who use AI as a novelty from those who deploy it for its practical advantages.
People at this level know these AI concepts:
* Hallucinations: AI can confidently fabricate facts, stats, and citations. Always verify outputs when accuracy matters.
* Context Window: AI assistants can remember a limited amount per conversation. Once that limit is exceeded, your AI forgets earlier context.
* AI Sycophancy: AI models are trained to be helpful, sometimes to a fault. They may validate your perspective even when you’re wrong. They rarely challenge assumptions unless prompted.
* Knowledge Cutoff Dates: Models generally have training cutoffs. That means they may not know about recent events. If an AI assistant has access to web search, it can gather new info.
* Data Bias: AI inherits biases from training data. Be cautious when using AI for decisions about sensitive topics.
* Privacy & Safety Basics: Know the data policies for your AI tool and your organization. Read about how to use private AI tools for free, and how to set up a private AI toolkit.
Having AI literacy means knowing how to manage AI limitations.
Example: Let’s say you’re a leader who wants to combat AI sycophancy to make better decisions. Create anti-sycophancy instructions that nudge an AI assistant to disagree with you constructively.
At this stage, move from “AI thinks for me” to “AI helps me think better.”
That means using AI as a sparring partner. Here are some ways to do that:
Ask AI to generate different solutions and grade them
“Generate three solutions. Score them from 1 to 10 and justify the score.”
Use AI to critique responses, opinions, plans, etc.
“Be my adversarial friend. Argue the strongest case against Option A. List five reasons why it might fail and the early warning signs. Suggest five ways to reduce those risks.”
Generate questions to refine outputs
“Before drafting anything, ask the five questions that would most alter the outcome of this memo: [1-sentence purpose].”
Resources for this stage:
* How to use AI as a thinking partner
* Before your next big decision, build this Claude skill
* Books to increase your AI literacy
* How to build your AI Mentor
Stage 4: Workflow Builder
The trick at this stage is designing your own workflows, not using more tools.
A workflow is a multi-step process where AI plays a role at each step. You might still drive it by clicking, uploading, and reviewing. But you don’t start from scratch every time.
Here’s a workflow I built:
Learn a foreign language with AI
* Step 1: I answer questions about my learning preferences, challenges, and goals
* Step 2: AI generates a “language DNA profile”
* Step 3: I record myself speaking the language for five to 10 minutes → upload the transcript + my DNA profile → AI gives feedback tailored to me
This is a workflow rather than a full automation because I still trigger each step. I generate a profile. I upload the inputs. I hit go.
Here’s how to build your own AI workflow:
* Pick one task you do repeatedly and turn it into a 3-step workflow
* Pick one or two tools to help you optimize this workflow
* Write a prompt for each step. If possible, add examples of what “good” looks like.
* Test it with a real example and iterate until the output is what you need
* Set up a Project (in ChatGPT or Claude) to keep your context, instructions, and reference files in one place
Resources for this stage:
* Claude Cowork for beginners
* Claude in Chrome
* Claude Skills: part 1, part 2
* Before you use Cowork, create this file
For most professionals, this stage is more than enough. But if you want to multiply your output without working more hours, there’s one more level.
Stage 5: AI System Builder
Stage 4 was about workflows you run. Stage 5 is about systems that run themselves.
There’s a mindset shift here.
You stop asking, “How do I do this faster?” Instead, you frame the question as, “How do I build something that does this for me, even when I’m sleeping?”
Here’s a system I recently built:
The problem: I publish daily Substack notes. Many of my notes are inspired by viral content I find on Instagram, YouTube, and X. The old process took hours every day: saving links, watching videos, downloading images, writing hooks, etc.
The system I built (simplified):
* Collection: My team and I save viral content to a shared group chat throughout the day
* Trigger: At 3 a.m., an automation kicks in (I’m sleeping)
* Processing: Claude reads the group chat, checks what’s new for today, then downloads everything (text, images, videos)
* Generation: Each piece runs through my Substack notes generator (a separate workflow that uses my brand voice and note formats)
* Output: When I wake up, I open my “Today” folder. Inside are 3 subfolders: YouTube, X, and Instagram. Each has media content + 5 draft notes ready to edit and post.
I pick one draft, edit it, and post it. What used to take two to three hours now takes minutes.
To build AI systems, you need tools that go beyond chatbots:
* Claude Cowork: My favorite for delegating things to Claude without being technical. It runs in a sandboxed environment for safety, so you may run into limitations.
* Claude Code: A more advanced version of Cowork. I use it whenever Cowork can’t build something for me. You don’t need to be a coder. You describe what you want, and it builds it. Caveat: it can feel scary at first.
* n8n: Popular no-code tool for AI agents and multi-step systems. I don’t use it, but many builders do.
Resources for this stage:
* How to set up Claude Cowork
* How and why to set up scheduled tasks
* Google Doc list of AI guides
Two Final Tips
* Don’t skip stages. AI literacy and prompting may feel boring compared with building your own app, but they make every stage above them work better.
* You don’t need to be at Stage 5 to get serious value. Many professionals get a 2x improvement just from reaching Stage 3.
Pick one stage above where you are right now and focus on it for the next few weeks. That’s how you’ll go from AI beginner to pro by the end of 2026.
Thanks to Frank Andrade for this guest post.


