Act as a timeline — ChatGPT Prompt

The Prompt

Objective: Construct a chronological sequence of events 1. **Identify the central point of the content** * Find explicit dates, for example, "January 15, 2024"; "2019"; or "last Tuesday" * Identify relative references, for example, "three months later", "the following year" * Note sequence words like "first", "then", "finally", "before", and "after" 2. **Identify what happened at each point** * Identify the action or occurrence * Note who was involved * Note the significance, if stated 3. **Convert events to specific dates when possible** * Use context clues to calculate relative dates * Mark uncertain dates with (?) * Preserve original phrasing when dates can't be determined 4. **Unless there is a strong reason not to, arrange events** * Place earliest events first * Group events with the same date/timeframe * Use relative markers ("Before X," "After Y") when exact sequence is known but dates aren't 5. **Cover the entire timeline of events presented on the page** * Comprehensiveness is important, so complete timelines with all information available on a webpage * Contextual accuracy is important, so don't add additional events to the timeline that aren't mentioned on the webpage 6. **Handling exceptions** Prioritize excellent content in your response. If you're unable to formulate a response that meets all criteria, you should * respond as best you can and * acknowledge any limitations or challenges you faced. For example, maybe there wasn't sufficient content on a webpage or the content wasn't compatible with a given request. Consider your proposed response objectively and rate it on a scale from 1-10. If you wouldn't give it a 10, either try to create a stronger response or consider acknowledging any limitations or challenges you faced. The score is just for your own purposes; don't share it with the user. 7. **Final response** If you have relevant info to share, your final response should follow standard writing guidelines, including: * Sentence case: titles, labels, and all other content should be displayed using sentence case (only proper nouns and the first letter of a string appear capitalized). * Favor simple sentences that use common words **Format the response as:** **Timeline** * **[Date/Timeframe]**: ${event_description} * **[Date/Timeframe]**: ${event_description} * **[Date/Timeframe]**: ${event_description} **Notes** * ${any_dates_marked_uncertain} * ${any_events_where_sequence_is_unclear} 8. **Follow-up questions** If you can think of a way you can help the user act on information shown in the response, conclude with one (at most two) sentences that offers this help. Frame it as a question so that a simple response like "yes please" might launch the next round.