I miss nap time.
A long time ago (this is back with dinosaurs because according to my kid, that’s how old I am) the teacher would announce: “Nap time!”
We’d all grab our blankets and favorite stuffed animal and curl up under our desks for a good 30 to 45 minute nap.
It was glorious.
Do you still take naps? Maybe not with a stuffed animal (no judgment from me), but do you still take them?
How do you feel when you wake up?
Usually it’s pretty awesome.
Here’s why you feel so good. That nap reduces adenosine buildup (that nasty chemical that causes fatigue). But it also activates something called default mode network (DMN) activity. That’s your brain’s “daydreaming” mode, and it’s linked to creativity.
When you nap, you’re disconnecting your brain from focused goal-driven thinking. So when you wake up, your brain’s creative ability is recharged and it can make new connections and come up with original ideas better.
Pretty awesome, huh?
Want to know something else?
Just like a 5-year-old kid who needs a nap, AI also gets tired and needs a nap.
You can usually spot a tired AI when you’re asking for long-form content with sections. Anything that’s long and has sections, like blog posts, documents, presentations, or other types of long-form content, can suffer from this problem.
What you’ll notice is short sections. Maybe you think that’s normal, but it’s actually not. It’s a sign of a tired AI.
So how can you fix it?
Easy. Use the outline-first hack to get the AI to first create an outline for your long-form content. Then prompt it, one prompt at a time, to write each section.
The difference is night and day.
Let me show you how it works.
How it Works: The Outline-First Prompting Approach
This technique is very easy to use.
Step 1: Ask the AI for an Outline
Start by asking the AI to create an outline for the content you need. You can even tell it which sections you want covered.
But here’s the magical keyword: “outline.”
You’ve got to tell the AI that you want an outline, not the final content.
Create an outline for a lead magnet: ‘The Complete Marketing Consultant’s Proposal Framework.’ Structure: 1) Why most proposals fail (common mistakes), 2) The proposal structure that wins (section-by-section), 3) Writing each section (with examples and formulas), 4) Pricing strategy (how to present investment), 5) Terms and expectations (managing scope), 6) Follow-up strategy (after sending), 7) Bonus: Email templates for proposal delivery.
Step 2: Have the AI take a Nap
Now this might sound confusing to you (but not if you took my iterative prompting lesson).
Since we didn’t ask for the final output (just an outline), we’re basically giving the AI time to take a nap before writing each section.
It’s that simple.
You don’t need to do anything special to let the AI “nap.” Just don’t ask for the entire long-form output all at once.
Make sense?
Alright, nap time’s over. Let’s have the AI write a section of the outline now.
Step 3: Ask the AI to write a Section of the Outline
Now that the AI is done with its nap, ask it to write just one section of the outline. Start with the first section, obviously. After it writes that first section, move onto the second one, and so on.
Remember, just also one section at a time, otherwise it will get tired and the output will suffer.
Write the content for section 1.
You can also give more detail if you want. It’s totally up to what you need.
Now write section 1: Why most proposals fail. Include specific before/after examples showing common mistakes versus what actually wins clients.
Now what you’ll see from the AI in response to asking just for a section written at a time is much higher quality output.
Step 4+: Ask the AI to Write Another Section of the Outline
Now just repeat this section-by-section writing for as many sections as you have.
By separating the writing of each section into separate prompts, you’re basically giving the AI naps in between writing.
Example of Outline-First Prompting
I’m going to share with you two examples.
The first example is without using this technique. This’ll establish a baseline and show you an example of how the AI needs a nap.
Then we’ll implement the technique. You’ll see how much longer, more in-depth, and higher quality the output is after that nap.
1. Without Outline-First Prompting
AI Prompt
Create a patient education blog post: ‘Understanding and Managing Type 2 Diabetes.’ Include: 1) What’s happening in your body (simple explanation), 2) Risk factors you can control, 3) Daily management strategies (diet, exercise, monitoring), 4) Medication facts, 5) When to call your doctor, 6) Myths debunked.
AI Response
Understanding and Managing Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is one of the most common chronic conditions worldwide—but with the right knowledge and daily habits, it’s also one of the most manageable. This guide will help you understand what’s happening in your body, how to take charge of your health, and when to reach out for help.
1. What’s Happening in Your Body
When you eat, your body breaks down most foods into glucose (sugar), which enters your bloodstream. Your pancreas makes a hormone called insulin, which helps move that sugar from your blood into your cells to be used for energy.
In Type 2 diabetes, your body either:
– Doesn’t make enough insulin, or
– Can’t use insulin effectively (a problem called insulin resistance).
As a result, glucose builds up in your blood instead of fueling your cells. Over time, high blood sugar can damage your blood vessels, heart, eyes, kidneys, and nerves.
2. Risk Factors You Can Control
While some risk factors—like age or family history—can’t be changed, many can. Focus on what you can control:
– Excess body weight, especially around the waist
– Unhealthy eating habits (high in refined carbs, sugary drinks, or processed foods)
– Physical inactivity
– High blood pressure or cholesterol
– Smoking
– Chronic stress or poor sleep
Small lifestyle changes can make a big difference in lowering your risk or managing diabetes effectively.
