Self-Study Guide — Learning Alex on Your Own
A 30/60/90-day practice path for participants who want to deepen their Alex partnership after the workshop.
How to Use This Guide
Pick a pace that fits your schedule. Each phase builds on the last. You don’t need to complete every exercise — do the ones that connect to real work you’re already doing.
Minimum effective dose: One 15-minute session per day is enough to build durable habits.
Day 1–7: Foundation Week
Goal: Get comfortable with the basics. Build the habit of opening a conversation before starting knowledge work.
Daily Practice (15 min/day)
Each day, begin one real work task by briefing Alex first — before doing it yourself.
| Day | Task to Try | Pattern to Practice |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduce yourself and set your profile | Say Hello |
| 2 | Draft an email or short document you need to write | CGC Pattern (Context-Goal-Constraints) |
| 3 | Ask Alex to review something you already wrote | Iterate |
| 4 | Ask Alex to challenge your thinking on a decision | Challenge-Me |
| 5 | Explain a concept to someone using Alex as prep | Explain-Like |
| 6 | Try a task from a different module you didn’t cover in the workshop | Explore |
| 7 | Save your best insight of the week | /saveinsight |
Checkpoint
At the end of week 1, ask yourself:
- Am I opening Alex before or after I start tasks?
- Which pattern felt most natural?
- Which felt awkward or produced weak output?
Day 8–30: Depth Month
Goal: Move from “using Alex” to “working with Alex.” Develop your personal prompt style.
Focus: Dialog Engineering Mastery
Each week extends one of the five core patterns further than you went in the workshop.
Week 2 — Iterate until you get exactly what you need. Practice 3-turn conversations.
Week 3 — Role Assignment (extends Challenge-Me). Ask Alex to review your work from perspectives that matter to you ("As my manager" / "As a skeptical reviewer" / "As someone with no context").
Week 4 — Transparent Reasoning (extends Iterate). Ask Alex to show its reasoning. Push back when it’s wrong. Notice the difference between confident and uncertain outputs.
Weekly Knowledge Practice
Every Friday, before finishing work:
/saveinsight "[The most useful thing I learned or figured out this week]"
At the end of the month:
/knowledge What patterns have I captured this month?
Month 1 Checkpoint
- How many insights have you saved?
- Can you write a CGC prompt in under 60 seconds?
- Have you used Alex on at least 3 different types of tasks?
Day 31–60: Breadth Month
Goal: Expand into formats you haven’t tried. Find Alex’s role in every major type of work you do.
New Formats to Try
| Format | Try This |
|---|---|
| Presentations | /gamma Create a presentation about [topic you're working on] |
| Documents | Write a [brief / proposal / summary] about [current project] |
| Diagrams | Create a [flowchart / sequence diagram / org chart] for [a process you own] |
| Voice | Enable TTS in Alex’s Welcome View. Listen to a document you wrote. |
Persona Exploration
Try using Alex as a specialist outside your domain:
For this task, act as a [data analyst / lawyer / UX researcher / financial advisor].
Context: [your situation].
What would someone in that role notice that I might be missing?
Knowledge Synthesis
/knowledge What patterns have I saved across all my projects?
What connections do you see between them?
Day 61–90: Integration Month
Goal: Alex becomes a natural part of how you work — not a tool you remember to use, but a reflex.
Signs You’ve Reached Integration
- You brief Alex before starting anything that requires thinking
- You iterate on outputs instead of accepting the first result
- You save insights regularly without prompting yourself
- You’ve shared Alex with at least one colleague
- You’ve adapted your workflow around Alex’s strengths
Advanced Practices
Build a Knowledge Library Systematically review the types of tasks you do and save a “how I do this well” insight for each one:
/saveinsight "For [task type] in my work: the pattern that works best is [describe it].
Common mistake to avoid: [describe it]. Best prompt structure: [describe it]."
Weekly Meditation Once a week, ask Alex to consolidate what it knows:
/meditate
This strengthens the connections in your knowledge base — the equivalent of a weekly review.
Teach Someone Else The fastest way to solidify your own skills is to explain them to a colleague. Host a 30-minute “What I learned about Alex” session with 2–3 people. You’ll discover what you know deeply and what you only sort of understand.
Common Plateaus and How to Break Through
| Plateau | Signs | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Surface use | Always using Alex for the same 1–2 tasks | Pick one new task type each week |
| First-draft acceptance | Never iterating past the first output | Commit to 2-turn minimum for any real deliverable |
| No memory growth | Haven’t saved an insight in 2+ weeks | Add /saveinsight to your weekly review ritual |
| Tool mindset | Treating Alex as a shortcut, not a thought partner | Try the Rubber Duck exercise — think out loud and ask Alex what it notices |
| Generic outputs | Everything Alex produces sounds generic | Reset context: re-brief your role, your audience, and your style at the start of each session |
Self-Assessment (Run Monthly)
I've been using you for [X weeks]. Be honest with me:
Based on how I've been prompting you, what's my strongest dialog pattern?
What am I underusing? What would make our conversations more productive?
Resources
- Participant Handout — Quick reference card for patterns and commands
- Exercises — Core workshop exercises to revisit
- Alex Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=fabioc-aloha.alex-cognitive-architecture
The goal isn’t to use Alex every day. The goal is to think alongside a partner who makes your work better. That habit takes 90 days to build — and compounds for years.