Get More Done

Lately, I've been relying more and more on AI, specifically ChatGPT, to help me in certain situations. I've been dabbling in ChatGPT since it came out but nothing serious. However, recently, I've found a way to use ChatGPT to make my life less stressful. The benefits are real, and I love it.

Part of my job entails either writing proposals to customers or writing scopes of work to specialized subcontractors to issue purchase order (PO) agreements for different projects that I'm working on. Writing technical proposals and detailed scopes of work is vital but time-consuming and mentally draining, and that's on top of whatever else I have scheduled to get done that day. Out of sheer luck or desperation one day, I had an epiphany of seeing what ChatGPT could do for me. The results were mindblowing. I gave it a prompt and after a couple of iterations--it was better than anything I could have put together. I was just elated and have been using it ever since. One day recently, I used ChatGPT twice on the same day.

First, I used it to write a scope of work that included objectives, safety, quality control, dates, and deliverables for the inspection of water and fire suppression leaks in a building. I wrote a prompt tht said, "Write a scope of work for water and fire

suppression system," and that was it. What ChatGPT spit out was gold. Second, I used ChatGPT to help me write a proposal.Again, wonderfulness. It eloquently and concisely detailed a proposal. I simply entered a few prompts stating what needed to be in the proposal like a geotechnical investigation that included "soft digging", a CCTV inspection of roof drains, leaders, and sewer and stormwater lines, a water sampling investigation, etc. And what would have taken me over three hours collectively ended up taking me just around 45 minutes. That's huge but especially when considering the time saved, deadlines, workloads, mental fatigue, stress, and--icing on the cake--looking like a star to your boss, who then signs off on the proposal with only a couple of minor corrections before being emailed to the customer. It's worth noting that POs that include SoW to subcontractors, although important, aren't as heavily scrutinized as proposals to customers are, so I just issued that SoW to the subcontractor to help them develop their proposal and included the SoW as part of a contractually binding PO agreement.

Below is a screenshot example of what ChatGPT created for a scope of work that saved me time and hassle.