1. Say the shape out loud

Models default to their house style: friendly paragraphs, medium length, often more than you wanted. Every part of that is controllable, but only if you say it: 'exactly three bullets', 'one paragraph, no list', 'a two-column table: risk, mitigation', 'subject line plus five sentences'.

Think about where the output is going. Text pasted into a slide, a ticket, a contract redline and a text message have different natural shapes. Name the destination and the shape follows.

2. Numbers hold better than adjectives

'Short' means nothing precise; '120 words or fewer' means one thing. 'A few options' invites five; 'exactly three, one sentence each' lands. When length or count matters, use numbers, and when a hard cap matters, say it is a hard cap.

The same goes for structure: 'start with the answer in one sentence, then give reasoning' beats 'be direct'. Behavior you can count is behavior you can specify.

3. Define done

The strongest format instruction is a definition of done: what must be true of the output for it to be finished? 'Done means: a customer can follow these steps without asking support anything.' 'Done means: every claim has a source or is labeled an assumption.'

Definitions of done catch what templates miss, because they describe quality, not just layout. They also give you a clean way to reject: 'not done, two claims are unlabeled'.

4. Templates: write it once, reuse forever

If you ask for the same shape weekly, stop describing it and start providing it: a template with headers and placeholders the model fills. 'Use exactly this structure: SITUATION / OPTIONS (max 3, with trade-offs) / RECOMMENDATION / RISKS.'

Templates are the bridge from prompting to systems: they turn taste into an artifact you can reuse, share and improve, the same idea a profile applies to your identity.