How to Stop ChatGPT from “Forgetting” What You Said

You’re halfway through a long project. ChatGPT is writing in your voice, following your outline, remembering your audience… then suddenly it answers like a stranger who just walked in. You didn’t imagine it. This “amnesia” is real, and you can beat it with a few simple habits.

Let’s break this down like two friends figuring out a system: what’s happening under the hood, how to prevent drift, and the exact prompts and workflows that keep ChatGPT focused for hours or across many days.

The short version of why this happens

• ChatGPT doesn’t have human memory. It reads from a context window (think: the last stack of pages in a chat). When that fills up, older pages fall off the back. If your crucial instructions were on page 3 and you’re now on page 50, they might no longer be visible.
• If you start a new chat, the short-term context resets. Unless you explicitly use a memory feature or re-paste your basics, you’re starting fresh.
• Conflicting instructions (“be formal” then later “be casual”) cause priority drift. The model tries to please the most recent request.