Netflix has thousands of videos in its mammoth streaming catalog. Yet, picking just the right show for a given night isn’t the chillaxing experience it should be. Indeed, the busy Netflix interface frequently pushes the same recommendations over and over, leaving the false impression that instead of having heaps of videos to choose from, you have just a dozen or so. But once you know what you’re doing, you can take a deep dive into Netflix’s collection of movies and TV episodes, slicing and dicing its categories to pinpoint the perfect video for the moment. You can also help Netflix make better guesses at what you’ll like. Finally, you can easily save your picks for later, making it easy to fire up a favorite flick with a minimum of fuss. Filter by genre We all know the feeling of scrolling aimlessly through one Netflix category after another, from “Reality TV” and “TV Dramas” to “Thrillers” and “Suspenseful Movies.” If you’d rather not just passively browse through the categories that Netflix chooses to serve up, try this. Click “Genres” to see a list of Netflix genres to browse.Ben Patterson/Foundry If you’re accessing Netflix on the web, click either TV Shows or Movies at the top of the Netflix homepage. Once you do, a Genres pull-down menu will appear. The process varies for other platforms; on iOS, for example, you can tap Categories on the Netflix home screen. Clicking or tapping the Genres or Categories button will reveal a selection of about 20 genres, from “Action” and “Documentaries” for movies and “Anime” and “Stand-Up & Talk Shows” on the TV side. Further reading: Don’t miss our in-depth reviews of the best media streamers. Browse more refined categories Browsing Netflix’s genres is a good first step toward finding the perfect video, but the categories listed in the genres menu are much more broad than the sliced-and-diced collections listed in the main Netflix interface. What if you’re in the mood for, say, a spy movie, a western, a classic musical, or a sports drama? There’s a way to pick and choose between dozens of niche Netflix categories, but it requires a little legwork. On your desktop, browse to Netflix-Codes.com. No, we’re not talking discount codes here; instead, the site lists scores of codes that you can paste into a Netflix URL. Just plug in the code (or, even easier, just right-click the code on the webpage) to jump any number of laser-focused Netflix categories, from “Comic book and superhero movies” and “Film noir” to “Deep sea horror movies” (seriously) and “Food & travel shows.” It’s a great way to uncover some of Netflix’s hidden gems. In the mood for a western? Netflix-Codes.com makes it easy to browse Netflix’s impressive collection of that and other niche categories.Ben Patterson/Foundry Filter by year The vast majority of shows and movies that appear on the Netflix homepage hail from the past five years or so. If you want to see something from the 1990s or earlier, you’ll need to dig. And while you can sort Netflix’s listings by year from the desktop Netflix interface (click TV Shows or Movies, click the grid icon in the upper-right corner, and then select Year Released from the drop-down), you’ll need to scroll and scroll to get past the 2010s—and no, you can’t reverse sort by year. Reelgood lets you filter Netflix search results by year, perfect for finding classic movies or TV shows.Ben Patterson/Foundry Luckily, there are plenty of third-party options to help you zero in on classic movies and TV shows. Reelgood, for example, boasts sliders that let you filter Netflix search results according to year. Just start browsing for movies or TV shows, click the Filter button, then adjust the “release year” slider. You can also filter by user and IMDb ratings while you’re at it. Reelgood isn’t the only service that will let you filter Netflix’s catalog by year; JustWatch is another option, as is Trakt. Rate as many videos as you can Netflix can have some strange ideas about the videos it thinks you’ll want to watch, but you can help nudge its algorithms in the right direction. You can review, change, or even wipe the ratings that you’ve assigned to Netflix videos.Ben Patterson/Foundry Whenever you can, be sure to click one of the thumbs–either thumbs down, thumbs up, or two thumbs up–on the title page of a Netflix video. The more movies and TV shows you rate, the better Netflix’s recommendations will become. Don’t be afraid to rate a video you haven’t seen; if, say, torture movies aren’t your bag, just click thumbs-down on sight. You can also review all your previous ratings, which is handy if you’ve changed your mind about a given title. In a web browser, hover your mouse over your profile icon in the top-right corner of the Netflix homepage, click Account, Profiles, select your own Netflix profile, then click Viewing Activity (don’t forget to click the Ratings tab at the top). Once there, you can click another thumb to change an old rating, or click the currently selected thumb to wipe the rating completely. Find related videos One of the easiest ways to find a movie or a TV show you’ll like is by checking the related