AI-Native Cheat Sheet

1. Claude Desktop and Cowork

  • Use the Claude Desktop app for macOS or Windows to access Cowork so you do not use only Claude Chat.
  • Hand off long, multi-step tasks like research, planning, coordination, and browsing with minimal supervision.
  • 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 AGENTS.MD file.

2. Tool integrations

  • Connect the tools that contain real work context you use daily to Cowork: use Connectors in settings or MCPs and plugins for more advanced integrations.
  • Good examples: Outlook, Calendar, OneDrive, SharePoint, Excel, Word, ClickUp, Teams, Figma, Canva, Salesforce, QuickBooks/Xero.
  • Set the default permission for each tool to "read-only automatically"; this way Claude can look at your data but will 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, you can also use an AGENTS.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.
  • Describe in a skill the tool usage and any other instructions that help with your repetitive work.
  • If you have done a task and it took some back-and-forth to accomplish it, ask Cowork to turn what worked and what you did into a skill.
  • There are Skills that are already built in and ready to go, like creating Word documents or building Excel spreadsheets.

4. Speech input first

  • Most people speak 3x faster than they type, so voice input saves a lot of time and energy, especially on longer prompts.
  • Use your voice input instead of typing, especially when writing 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.
  • Creative work is usually better done by humans.
  • Final review and responsibility for the outcome always stay on the human side.
  • Write down a list of recent tasks that took a lot of time and you weren't able to do using Cowork. Discuss those patterns with AI-native colleagues.