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Google Docs turned 20 this year, so I’m sharing 20 of my favorite GDocs features you might find useful. What are your favorites?✨
1. Type with my voice 🎙️
Tools > Voice typing
When I’m tired of typing, I dictate. I like voice typing with Google Docs to add sentences to a blank page as I think out loud. Here’s a sample of my dictated text. Read it aloud to test your voice typing. The transcription isn’t perfect, but it’s free.
2. Match a prior doc’s format 📋
File > New > Help me create > Match doc format
I can base any new doc on a prior design, like my pedagogy resources handout. This gives me a quick way to create new styled drafts. Requires Gemini to be turned on.
3. Add extensions 🧩
Extensions > Add-ons
Get apps for GDocs. I like Beep for attaching voice notes to docs. Word Cloud Generator is nice too. Here’s an example, drawn from this post. Docs to Slides by Alice Keeler is useful for converting a doc into a presentation. The Free icons extension from icons8 is useful for easily adding little visuals to a doc.
4. Add a quick link to any text 🔗
Type Command+K with any word or phrase selected
Google Docs is the most efficient tool for adding links to text. Select a word and press Command+K to choose from several relevant links without leaving the doc. It helps me avoid opening a separate tab to hunt down links. Here’s a gif showing this.
5. Quickly create a new doc ⚡
Type doc.new into any browser to quickly create a document.
This shortcut lets you jump into a new document from any browser window. It works with other Google services too: slide.new, sheet.new, form.new, site.new, cal.new, meet.new, and keep.new. It also works for notion.new, canva.new, substack.new, and playlist.new (Spotify). More examples.
6. Divide a doc into sections 🗂️
Insert > Tab
Instead of creating 20 files for a project, make a single doc your headquarters. Each topic can have its own tab. Or each team can. Share everything with one link instead of maintaining a dozen separate docs. See my tips for tabs then add your own idea in a comment. (View a published GDoc version to see the difference between shared docs and published ones).
7. Add a table of contents 🧭
Insert > Table of contents
For long documents, create a table of contents (TOC) so people can quickly find what they need. Choose the black text option for a cleaner look, if you’re printing.Add headings within the doc (Format > Paragraph styles) to ensure they appear in the TOC. Here’s step-by-step help on this if you need it.
8. Keep track of changes 🕰️
File > Version history
Version history makes it easy to see what you’ve changed, when. Or look at what collaborators have edited. See what’s new, who made an edit, and when.
9. Copy a doc 📑
File > Make a copy
Duplicate something to make a different version. Simple, easy, and fast. Sometimes I use this for version control instead of the built-in version history.
10. Download a PDF — or other formats ⬇️
File > Download > PDF Document
Sometimes I need to share a PDF so anyone can easily read my doc. Nothing fancy, but it’s been useful hundreds of times.
11. Create typing shortcuts ⌨️
Tools > preferences, then select Substitutions on the top right.
Use shorthand with GDocs for words or phrases you frequently type. List them in your preferences. For each one, pick a simple key combination of letters. From then on, any time you type those letters, they’ll expand into your desired phrase. It’s useful for your email or mailing address, or a word you often misspell.
12. Try new templates 🎨
File > New > From a Template
