1. Claude Desktop and Cowork
-
Use the Claude Desktop app for macOS or Windows to
access Cowork, a tool for handing off long,
multi-step tasks with minimal supervision, so you do
not use only Claude Chat.
-
Hand off research, planning, coordination, and
browsing, and get results in the form of real work
that was done and reports as documents,
spreadsheets, or any other form.
-
Organize your frequent work into separate projects
with all the needed work files inside and
instructions in an CLAUDE.MD file, so Cowork always
has the right context.
2. Tool integrations
-
Connect the tools that contain your real daily work
context, like Word, Excel, Outlook, OneDrive,
ClickUp, Teams, Figma, Salesforce, or
QuickBooks/Xero using Connectors in settings.
-
Set the default permission for each tool to
"read-only automatically" - this way Claude can look
at your data but will always ask for permission to
make any changes.
-
If you use a tool often, describe how it should be
used in Settings -> Cowork -> Global Instructions or
using reusable skills. For project-specific
instructions, use an CLAUDE.MD file.
3. Reusable skills
-
Use Skills - reusable sets of instructions that are
followed on demand, so you can repeat the same task
without explaining it from scratch every time.
-
If you have done a task and it took some
back-and-forth to accomplish, ask Cowork to turn
what worked into a skill, including tool usage and
anything else that helps with repetitive work.
-
There are Skills that are already built in and ready
to go, like creating Word documents or building
Excel spreadsheets, so start with those before
writing your own.
4. Speech input first
-
Most people speak 3x faster than they type, so use
voice input instead of typing. It saves a lot of
time and energy, especially on longer prompts for
AI.
-
Occasional misrecognized words are totally fine.
Claude handles context well, and you can always fix
them before sending.
-
Smart voice tools like WisprFlow are way more
accurate than built-in dictation, work across all
your apps, and can clean up your speech into
coherent text.
5. AI-First with your final judgment
-
Mechanical and repetitive work is often a great fit
for AI, while creative work is usually better done
by humans, so split your tasks with this in mind.
-
Final review and responsibility for the outcome
always stay on the human side: check what Claude
produced before it goes anywhere important.
-
Write down a list of recent tasks that took a lot of
time and you weren't able to do using Cowork, and
discuss those patterns with AI-native colleagues.