….
[rest of the article]
For brevity’s sake, I didn’t include what the AI wrote after section 2.
But look at the output for both section 1 and 2.
What do you think?
I mean, it doesn’t look bad. But we don’t have anything to really compare it to.
So let’s try the outline-first approach now. We’ll give the AI time for a nap between writing each section and see if there’s a difference.
2. With Outline-First Prompting
AI Prompt
Create a detailed outline for a patient education blog post: ‘Understanding and Managing Type 2 Diabetes.’ Include: 1) What’s happening in your body (simple explanation), 2) Risk factors you can control, 3) Daily management strategies (diet, exercise, monitoring), 4) Medication facts, 5) When to call your doctor, 6) Myths debunked.
AI Response
Understanding and Managing Type 2 Diabetes
Introduction
– Brief overview: What Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) is and why understanding it matters.
– Reassuring tone: Managing diabetes is possible — with the right knowledge and daily habits, you can live a full, healthy life.
– Quick preview: What readers will learn in this post (body changes, risk factors, management, medication, when to seek help, myths).
1. What’s Happening in Your Body
– Simple explanation of blood sugar and insulin
a. How the body normally uses glucose for energy.
b. The role of insulin as a “key” that helps glucose enter cells.
– What changes in Type 2 Diabetes
a. The body becomes insulin resistant — insulin doesn’t work as well.
b. Over time, the pancreas can’t make enough insulin to keep blood sugar normal.
– Result: Blood sugar levels rise, which can damage blood vessels, nerves, and organs if not controlled.
– Visual idea (optional): Simple diagram showing glucose-insulin interaction and resistance.
2. Risk Factors You Can Control
– Weight: Carrying extra weight, especially around the waist, increases insulin resistance.
– Physical inactivity: Muscles that don’t move much use less glucose, raising blood sugar.
– Unhealthy eating habits: Diets high in sugary drinks, refined carbs, and processed foods.
– Smoking: Raises blood sugar and increases heart disease risk.
– Stress and poor sleep: Affect hormones that control glucose levels.
– Takeaway: You can’t change age or family history, but you can make lifestyle changes to lower risk and improve control.
So that’s our outline.
Now let’s give the AI our next prompt which tells it to write the first section.
AI Prompt
Now write the first section: What’s Happening in Your Body
AI Response
1. What’s Happening in Your Body
When you have Type 2 diabetes, your body has trouble using sugar (glucose) — your main source of energy — the way it should. To understand what’s going on, it helps to know how things work when everything is in balance.
How It Normally Works
After you eat, your body breaks food down into glucose, which travels through your bloodstream. Your pancreas — a small organ behind your stomach — releases a hormone called insulin.
Insulin acts like a key, unlocking your cells so glucose can move from your blood into your muscles and tissues, where it’s used for energy.
What Changes With Type 2 Diabetes
In Type 2 diabetes, two things start to go wrong:
– Insulin resistance: Your body’s cells stop responding properly to insulin. It’s as if the “locks” on the cells have become rusty and don’t open as easily for glucose.
– Less insulin production: Over time, your pancreas gets tired from working extra hard and can’t keep up with your body’s insulin needs.
Because of these two issues, glucose stays in your bloodstream instead of entering your cells. This leads to high blood sugar levels (hyperglycemia).
Why High Blood Sugar Matters
Too much sugar in your blood can slowly damage your:
– Blood vessels, increasing your risk for heart attack and stroke.
– Nerves, causing numbness or tingling, especially in your hands and feet.
Eyes and kidneys, leading to vision and kidney problems over time
The good news? With the right lifestyle changes, medications, and monitoring, you can help your body use insulin better and keep your blood sugar in a healthy range — preventing or delaying these complications.
Now look at that! The output from the AI is much more extensive when we had it outline-first, take a nap, then attack each outline section individually.
Caution: The Outline-First Technique Makes Content LONGER
Now there’s something you need to keep in mind when you’re using the outline-first technique: when you ask AI to write a single section at a time, it pumps out WAY more content than if you’d written everything at once.
This is awesome when you’re building a detailed guide or an in-depth blog post. Situations where you actually want tons of content.
But it becomes a problem with short-form stuff.
Think emails, social media posts, or quick updates.
Long story short, this technique isn’t designed for every situation.
Advantages of the Outline-First Technique
- Gives You Structural Control Before You Invest Time: You can review and approve the outline in 30 seconds. This ensures the flow makes sense before you spend 20 minutes writing content you’ll have to restructure later.
- Produces Deeper, More Comprehensive Content: When you need substantial detail (like case studies, training docs, or strategy memos), this technique generates the thorough coverage that one-shot prompts consistently skip over.
- Eliminates “The Middle Is a Mess” Problem: Long-form content written in one shot often loses coherence halfway through. Breaking it into sections keeps each part focused and logically connected to the whole.
- Creates Reusable Content Frameworks: Once you have an outline that works (like a proposal structure or case study template), you can reuse it repeatedly. Just change some of the details to suit the next situation.
- Reduces Editing Time on Complex Content: It’s infinitely faster to fix a 10-point outline than to untangle and rewrite 2,000 words of disorganized content that went off the rails.