Start from a design instead of a blank page. Google now has more than 100 templates, including 60 in the template gallery and 40 when you choose the “from a template option” to start a new doc. The new project roadmap and onboarding templates are well-designed. The resume, letter, and proposal templates also make your words look good. Some of the other templates are a bit visually bland.
13. Design docs for the web 🖥️
Format > Switch to Pageless
Many of the docs we create never need to be printed. So GDocs now offers a pageless format for docs you’ll use on screen. It lets you include wider images and eliminates artificial page breaks. See a gif of Pageless view. Here are a few more points about this format.
14. Listen to your words 🎧
Insert > Audio Buttons
When I hear my writing read aloud, the clunky bits jump out. That helps with editing. When an AI voice reads my writing, I can look away and devote my full attention to listening. This feature lets you choose from seven synthetics voices. They don’t sound like robots. This feature requires an AI subscription or an eligible Google Workspace plan.
15. Get proofreading help 🔍
Tools > Proofread
Check for spelling or grammar errors. Get suggestions for where you might break up overly long sentences or avoid passive verbs. You accept or reject changes one by one. I like getting to decide which fixes make sense. It’s like an augmented spellcheck that requires AI settings to be turned on. See it in action on a prior draft of this post.
16. Translate your doc instantly 🌍
Tools > Translate document
Share your doc in another language. GDocs keeps your original and makes a translated copy. It’s not human quality, but it’s enough for the gist.
17. Use markdown for formatting #️⃣
Enable it under Tools > Preferences
Easily add headings, bullets, and other formatting from the keyboard with simple symbols. Use *ital* for italics or **bold** to make something bold. You can also paste markdown text from other apps with Edit > Paste from Markdown
18. See who’s viewing your doc 📊
Tools > Activity Dashboard
A dashboard you may not have noticed shows who else in your organization has viewed a doc and when. You’ll also see a chart showing when comments have been added. It requires Google Workspace, and it’s not available for solo free accounts. Adjust privacy settings to keep your activity secret.
19. Insert interactive elements 🧱
Insert > Building Blocks
Include an AI summary of your document, a decision log, a team directory, a content tracker, or other templated, editable text blocks. Or insert a linked doc that updates automatically when you update the original file.
20. Link to people, events and docs with Smart Chips 🏷️
Insert > Smart chips
Smart chips let you paste a live link into docs with a preview. Type @ and the name of a person, place, or calendar event to insert a preview that pops up when someone scrolls over the item. See Google’s help explanation.
Bonus tip: Add more fonts 🔠
Fonts > More fonts
Georgia, Raleway, Proxima Nova and Oswald look good. And they’re easy to read. But experiment with other new fonts. Use WhatTheFont to identify other fonts you see and like online.
5 ways GDocs disrupted word processing 🚀
Free. Make and store thousands of documents at no cost, with no ads.
Auto-Save. Write without fear of losing files. Work is auto-saved constantly. I remember the frustration of losing docs when Microsoft’s old Word crashed.
Accessible. Get access to your documents on any device. No need to carry disks around or have a specific device to access important files.
Collaboration. Share docs with others, or publish them. I’ve used docs to liveblog, to share examples publicly. Or work privately.
Simplicity. Just start writing. No complicated menus. It just works reliably.

