AI Chat Overload: Let's Organize and Declutter our AI Chats
All chats and no order make AI a cluttered mess.
Last week, I was on the panel for an AI Ask Us Anything event, with co-hosts Jennifer Hufnagel and Charly Jarrett. Interestingly, many people asked “How can I organize my chats in ChatGPT?” That question makes sense, because if we use AI regularly, those chats build up fast.
In this article, I cover a few ways to improve your chat organization game:
🔍 Search chats
✏️ Rename chats
📌 Bookmark chats
🗑️ Delete or archive old chats
📂 Use projects
🎉 Two bonus tips
Why organize your chats?
The ChatGPT sidebar is where chats go to die. Do you need to find that brilliant idea you had last Tuesday? Good luck, because it is probably buried under a mountain of half-baked thoughts and impulse questions.
For example, I counted 22 chats from last weekend, and they had nothing to do with work. Now it is a work day, and my eyes are awash in a sea of text on the sidebar. Meanwhile, it took me a few minutes to find the chat from last Thursday that I needed to follow up on.
Here are some benefits of chat organization:
Save strategic chats you want to revisit
Organize chats related to projects
Save chats that contain your favorite prompts
The chat organization problem
ChatGPT offers a sidebar where all your chats are listed. Not to be too crass, but it is a dumping ground for your chats. You cannot move them with drag-and-drop, and no folder structure exists (well, there is one, but more on Projects later in this article.)
Search chats 🔍
Did you know you can search for specific chats? While not that advanced, ChatGPT has a search option in the sidebar. It should be easy to track down the chat you are looking for so long as you remember a few keywords.
🔥 Hot tip: When searching, ChatGPT will show you archived chats (more on that later).
Rename chats ✏️
As you can see in the following image, I have many chats with the same or similar titles. One way to make your chats stand out is to rename them. From the sidebar, hover over the chat, select the three dots (…), and then select the Rename option. If you are on a touch device like a phone, then long-press the chat button, and you can select the Rename option.
Do not freak out if the chat disappears. It did not disappear as ChatGPT moves modified chats to the top of the sidebar list. Scroll to the top of the sidebar to see the chat list and you will find your newly renamed chat.
🔥 Hot tip: Add emoji to the chat to make it stand out.
Bookmark your chats 📌
When using ChatGPT in your browser, select the chat you want to save and then use your browser’s bookmark option. The next time you choose the item in your bookmark list, the browser will open the chat within ChatGPT.
🚀 Pro Hack: Use bookmark folders for faster access.
Delete or archive old chats 🗑️
If the number of chats in your sidebar is too overwhelming, you have two options for removing them: archive and delete. Hover your mouse over the chat you want to archive or delete, select the three dots (…) and then select Archive or Delete. If you are on a touch-enabled device, long-press the chat and you will be able to select either of those options.
The 🗃️ Archive option
Let’s say you have some chats you want to save, but they aren’t so important that they should be front-and-center in the sidebar. In that case, you can archive them. ChatGPT will keep an archived chat indefinitely. However, if you are using ChatGPT at a company, they may have a retention policy that will delete archived chats.
You can find your archived chats using the search option (see the “Search chats 🔍” section earlier in this article) and manage them in ChatGPT Settings.
The 🗑️ Delete option
If you are anything like me, you probably have a lot of chats that are not worth saving. If that is the case, delete them! Be careful, because there is no “undo” option when you delete a chat. If you have ChatGPT through your company, there may be retention and data recovery options, but remember that the delete option is permanent.
Use projects 📂
Did you know you can create project folders in ChatGPT? Many features are available here, but I will focus on organizing chats for this article.
Let’s say you are working on a product launch, an article, or a new workout plan. You can create a project. Then, you can create new chats in that Project’s folder.
What is nice is the folder is collapsible, so all the related chats will not display in the sidebar. Of course, if you want to see the chats, you can expand the folder.
🔥 Hot tip: You can retroactively move chats to a project folder. Hover over the chat, select the three dots (…), select Add to project, and then select the desired project. By moving that chat to the project folder, you will see it when you expand the folder, which will be hidden when you collapse it. If you use a touch-enabled device, long-press a chat and move it to a project using a touch-enabled device.
Bonus tip #1: Use another account
As of this writing, ChatGPT offers a free version. When using ChatGPT for mundane chats, you can log in to a separate free account and have your chats there. Since you are using a secondary account, those chats never appear in the sidebar of your primary account.
Bonus Tip #2: Use temporary chats
If you create a new chat that you know is unimportant, you can use the temporary chat option. Select the Model picklist and then select the Temporary chat option. Remember that temporary chats will not use the memory feature and have other limitations. When your temporary chat is complete, turn off the Temporary chat option and that chat will disappear.
If you use a mobile device, the Temporary chat option may appear in the chat window rather than with the list of models.
Do you have any good chat organization strategies?
Do you have a chat organization tip or hack? Please drop it in the comments!