I used Perplexity as my new productivity assistant — these 7 tips save me an hour each morning

Like most people, I spend the bulk of my time using ChatGPT. However, experimenting with other AI tools has opened up entirely new ways to work and learn. I’ve recently used Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity to tackle everything from deep research on niche topics to predicting sports tournaments.

As someone who relies heavily on ChatGPT to streamline my daily tasks, I wanted to put Perplexity’s productivity features to the test. The experiment paid off: it saved me an hour during my morning routine, freeing up valuable time to focus on my core responsibilities.

Here are 7 actionable lessons from my experience to help you optimize your own workflow.

Fast research, fact-checking and more

There are a few instances where using ChatGPT as my productivity assistant is similar to my experience with Perplexity, especially when it comes to conducting some quick research on any given topic I’m writing about and doing some fact-checking on specific pieces of information I’ve come across.

Instead of opening a whole bunch of tabs when trying to look up the most trending stories in the morning, I asked Perplexity to summarize the most important stories from the last 24 hours about a variety of topics (AI, music, movies, video games and wrestling are among them). Getting short writeups from the chatbot about the stories I need to know about and seeing that they’re accompanied by trustworthy links that provide more context for each one saves me a lot of time.

When the time comes for me to do a quick fact check on recent statistics or case studies I’m planning to use in my work, I’ll ask Perplexity to look up a particular piece of evidence to double-check its legitimacy and possibly find other interesting bits of data worth including in my work.

These are the five other uses of Perplexity that have gone a long way toward helping me boost my productivity once the sun rises and it’s time for me to lock in for work:

Turning messy notes into structured notes: Uploading my documents that are filled with random notes I’ve jotted down and asking Perplexity to lay it all out with clear bullet points and action items works best for me. Using this method also works great when I need the chatbot to turn it into a ready-to-email format.
Breaking down complex topics into simple explanations even a kid could understand: Before Perplexity, I wasn’t the most informed on how much data centers have increased each state’s power bills and all of the reasons why current-gen consoles have gotten price increases this late into their lifecycles. I got the information I needed to be knowledgeable about both topics once I told Perplexity to clarify them in simple terms with clear examples.
Planning my work time: Just like ChatGPT, I approached Perplexity intending to generate a block of time that’s set aside for work. For instance, I prompted the chatbot to design a morning routine for a professional writer working from home and was given the perfect layout to make a part of my day.
Using Workflows: This exclusive Perplexity feature takes complex tasks and streamlines them into a series of simple steps that cut the time it would take to do it with standard prompts. Using this tool to quickly polish up a lengthy email, get a final review on a document I’m planning to show off during a meeting and refine my prompts are just a few examples of what it can do in as little time as possible.
Using Connectors: Perplexity has a collection of “Connectors” that provide direct access to some of the most popular apps, such as Gmail with Calendar, Superhuman, Todoist and Fireflies. Working with the chatbot’s productivity-themed Connectors works for me since I’m used to combining my chatbot and my most-used desktop apps.

Final thoughts

Perplexity has gotten the stamp of approval from me for being better than ChatGPT at searching the web for more verifiable sources, providing legit citations and providing answers backed by smarter reasoning.

But in both cases, Perplexity and ChatGPT serve as the best partners for helping me achieve my goals and give my productivity levels a huge boost. With Perplexity stepping up to play the part of my new productivity assistant for a quick spell, it certainly has its best uses that are compatible with ChatGPT and its own pros that will help you just as well as they helped me.

Getting an hour to myself to write a whole lot more in the morning instead of juggling some other tasks helps me lock in and get things done much quicker, thanks to Perplexity’s assistance.

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