See more Wonder Tools posts about Google Docs 🪎
Good alternatives to Google Docs 🔄
* Kraa is a slick text editor I like. Create simple, polished pages like this gallery, library, or archaeology article. It has new sharing features. The iOS app is coming soon.
* iA Writer offers a simple, minimalist writing view.
* Versey is a promising new option I’m testing, with AI to help with editing. Textjam and Reproof are others I’m trying, though not yet recommending.
* Superhuman Docs, formerly called Coda, is underrated. It’s an alternative to Notion that lets you incorporate AI in your workspace and connect documents to your calendar, CRM, email, and Slack.
* Craft remains one of my favorite tools for creating visual handouts.
* Scrivener helps keep long writing projects organized.
What’s your favorite Google Docs feature? Leave a comment 👇


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I’m excited to be starting a new semester this week, like millions of other teachers. As a resource for my fellow educators, I’m updating a piece I wrote for The 74, the nonprofit education news site.
The average K-12 teacher works 49 hours a week. About a quarter of that time is uncompensated. In higher ed, adjuncts make up about 40% of the faculty workforce. At many institutions, time spent on course prep and administrative tasks is unpaid. Most teachers I know didn’t become educators to spend evenings generating quiz questions, rewriting instructions, or filling out administrative paperwork.
AI assistants like Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini won’t change these realities. But when you’re overwhelmed, they can help streamline tedious tasks. They can free up energy for what only a human teacher can do. When used thoughtfully, these tools can actually push us to be more creative. They can help us overcome teaching ruts, nudging us to revitalize how we show up in the classroom.
A 60-second guide to prompting
The first step to making the most of AI is understanding how to use prompts. A prompt is a natural-language instruction to an AI assistant. It doesn’t have to include technical or formal language. You don’t even have to use full sentences.
Prompts work with any AI assistant. Use free private AI chatbots, like Proton’s Lumo or Duck AI. Or download AI apps that run on your laptop without touching the Internet, like Jan, which I tested and recommend. Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT also work well. Whatever you have access to will work.
As the teacher, you guide an AI assistant with relevant context. Prompts work best when they include specifics. Generic prompts yield generic responses.
It helps to iterate on AI output with follow-up prompts. Ask for more specificity or detail. Adapt the response for your students. Don’t use it as is. Part of retaining your agency in the process is making sure you build on whatever outputs an assistant generates. You’re the director. It’s much like adopting an open educational resource. The advantage, though, is that this material will be more tailored to your students and teaching approach.
Knowing how to use prompts effectively can mean the difference between AI that’s actually helpful and AI that’s gimmicky. The prompts below offer a creative boost. Each illustrates a practical way to use AI in support of thoughtful, pedagogically sound teaching. You don’t need any special technical skills. You don’t need paid AI subscriptions. Customize them to suit your subject matter and your approach to teaching.
Try my new free Teaching Prompt Assistant. Give it your goal and it’ll guide you quickly to a draft prompt.

Start with a project
If you want to use prompts more efficiently, first create a project in Claude or ChatGPT, or a Gemini Notebook. Think of this as a folder where you provide context about your class that an AI assistant can reference when you ask for support. You can upload past materials, syllabi, lesson plans, curriculum guidelines, Common Core State Standards, or whatever else is relevant for your teaching.
You can also add detailed instructions to the project explaining how you’d like the AI to assist you. You’re teaching it your preferences. Once you set up a project, you won’t have to repeatedly type in the same context.
The Prompt Collection
1. The Bell Ringer
Start class with a spark
The first five minutes of class set the tone for everything that follows. A short, well-designed opening activity can draw students in. Engaging openers are especially valuable on Mondays, after vacations, or when you’re pivoting to a new topic. The challenge is coming up with fresh ones regularly.
Goal: Generate five quick options for activities you can use at the start of a class session, adapted for your subject and your students.

Prompt: “I teach [subject x] to students in [grade level x]. We’re studying [specific topic xyz]. Generate five activities I can adapt to start a [xx] minute class. Each should take no more than [x] minutes, require no materials, and either activate prior knowledge or help students reflect on what they’ve just learned. Include one that’s discussion-based, one that’s written and one that’s a game or visual/creative task. [Or adapt these examples to reflect your subject matter. For example, one of the options could be a logic puzzle or an artistic challenge].”
Tip: Be as detailed as possible about your preferences. Include a sentence about your teaching style and context about your students. No need to make it formal.
See an example of a Bell Ringer Prompt
2. The Real-World Hook
Answer “Why does this matter?” before students even ask
When you’re overwhelmed by administrative meetings, multiple preps, and paperwork, it can be hard to give extra attention to helping students relate to a new unit. This prompt helps you brainstorm connections to contemporary music, art, film, TV, cultural trends or other subjects of interest to students.
Goal: Generate five ways to show your students how the topic you’re teaching is relevant to their lives, each with a two-sentence hook you can use to open discussion.

Prompt: “I’m about to begin a unit on [x topic] with [grade level x] students. [Provide a sentence of additional context and a few additional details about your students’ interests]. Generate five ways to connect this material to something students are likely to relate to. This can include sports, the arts, social media trends, pop culture, music or other contemporary issues. For each connection, suggest a two-sentence hook I can adapt to help jumpstart a class discussion.”
See an example of a Real-World Hook Prompt
3. The Bad Example Generator
Turn common mistakes into learning opportunities
Showing students examples of mistakes can help them avoid those pitfalls. But you can’t embarrass students by showing examples of their weakest work. Fortunately, AI assistants are excellent example generators. They can come up with nearly any kind of error you specify. No need to spend hours creating intentionally bad work.
Adapt this prompt to include any kind of error you want your students to avoid. These can include experimental design mishaps in science or mangled math formulas. If you’re teaching essay writing, showcase logical fallacies or ad hominem arguments.
Here’s an example of a table of common writing traps I generated.

Goal: Produce five realistic examples of a specific error type, unlabeled, so students can identify, discuss and learn from the flaws.