videos of your favorites. Depending on your platform, however, Netflix does a spotty job of recommending movies and shows based on the videos you’re browsing. The “More Like This” section can be essential for finding your next Netflix video, provided you’re on the right platform.Ben Patterson/Foundry The Netflix on my Apple TV, for example, doesn’t show related videos at all, while the Netflix iOS app has a “More Like This” section prominently placed on the title page of a video. If your Netflix app of choice isn’t serving up related video, just visit Netflix on your desktop, hover over a title, click the down-arrow that appears on the bottom, and then click More Like This. Rediscover your queue So, you’ve found some Netflix videos you’re dying to watch. Now what? Well, those of us who were loyal Netflix-by-mail subscribers will remember the vaunted Netflix queue, a place where we carefully curated the list of scores or even hundreds of movies and shows we wanted to watch. As it began its slow shift away from DVDs and toward streaming, Netflix seemingly tired of the queue, eventually renaming it “My List” and shuffling it into a hard-to-find row in the main interface. Netflix only offers limited options for managing your queue.Ben Patterson/Foundry While the queue—er, My List—eventually found its way back to the main Netflix UI, it lost much of its functionality along the way. On a desktop browser, you can’t rearrange your queue at all, while on the iOS version of Netflix, you get some basic filters (TV shows, movies, “started,” and “haven’t watched”) and sorting options (like alphabetically, date added to list, release date, or “top matches” according to Netflix), and that’s it. If you really want to take charge of your Netflix queue, you’re probably better off ditching it in favor of one of the third-party services we mentioned previously, like Reelgood, JustWatch, or Trakt. 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If you’ve spent any amount of time using ChatGPT, you already know that it often requires lengthy explanations, prompt tweaks, and/or extra context to get it doing what you actually meant. Often, but not always. ChatGPT is capable of performing useful tasks with single, one-line prompts. When worded correctly, ChatGPT will perform the following tasks without hesitation, without extra context, and without issue. Further reading: 9 mundane chores ChatGPT can handle in seconds, saving you hours Get meal ideas from available ingredients Dave Parrack / Foundry Most of us endure busy working lives these days, which leaves little time for doing much of anything else—and that can include grocery shopping for the ingredients needed for home-cooked meals. Thankfully, if you ever find yourself with a small set of ingredients and no idea what to make with them, ChatGPT can help. Just list the staple (and otherwise) ingredients you have available and ask ChatGPT for some meal ideas using them. As an example, I asked, “What meals can I make with rice, eggs, and frozen mixed vegetables?” ChatGPT suggested egg fried rice, a vegetable rice omelet, and baked egg fried rice muffins, among others. Pretty nifty in a pinch. Troubleshoot your problems Dave Parrack / Foundry When something goes wrong, your first instinct might be to panic or shut down—but maybe it should be to ask ChatGPT for help instead. ChatGPT can provide troubleshooting help whenever you’re stuck dealing with an unknown or unexpected issue. Just ask ChatGPT to provide a list of troubleshooting steps for whatever has gone wrong. In my case, I’ve asked what I can do about a Windows laptop that has stopped working—my short prompt of “Please list some troubleshooting steps for a Windows laptop that has stopped working” resulted in a solid list of 10 things I could try. This is equally useful for all kinds of other problems, like if your toilet randomly flushes on its own every so often, if your car starts making a weird noise, or if your wireless router is on the fritz. Just make sure you never share sensitive personal data with ChatGPT! Create tailor-made workout routines Dave Parrack / Foundry While YouTube remains an option when looking for a workout routine, ChatGPT can provide you with ones that are as general or as specific as you need them to be. Want exercises for people your age? Or stretches for an aching lower back? Or simple workouts you can do at home without any equiment? Ones you can do at your desk? No worries! I personally asked ChatGPT, “Please create a short workout routine a 40-year-old can do in their lounge.” (I’m a bit older than 40, but what better way to stay young than to work out as a younger person would?) ChatGPT came through for me with a 20-minute low-impact workout routine that I found challenging but doable. It’s one of the many ways you can use ChatGPT to actually improve your life. Generate comprehensive checklists Dave Parrack / Foundry Checklists are so useful for when you absolutely don’t want to forget an important step, like when you’re packing for vacation, hosting a party, or spring cleaning your home. ChatGPT can help by creating checklists