Claude · Work systems

Your Claude work system

Five sessions over one weekend to turn scattered context into a workspace, connected apps and one workflow you actually use.

Updated Oct 28, 2026

Before you start

Begin with the tools you already use. Bring one notes home (Notion, Obsidian or Google Drive), your everyday apps and three jobs you repeat every week.

Budget about 12 hours across a weekend. Start with the features available on your account: plans and tools have different limits.

01 Personal brief: about 2 hours
02 Organize context: about 3 hours
03 Brief your Projects: about 2 hours
04 Connect three apps: about 2 hours
05 One skill and one working tool: about 3 hours

01. Create a personal brief

Claude interviews you once, then writes a profile you can reuse everywhere. Paste the prompt below with the question bank attached (or pasted underneath).

Interview prompt

Use the 50-question bank below. Ask one question at a time, number it 1/50 onward, and wait. Allow skips; ask one follow-up when an answer is unclear. Then draft a profile under 1,200 words covering identity, work and audience, annual and 90-day goals, projects, key people, answer preferences, voice, tools, decision style and boundaries. Ask me to correct it, then produce a file I can save.

The 50-question bank

Work

01. What is your role?
02. Who benefits from your work?
03. How does a typical week run?
04. What do people seek your help with?
05. What uses most of your time?

Business

06. Where does your income come from?
07. What do you offer or sell?
08. Who is on your team?
09. Who are your main competitors?
10. What makes your offer different?

Goals

11. What must you achieve this year?
12. What matters in the next 90 days?
13. What would clear success look like?
14. What is blocking progress?
15. What would you like to stop doing?

Projects

16. Which projects are active?
17. Which one deserves priority?
18. Which deadlines are approaching?
19. What keeps getting postponed?
20. What have you recently completed?

People

21. Who are your main collaborators?
22. Who do you report to?
23. Who is your ideal customer?
24. Whose judgment do you rely on?
25. Who do you learn from?

Answer preferences

26. How much detail do you prefer?
27. Lists or connected paragraphs?
28. When should Claude clarify first?
29. How direct should feedback be?
30. What should Claude never do?

Voice

31. What should your writing sound like?
32. Which phrases do you repeat?
33. Which words should be avoided?
34. Whose writing do you admire?
35. How formal should the tone be?

Tools

36. Which apps do you use every day?
37. Where do you keep notes?
38. Where do you track tasks?
39. What work is still manual?
40. What would you most like automated?

Thinking

41. How do you make decisions?
42. When is your focus strongest?
43. What do you procrastinate on?
44. What are your main strengths?
45. Which blind spots recur?

Life

46. Where are you based?
47. Which values matter most?
48. What interests you outside work?
49. What makes a day feel successful?
50. What useful context is missing?

02. Organize your context

Keep your current notes tool. Create seven sections: Profile, Projects, Areas, Tasks, Reference docs, Inbox and Archive. Save your reviewed personal brief there and as an uploadable file.

Sort a brain dump

Sort these notes into Profile, Projects, Areas, Tasks, Reference docs, Inbox and Archive: [notes]. Use my attached profile. For projects capture name, goal, deadline, status and next action; for tasks capture task, project and due date. Flag duplicates and ask about unclear items.

Save the result and check every active project has a home. Then test retrieval: "Find my active projects and their next actions."

03. Brief your Projects

Create a chat Project for each useful work area. Add your profile and 2 to 5 relevant files, set the project instructions, then test three real tasks. Free accounts currently allow up to five Projects.

Project files are context: not every file is read in full for every answer. Save decisions explicitly. Turn on memory if it is useful and available, but keep durable notes in your own files.

Project instructions

Purpose: [work area]. Use my profile and [reference files]. Current goal: [outcome]. Active work and deadlines: [list]. Response rules: [tone, format, length]. Clarify before assuming: [topics]. Avoid: [habits]. Finish with: [acceptance check or next action].

How to create and manage Projects ↗

04. Connect three useful apps

Open Customize > Connectors, connect the apps you use and check which actions each one allows. Ask Claude to confirm before it sends, publishes, deletes or spends anything.

For an Obsidian vault or a local folder, use an approved desktop workflow or extension with explicit folder access, and keep the computer on during local work.

Email: Find unanswered messages this week; draft three replies.
Calendar: Outline my week and add a one-line brief for each meeting.
Notion / Drive: Read my project list and identify the item most at risk.
Slack: Summarize changes in [channel] since [date], with links.
Task or design app: Find this week's work or design files and group them by project.

Combine the setup: weekly plan

Using my profile and the connected calendar, email and task sources, identify next week's three priorities, likely delays and a Monday-morning plan. Name any source you could not access.

Use connectors to extend Claude ↗

05. Create one skill and one working tool

Turn on file creation in Settings > Capabilities, then open Customize > Skills. Built-in document skills run when they are relevant. For a custom skill, have Claude package the folder as a ZIP, upload it with + > Create skill > Upload a skill, turn it on and test it.

Pick one workflow: weekly review, content planner, client onboarding pack, spreadsheet dashboard or inbox triage. Use it once, fix one issue and set a calendar reminder. A recurring prompt on its own does not schedule a run.

Create the skill

Design a skill for [weekly job]. Interview me about inputs, steps, good examples, quality checks and mistakes. Draft it for review and package it for upload.

Build the workflow

Build the smallest useful [tool] for [user]. Turn [inputs] into [outputs], using my profile and available apps. Show me how to run it; after my test, improve one weak point.

Use skills in Claude ↗

10 prompts that keep it useful

Morning brief

Read today's calendar, email and tasks. Pick three priorities, the preparation needed and one task to drop.

Weekly review

Compare plans with outcomes. Explain delays, flag next week's risks and propose project-status updates for my approval.

Voice match

Use my profile to write [piece] for [audience]. Flag any line that does not match my style.

Decision partner

Ask five questions about [decision], one at a time. Recommend a choice, its strongest objection and what would change it.

Notes to plan

Turn [notes] into one goal, 3-5 milestones, a first action and a target date for each milestone.

Meeting prep

Use available sources to brief me on [meeting]: background, likely goals on both sides and three questions to ask.

Practical lesson

Teach the essentials of [topic] through my work examples, then test my understanding with three questions.

Automation audit

Find five recurring jobs from my profile and recent work. Suggest a prompt, skill or connector for each.

Useful critique

Review [draft]. Identify its three largest weaknesses and give a concrete improvement for each.

Context refresh

Find stale, missing or conflicting details in my profile and notes. Ask me about them before drafting an updated version.

When something goes wrong

Generic answers: Add the right profile, files and one good example.
Lost context: Save decisions; review memory settings and scope.
Project drift: Remove outdated or irrelevant reference files.
Connector fails: Check access, chat enablement and supported actions.
Too much autonomy: Require approval for consequential changes.
Skill does not run: Name it explicitly and sharpen its trigger description.
Tutorial overload: Stop reading and do the next practical step.
Too many prototypes: Finish one workflow and use it for a week.

Maintenance rhythm

Daily, 5 min: Morning brief and Inbox capture.
Weekly, 30 min: Review work and sort the Inbox.
Monthly, 1 hour: Refresh context and prune files.

You're ready when

Profile reviewed and saved
Memory preference checked
Knowledge home organized and accessible
Projects briefed
Three real tasks tested
Three apps checked
Custom skill tested
One workflow used
Next use is in your calendar