How to categorize a list of ANYTHING with one prompt
With one powerful and adaptable prompt, take a list of content and break it down with the help of AI.
There’s something satisfying about turning a long list of things into a bunch of smaller lists of things. Whether you’re a creative juggling dozens of ideas or a product manager sifting through feedback, taking a list of data or ideas and categorizing it gets easier with AI. Below, you’ll see how one prompt can take on categorization for you, and save you a ton of mental capacity.
Takeaways:
You can use an AI assistant to group content such as post topics, product ideas, or feedback
Have the AI provide its own list of categories or use a list you provide
Why categorizing with AI is beneficial
No one wakes up excited to manually group 100 blog posts. Using AI for categorization tasks means taking something tedious — a one-by-one exercise — and breezing through it in a fraction of the time. Manually, it might take 1-2 hours to categorize 100 blog post ideas, or leads, or manuscript edits. But with AI? Make it five minutes.
19 categorization tasks you can tackle
The beauty of the below prompt lies in its adaptability. Here’s a (starter) list of 19 tasks that can be categorized using one basic structure:
Blog posts by topic
Product features by priority
Customer feedback by sentiment
Client testimonials by sentiment
Manuscript revisions by type
Books by genre
Emails by urgency
Sales leads by potential
Video content by type (tutorial, review, etc.)
Social media posts by engagement level
Tasks by urgency
Songs by album
Feature requests by complexity
Literary magazines by genre
Literary agents by genre
Courses by difficulty level
Tweets by theme or topic
Research papers by relevance
Recipes by difficulty
Whether you provide your own categories or let the AI create them for you, the flexibility here is unmatched. The AI adapts to the data you’re providing, giving you endless possibilities for organization.
The prompt
Here’s where the magic happens in one prompt. Keep reading for 1) a breakdown of how this prompt works and 2) how to use your own pre-determined categories.
Prompt:
I want you to help me group a list of [TYPE] into categories. I will provide you with a list of items, and you must group these into categories. Please provide the data back to me in a table format with one column for the “[TYPE]” and one for “Category”.
The names of the categories are entirely up to you, but they should be worded in a plain-spoken way. Make sure there is a minimum of {MINIMUM} categories and a maximum of {MAXIMUM} categories.
MINIMUM = [4]
MAXIMUM = [6]
-- List of items START --
[Add your list of items to rank]
--List of items END --Breaking down the prompt
The prompt above consists of four main parts:
The [TYPE] Input: This is where you define what type of list you’re working with (e.g. blog posts, product features, customer feedback). This helps frame the AI’s knowledge of your specific data set.
Category boundaries: The flexibility in specifying a minimum and maximum number of categories (e.g. between 4 and 6) allows you to control the level of granularity. Fewer categories might work best for a high-level overview, while more categories provide greater detail.
Defining categories: The prompt asks the AI to suggest the names of categories (and to make them simple and accessible). This ensures the results are intuitive, whether for your own use or when sharing with others.
Define table output: This part defines how the categorized list should be returned.
With this breakdown, the AI will take your list, come up with its own category names, and categorize everything into a neat table.
If you’d like to provide your own list of categories…
If you’d like things categorized according to a pre-provided set of categories (rather than the AI creating them for you), that’s easily done. Replace the following section of the prompt:
The names of the categories are entirely up to you, but they should be worded in a plain-spoken way. Make sure there is a minimum of {MINIMUM} categories and a maximum of {MAXIMUM} categories.
MINIMUM = [4]
MAXIMUM = [6]With this instead:
The names of the categories are provided below.
-- My categories START --
[Add your list of items to rank]
-- My categories END --Six practical examples
Get up and running quickly with some common categorization tasks (full prompts provided below).
Blog posts by category
Use this to organize large content libraries by topic or theme.
I want you to help me group a list of BLOG POSTS into categories. I will provide you with a list of items, and you must group these into categories. Please provide the data back to me in a table format with one column for the “BLOG POST” and one for “category.”
The names of the categories are entirely up to you, but they should be worded in a plain-spoken way. Make sure there is a minimum of {MINIMUM} categories and a maximum of {MAXIMUM} categories.
MINIMUM = 4
MAXIMUM = 6
List of items START -
[Add the list of BLOG POSTS here]
List of items END -Customer feedback by sentiment
Ideal for quickly identifying positive, neutral, or negative customer experiences.