Prompt: “I’m teaching [x subject/topic] to [grade level x] students. [Provide an additional sentence of specific context about your class, the learning goals you’re focusing on, and/or the lesson you’re preparing.] Generate five examples of paragraphs with [ad hominem arguments / circular reasoning / weak thesis statements / misleading use of statistics / or pick any other weakness] related to [x topic]. Make sure each example is realistic. These should be the kinds of errors students at this grade level might actually make. Don’t label what’s wrong. I’ll use these for a class activity where students identify and explain the flaws themselves.”
Tip: You can also task the AI with annotating or explaining these errors to help you walk students methodically through these common flaws.
* See how a specific teacher might use the Bad Example Generator
* Try my free “Wrong On Purpose” tool to generate examples of what to avoid that you can tailor for your class. (Requires a free Claude account)
4. The Scaffolding Prompt
Make instructions clear for every student
Complex instructions often trip up students. Simplifying language can help, along with breaking guidance into smaller steps. This prompt helps you clarify instructions for an existing assignment, handout, or any other activity. It’s particularly useful if you have students with learning differences or if your class has a wide range of readiness levels.
Goal: Reframe a handout or assignment so it’s clearer and more accessible, especially for students who need extra support.

Prompt: “Here is a [handout / assignment / resource] I give students: [paste or upload it]. Help me reframe this for students who face [specific challenges or context]. I particularly want this to be more accessible for students who need extra support. Break the instructions into smaller, numbered steps. Replace any abstract language with concrete directions. Point out any parts I should clarify. Suggest a brief example for each major step and any illustrations or images that might help me make this more visually engaging. Maintain the academic expectations I have for the work.”
See an example of a Scaffolding Prompt
5. The Review Game Generator
Develop review questions efficiently
Coming up with a long list of review questions can take hours. And designing plausible wrong answers can be exhausting. An AI assistant can help, quickly turning existing handouts, lesson plans, or fact sheets into engaging questions, customized for your subject and student level. Tip: Add questions you’ve used in the past to the prompt as a model for the AI assistant to learn from.
Goal: Generate 15 multiple-choice review questions, tiered by difficulty, formatted for whatever learning game you prefer.

Prompt: “I’m finishing a unit on [x topic] with my [grade level x] students. For an upcoming review session, I’m preparing material to help students practice [a particular skill or area of knowledge]. Generate 15 questions based on the following key concepts: [list concepts or paste notes or upload a handout]. For the multiple-choice ones, include a correct answer and three plausible wrong answers. Vary the difficulty: five easy, five medium, five challenging. Flag the correct answer for each. Also suggest some true/false, fill-in-the-blank, and open-ended questions for variety.”
See an example of a Review Game Prompt
6. The Fresh Angle Search
Bring new life to familiar content
Some topics get stale, especially when you’ve taught them the same way for years. To liven up an old lesson, it can be helpful to gather new sources, examples, statistics, case studies or unexpected angles.
Use Perplexity, a free, AI-powered search engine that provides citations alongside its results. Its links ensure you have an evidence trail to verify its responses and explore the original sources. Digging into Perplexity’s concise search summary is more efficient than sorting through hundreds of Google links.
Goal: Find five recent or unexpected real-world examples of a concept you’re teaching, including perspectives from outside the U.S. and connections to students’ current interests.

Prompt: “I teach [x topic] to [grade level x] students. [Provide additional context here about the topic or learning outcomes you’re focused on]. I’m looking for interesting material [or whatever other description you prefer] to make this subject more engaging for students. [Include any additional context about your students’ interests]. Find me several recent, unexpected or counterintuitive real-world examples of [x concept] that might surprise or intrigue students. Include real-world details to help add nuance for students who think they already understand the concept. And suggest multiple new analogies I can use for students who don’t yet understand this concept. Include international examples, and at least one that has an element of humor.”
See an example of a Fresh Angle Search
7. The Skeptical Student Prompt
Prepare for the hardest questions before class starts
You never know what odd questions might arise when you teach a new topic. AI assistants can help by generating all sorts of potential questions. That prep can help you avoid unpleasant surprises in class, so you’re ready for nearly anything students might toss at you.
Goal: Generate 10 challenging questions a skeptical student might ask me about this lesson.