for lots of different scenarios—and for best results, you’ll want to include specific details to clue ChatGPT into your specific needs. I asked ChatGPT to “Please provide me with a checklist for packing for a vacation to Italy in September.” Note that I mentioned both the location and time of year I was visiting! The more context you can provide in your prompt, the more accurate and helpful the checklist will be. Explain concepts (like I’m 5) Dave Parrack / Foundry With a single, one-line prompt, ChatGPT can explain even the most complex concepts in a way that you can grasp. Want to understand nuclear fission? Or how EV batteries work? Or what kind of engineering goes into modern data centers? Just ask! But make sure to tack on the “like I’m 5” to your prompt—taken from the ELI5 trope on Reddit—so that ChatGPT dumbs down the subject enough to be digestible no matter your background. As an example, I asked ChatGPT to explain the concept of time travel like I’m 5. (Feel free to change the age or add any other qualifiers you want.) Summarize online articles Dave Parrack / Foundry Do you feel like you’re inundated with so much information that you just can’t keep up or absorb it all? You aren’t alone. There are billions of web pages out there—no one has the time or energy to read every single thing that catches their eye. Thankfully, ChatGPT can help by analyzing any online article and spitting out the most important bits. In the example above, I asked ChatGPT to summarize my own article about mundane tasks ChatGPT can handle for you—and it accurately broke it down, correctly citing PCWorld as the source throughout. In testing, I found that ChatGPT sometimes even pulls info from other sources to fill in details and provide more context. See what happened on a day in history Dave Parrack / Foundry It’s important to not only know what has happened in the past, but to understand why those things happened. You could work your way through encyclopedias and history books, spending years of your life absorbing facts and putting them together… or you could put ChatGPT to work and get it to do all the heavy lifting for you. With a simple prompt, ChatGPT can list all the major historical events that have happened on a particular day. You can ask about a specific day in a specific year, or the same particular day throughout the years. If the response stokes your interest, you can follow up with probing queries and learn more. But for many, the initial one-line prompt should suffice. Answer simple trivia questions Dave Parrack / Foundry If you’re anything like me, you frequently come across questions to which you don’t know their answers. Not to worry! You can just ask ChatGPT to answer those questions for you, pronto. I’m talking about questions with definitive answers, such as trivia. Who won a certain sports tournament in a given year? What year was a certain music album released? Which mountain is the tallest in the world? That sort of thing. Any question with an open-ended answer, or one with multiple potential answers, could complicate matters. Learn a new word every day Dave Parrack / Foundry I love learning something new every day, whether it’s practical and purposeful or gimmicky and trivial. One thing that blends both ends of the spectrum is the concept of a “word of the day”—and ChatGPT can provide you with a new word every day via a one-line prompt. Just input, “Please provide a word of the day for today.” ChatGPT will then provide a word along with its meaning, origin, and an example of it used in a sentence. It will then ask if you’d like a different word each day from then on, saving you from ever having to ask again. Combine tasks like this with ChatGPT’s nifty “scheduled tasks” feature to boost your productivity and save lots of time! Translate words or simple phrases Dave Parrack / Foundry If you’re traveling abroad, you should try to learn some of the local language. Sure, most people around the world speak enough English to get by, but that’s no excuse for being lazy! Pick a few choice words or phrases and learn how to say them in the language of the country you’re visiting—and that’s something ChatGPT can help you with. To be clear, ChatGPT is more than capable of translating longer phrases and even whole articles, documents, and publications. However, once you enter that kind of territory, you’re leaving the “one-line prompt” zone and will need to write prompts that are more complex. Convert units of measurement Dave Parrack / Foundry As a kid, I never imagined how often I would need to convert one type of unit into another—but as an adult, I’m doing it far too often. While Google and other tools do a decent job of converting all types of units, I’ve actually found ChatGPT more capable. In this example, I asked ChatGPT to “convert 100 centimeters into feet and inches.” It converted 100 centimeters into both feet and inches along with its reasoning. You’ll be pleased to know that the math checks out! Further reading: 9 mundane chores ChatGPT can handle in seconds, saving you hours Read...

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