I want you to help me group a list of FEEDBACK into categories. I will provide you with a list of items, and you must group these into categories. Please provide the data back to me in a table format with one column for the “FEEDBACK” and one for “category.”
The names of the categories are entirely up to you, but they should be worded in a plain-spoken way. Make sure there is a minimum of {MINIMUM} categories and a maximum of {MAXIMUM} categories.
MINIMUM = 4
MAXIMUM = 6
List of items START -
[Add the list of FEEDBACK here]
List of items END -Manuscript revisions by type
Streamline the edits to a draft of fiction or non-fiction, categorizing edits to make them more manageable (and pull out trends).
I want you to help me group a list of MANUSCRIPT EDITS into categories. I will provide you with a list of items, and you must group these into categories. Please provide the data back to me in a table format with one column for the “MANUSCRIPT EDITS” and one for “category.”
The names of the categories are entirely up to you, but they should be worded in a plain-spoken way. Make sure there is a minimum of {MINIMUM} categories and a maximum of {MAXIMUM} categories.
MINIMUM = 4
MAXIMUM = 6
List of items START -
[Add the list of MANUSCRIPT EDITS here]
List of items END -Product ideas by feature
Streamline product development by grouping features into categories or tiers.
I want you to help me group a list of PRODUCT IDEAS into categories. I will provide you with a list of items, and you must group these into categories. Please provide the data back to me in a table format with one column for the “FEATURE IDEA” and one for “category.”
The names of the categories are entirely up to you, but they should be worded in a plain-spoken way. Make sure there is a minimum of {MINIMUM} categories and a maximum of {MAXIMUM} categories.
MINIMUM = 4
MAXIMUM = 6
List of items START -
[Add the list of FEATURE IDEAS here]
List of items END -Social posts by theme
Use this to group a large number of social posts into different themes (use for keyword and hashtag brainstorms, as well as content scheduling).
I want you to help me group a list of SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS into categories. I will provide you with a list of items, and you must group these into categories. Please provide the data back to me in a table format with one column for the “SOCIAL MEDIA POST” and one for “category.”
The names of the categories are entirely up to you, but they should be worded in a plain-spoken way. Make sure there is a minimum of {MINIMUM} categories and a maximum of {MAXIMUM} categories.
MINIMUM = 4
MAXIMUM = 6
List of items START -
[Add the list of SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS here]
List of items END -Literary magazines by genre
Looking for the right places to pitch your writing? Use this to break down literary magazines (best when given name and magazine blurbs).
I want you to help me group a list of LITERARY MAGAZINES into categories. I will provide you with a list of items, and you must group these into categories. Please provide the data back to me in a table format with one column for the “LITERARY MAGAZINE” and one for “category.”
The names of the categories are entirely up to you, but they should be worded in a plain-spoken way. Make sure there is a minimum of {MINIMUM} categories and a maximum of {MAXIMUM} categories.
MINIMUM = 4
MAXIMUM = 6
List of items START -
[Add the list of LITERARY MAGAZINES, including mag name and blurb/tagline]
List of items END -There’s something magical about the simplicity of a single prompt. It’s powerful with a list of 20 items, but even more so when you’ve got 40, 50, or 100 things on your list. It's an easy (and easily overlooked) way of getting AI to do some heavy lifting.
Sub-prompts
Here is one sub-prompt that you can use to develop deeper context for this post.
Sub-prompt 1: Brainstorm a list of content AI can categorize
I am a {PROFESSION}, and I need your help brainstorming a list of the different types of content that can be categorized using AI. The content should vary across different industries, formats, and use cases, and should be flexible enough to demonstrate the adaptability of AI in organizing information.
PROFESSION = "[Author, marketer, musician]"
The final list should include a wide range of ideas such as:
* Text-based content (e.g., articles, blog posts, reports)
* Media content (e.g., videos, images, audio files)
* Business-related data (e.g., tasks, projects, client feedback)
* Personal content (e.g., to-do lists, event schedules, hobbies)
* Industry-specific content (e.g., marketing, finance, tech, education)
* Make sure the list is diverse, covering simple and complex categories.
The goal is to showcase how AI can be used to quickly categorize any type of information. Please organize the brainstormed content into clear examples, and feel free to add your own ideas as well.