Prompt: “Here is a [lesson plan / reading / concept] I’m teaching: [paste or upload material, mentioning the grade level and any other relevant context]. Give me a list of potential student questions about the relevance of this new topic and about real-world applications. Also note any doubts students might have. If these students [at grade level x] are skeptical that this material is relevant, what might they wonder, and what aspects in particular might they question? Generate 10 challenging questions curious students might ask. Include ones that challenge the relevance of the topic, the reliability of my sources, and the assumptions behind my explanations.”
See an example of a Skeptical Student Prompt
8. The Blind Spot Audit
Find your own blind spots before students do
During a typical week, we don’t always have time to trade peer feedback on lesson plans or syllabi. But we can still benefit from getting input on our materials. AI assistants can critically evaluate your materials for clarity, accessibility, inclusivity, or blind spots. You always have the option of ignoring the observations. I usually like at least a couple of the proposed adjustments.
Goal: Identify specific places in my lesson plan or syllabus where I might have an unconscious bias, where my instructions may be unclear, or where my examples may not reflect the diversity of my students. Point out any unnecessary jargon and highlight assessment criteria that might be confusing.

Prompt: “Here is my [lesson plan / syllabus / unit overview]: [paste or upload document]. Take the perspective of a critic with expertise in inclusive pedagogy and student-centered design. Identify parts of my plan that may not work for students with vision, hearing, or mobility impairments. Also point out places where an unconscious bias might be influencing the way I’m presenting this topic. Point out places where examples or explanations I’ve included might not make sense to my diverse students. Show me places where my assessment criteria could be clearer. Note any other sections of the material that might not be inclusive, accessible or relatable for students. Be direct. Include the location of each issue so I can explore potential fixes. I want specific critique, not general praise. Explain each observation in detail.”
See an example of a Blind Spot Audit
9. The Differentiation Prompt
Adapt an assignment for distinct levels
In many classrooms, students arrive at varying levels of readiness. But consistently creating multiple versions of the same material can turn 40-hour weeks into 49-hour marathons. An AI assistant’s suggested adaptations can help.
Tip: make sure your differentiated materials remain anchored in your own ideas and teaching goals. There’s a risk of cognitive offloading, where you start letting the AI make decisions for you. Avoid that by treating any response you get as a preliminary thought that you shape yourself.
Goal: Produce alternative versions of an existing assignment: one with additional scaffolding, and one with stretch challenges for advanced students.

Prompt: “Here is an [assignment / assessment] I give students: [paste or upload material]. Generate two versions of this: one for students who need additional scaffolding and more explicit guidance, and one that adds stretch challenges for advanced students. Preserve the core learning objectives. Summarize the suggested changes and explain their rationale, so I can decide how to adapt these alternatives for my students.”
See an example of a Differentiation Prompt
10. The Rubric Builder
Help students understand how you’ll assess them
A well-designed rubric does two things: it clarifies your expectations before students start working, and it gives them a roadmap for revising. Developing rubrics from scratch is tedious. It requires formatting small batches of text into boxes in complex tables. This prompt generates a structured first draft in table format. You can then refine it before sharing it with students. To start, specify the elements of the student work you’ll be evaluating, and describe your criteria.
You don’t have to use full sentences or formal language. Just describe what constitutes excellence for this assignment, what satisfactory work looks like, and what evidence signals to you that a student may need more practice. Crafting these rubrics with AI assistance is an iterative process. Revise initial outputs by adding your own details and refinements.
Goal: Generate a rubric written in clear, concrete language that helps students understand how they’re going to be evaluated.

Prompt: “I’m assigning [assignment description] to [grade level x] students. [Here’s a bit of relevant context]. Generate a rubric with three performance levels: Excellent, Proficient, and Developing. (Or Superb, Good, and Needs Improvement). Include five criteria relevant to this assignment: [list criteria, e.g., use of evidence, originality, thoughtfulness, structure, and mechanics]. For each criterion and each level, write two specific sentences describing what that performance actually looks like. Avoid vague language like ‘good use of sources.’ Put this rubric into a table, then wait for my edits.”
See an example of a Rubric Builder
11. The Case Study Collaborator
Generate fictional scenarios to spice up discussions
Case studies help spark lively discussions. They’re useful whether you’re introducing students to ethical questions or trying to help students relate to a historical situation. They can also bring a business decision or scientific discovery to life. Creating cases from scratch can be grueling. So this prompt helps you build fictional but realistic scenarios customized to your subject matter and student context.
Goal: Create a fictional case study to illustrate a tension relevant to your subject, set in a context students can relate to, ending with three discussion questions.

Prompt: “I teach [x subject] to [grade level x] students. [Provide an additional sentence of context or specifics to ensure the case studies are relevant and useful.] We’re exploring [x concept or issue. Include as much detail as possible about what and how you’re approaching the topic and your learning goals]. Create a fictional but realistic case study I can use in class next week that is timely and involves [a relevant character, institution, or situation] that illustrates the tension between [value A] and [value B]. Set it in [context relevant to your students: a school, a local community, a specific industry]. Make sure the scenario is complex enough that reasonable people could disagree about what response makes the most sense. End with three discussion questions that I can adapt to push students to apply the concepts we’ve been studying.”
See an example of a Case Study Collaborator
A final thought
AI assistants have arrived at a time when teachers need support to do their best work. In a national survey by the RAND Corporation, just 24% of teachers reported being satisfied with their total weekly hours worked, and 66% said their base salary was inadequate. AI tools won’t make up for unfair compensation. But they can help us strengthen how we serve our students while we make time for the rest of our lives.
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I’ve always admired the way bestselling author A.J. Jacobs turns his life into a laboratory for testing quirky ideas. He’s written books about following every biblical law for a year, reading each entry in the encyclopedia, and thanking a thousand people responsible for his morning coffee. I consider it immersion journalism. He calls himself a human guinea pig.
So I was delighted to meet A.J. at a recent Substack event. Afterwards we spent an hour talking live on Substack about two dozen of the odd and creative tools he uses and trading ideas about our experiments. Watch the recording above, including some surprising confessions, and see a summary of the tools and links mentioned below.
Add surprise to your day
Algorithms narrow what we see and filter outliers. So A.J. seeks out serendipity.
* Wiki Roulette serves up random Wikipedia entries, while Window Swap lets him peer out of windows all over the world.
* Ground News A.J. uses this app to see how outlets across the political spectrum cover the same story. Its Blindspot feature surfaces stories covered mostly by one side. I mentioned a related newsletter, The Flip Side, which picks a daily topic and spotlights commentary from the left and right.
* Seek out surprises A.J. asked Claude for 10 articles he would probably find boring, annoying, or offensive. It surfaced one gem, about ancient Egyptians buried with golden tongues so they could speak in the afterlife.
* Try it yourself Here’s my own anti filter-bubble prompt, and the 5 odd links ChatGPT gave me in my first experiment.
* Serendipitous Reddit For stumbling onto curiosities, I’ll type a keyword into the Reddit search box. During my live chat with A.J. I found r/Whatisit, where people post photos of unidentifiable objects. The crowd figures out what they are. And r/MadeMeSmile, which is heartwarming. Try the free Random Reddit Stumbler Chrome extension to discover new Reddit communities. Caveat: You might waste time procrasti-surfing in rabbit holes.
* A.J.’s NYTimes archive trick Search the Times all the way back to 1851 for a word of your choice, then read early mentions. Searching for “dogs” led A.J. to a disturbing 1896 editorial titled “All Dogs Deserve Death” (screenshot), which argued that dogs spread disease. “It was proof that clickbait is not a totally new phenomenon,” he says. A.J.’s caveat: the archive surfaces ugly history. Searching “cocaine” turned up overtly racist reporting. Accessing the archive requires a subscription.
* Read A.J.’s take on injecting randomness into your life
Play with words
* Parseword The creator of Wordle, Josh Wardle, made this tricky new word game. A.J. describes it as an on-ramp to British cryptic crosswords, which blend wordplay with anagrams and obscure puns. “They’re infuriating,” he says, “but at the same time, very addictive.” I find this one fun but hard.
* Raddle Try this word ladder with a twist. The clues are are out of order. A.J. says he enjoys it because you can finish in two minutes. I appreciate the hints so I don’t get stuck.
* OneLook “An amazing search engine for words,” A.J. says. Type a word and get its history, related terms, definitions from numerous dictionaries, or quotes, phrases, and lyrics that use it. Or use wildcards to find words that start or end with a group of letters. OneLook scans 17 million entries in 805 dictionaries to answer queries. They also designed an amusing new word game called Cadgy.
* Anagram sites. The Word Finder and other multi-word anagram tools like Anagram Solver handle phrases, not just single words. Scrabble Solver helps you find words with your tiles.
* Droodles This playful format for minimalist drawings centers on absurd captions, as in these examples. Play by guessing the captions, or make up your own.
Wake up your senses
* The Sommelier Wine Aroma Kit by Aromaster A.J. bought is a training kit for aspiring oenophiles. It has 88 tiny bottles of individual scents, including Rose and Lemon. Horse sweat, the set’s last bottle, isn’t something you want in a wine. The kit is $400 on Amazon, but you can make a simpler one for $30. A.J. tries to identify scents for three minutes each morning to strengthen his nose for food. Smell is our least trained sense, he says.
* Use your own spice rack When my daughters were little, we’d play a guessing game, taking turns holding a spice bottle beneath our noses with our eyes closed. It entertained us in the kitchen and cost nothing.
* Vision-distorting glasses A.J. ordered 10 pairs that alter how you see. One simulates a bee’s vision. Another tries to represent macular degeneration. Some are prisms that flip the world upside down. He started this exploration after hearing that yellow-tinted glasses brighten your mood. The tint did little for him. But it made a point, he says. “What we see is a very narrow spectrum of reality.”
Watch movies better
* Audio description Most streaming apps have an accessibility feature that lets you hear a narrator describe what’s happening on screen. It’s designed for blind and low-vision viewers. A.J. isn’t vision impaired, but uses it anyway. “It’s educational,” he says. “I learn a lot from the voiceover that I didn’t know before.” Watching an Agatha Christie film, he discovered what a cloche is. And a trilby. The narration also alerted him to a novel detail: the O in the Focus Features logo is deliberately out of focus. A.J. says he admires the concise writing required to fit every word between the dialogue.
* Closed captions A simpler feature we both use. A.J. turns them on for song titles and for accents. “You’re watching Derry Girls and you have no idea what people are saying.” I started relying on captions for The Wire.
* Playback speed A.J. watches films at 1.5x or 2x speed. “I see twice as many movies,” he says. “I admit, I may get 80% as much out of them.” He knows filmmakers hate it.
* Netflix offers 1.5x, but not while casting or on the ad-supported web player
* Apple TV and Prime go to 2x
* Chrome extensions like Video Speed Controller give you finer control
* Slow motion A.J. also watches at 0.5x speed sometimes to study scene design. Dense shows like Veep need to be slowed down, he says, not sped up.
* WhenJumpScare A.J. appreciates psychological horror, but he hates jump scares. This free site tells you exactly when surprises are coming so you can look away. “I love a horror movie,” he says, “and I’m not going to watch it if I’m going to be jumping in my seat the whole time.”
* RunPee (iPhone/Android) This free app (screenshot) tells you the ideal minute to run to the bathroom during a long movie, and sums up what you missed. A.J. used it for Christopher Nolan’s nearly three-hour Odyssey.
Stretch your brain
reMarkable tablet We both own one. I use mine to sync, back up, and organize my handwritten notes. A.J. never connects his to the internet. Every morning he spends ten minutes brainstorming with it by hand.
Sometimes he flips open a magazine for an improvised prompt. He saw a snowman picture recently and started riffing: “What if it’s a snow woman? What if the pipe is a vape? What if the coal eyes are solar panels?”
“99% of these ideas are terrible,” he says. But he doesn’t mind. “If you believe the brain is a muscle, and I do believe there’s something to that metaphor, then this is like going to the gym for me.”
Add color to your space
I shared with A.J. three of the most colorful objects in my office. I have no affiliation with any of these companies. I’m just sharing what’s on my desk.
CMY Cubes A small glass cube reflects light next to my laptop. Each face has a different color. Look through it at an angle and the light refracts into new colors. Designed in Australia, the smallest cubes cost about $23. No batteries, no app. I found mine at the Toy Fair, the annual trade show at NYC’s Javits Center where thousands of toymakers show new wares.
Merge Cube A foam cube that supplements augmented reality apps. When you use a compatible app, each of the cube’s faces renders a distinct three dimensional image on your computer or phone screen. I confess, though, that sometimes I just use it as a stress ball.
T2 double-walled glass tea flask Some teas smell as good as they taste, and some have a lovely tint. I can see, smell, and savor tea with this clear flask I got as a gift. I do wonder, though, if it’ll shatter if I accidentally knock it off my desk someday.
Think with games
Brainspin I use dozens of games in my teaching, including those in my Pinterest creativity card game collection. Brainspin is the simplest. It’s a deck of two-dimensional pictograms I use as a brainstorming warm-up in the classes I teach. $25 for a set of two decks, designed by Frankie Abralind, who is now on Substack.
Bonus links for more of A.J.’s quirky takes on life
* Read A.J.’s newsletter, Experimental Living for more on his adventures.
* Watch his five TED talks for more on his unique life experiments
* Listen to his Puzzler podcast
* Check out his books, which are consistently quirky and funny
I’m looking forward to the book A.J.’s working on next, about misinformation. He’s fact-checking his own life. “How do I know the world is round?” he asks. “How do I know my wife loves me?”
What experiment are you trying these days? Leave a comment 👇
Thanks to Len Netti, Surya, Gary Rudoren, and many others for tuning into my live conversation!


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wondertools.substack.com/subscribe