The setup that matters more than any prompt you’ll ever paste. Most people skip a couple of these and then wonder why Claude feels flat.
If you’re new to Claude, the way you set it up matters way more than any prompt or skill you ever use.
Most people open a browser tab, type a question, get a decent answer, and go… okay, cool, that’s ChatGPT with a different logo. Then they close it and never really use it again.
The five things below are the difference between that experience and the version where Claude actually knows you, knows your business, and reaches into the real work sitting on your computer. All five take one afternoon. None of them are hard. The trick is knowing they exist and knowing what to put in each one.
Go in order. Don’t skip Step 1…
Step 1. Get the desktop app.
If you take one thing away from this whole guide, take this one.
The browser version of Claude is a chatbot. The desktop app is an assistant. The difference is that the app can actually see the files on your computer, open apps, work with your real stuff. The browser can’t. You paste everything in every time.
That single change is the reason Claude starts feeling like it lives in your workflow instead of visiting once in a while.
Do it right now:
- Go to claude.com/download and grab the version for your machine (Mac, Windows, or Linux).
- Open the file, follow the little installer.
- Open Claude from your Applications folder on a Mac, or the Start menu on Windows.
- Sign in with the same account you use in the browser. Done.
From this second forward, do your work in the app. Not the browser. This one move is the single biggest upgrade on the list.
Step 2. Fill out your personal instructions.
This is where you tell Claude who you are, one time. It carries that into every chat forever. You stop repeating yourself. You stop starting every conversation with a paragraph of context.
Where it lives:
- Click your profile icon (bottom-left corner) → Settings.
- Find the box labeled “What preferences should Claude consider in responses?”
- Paste the template below, edit it to be about you, hit Save.
That’s your instructions. They load into every new chat before you type a single word.
The mistake almost everyone makes: writing only what they want Claude to do, and forgetting to write what they want Claude to stop doing. That’s where the real personality shift happens.
Tell it: no em dashes. Don’t hype me. Push back if I’m wrong instead of agreeing. Keep answers under 150 words unless I ask for depth. Never invent numbers or sources. Those kinds of rules do more than any “be helpful” line ever will.
Paste this in and edit:
Who I am:
- Name and what I do: [your role / business]
- What I usually come to you for: [e.g. write content, plan my week, analyze data, handle email, think through decisions]
- Who I serve, if relevant: [your audience or clients]
How I want you to work with me:
- Be direct. Give me your real take, and push back when I'm wrong instead of just agreeing.
- Match my voice: [describe it in 3-5 words, e.g. warm, plain-spoken, a little bold, no jargon]
- When something's ambiguous, ask me one clarifying question before you guess.
- Show your reasoning briefly when it matters, but lead with the answer.
Hard rules (things to always or never do):
- No em dashes. Ellipses if you need a pause.
- No hype words: "unlock," "elevate," "game-changer," "revolutionize."
- Keep answers tight. Don't pad. Under 150 words unless I ask for depth.
- Never invent facts, numbers, quotes, or sources. If you're not sure, say so.
- [add your own: tone rules, formatting rules, words you never use]
Context you should remember about me:
- [your work history, current focus, ongoing projects, tools you use daily, anything you'd otherwise re-explain every chat]If you do nothing else on this list, this one alone changes every conversation you have from here on out.
Step 3. Connect your tools.
Connectors are how Claude reaches into apps you already use… Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar, Notion, and about 40 others. Instead of pasting your calendar into a chat, you say “what’s on my schedule tomorrow” and Claude just knows.
How to add one:
- In the desktop app, look at the left sidebar. Click Customize, then Connectors.
- Click the + button at the top.
- Find the tool you want, click Connect.
- A sign-in window from that app opens (Google, Notion, whoever). Choose your account, click Allow.
- Done. It’s connected.
To actually use one in a chat: click the + in the bottom-left of the message box, hover over Connectors, switch on the ones you want for that conversation. Then just ask normally. “Find the invoice email from Sarah and pull the amount.” “Check my calendar for Thursday and tell me where the gaps are.”
Where to start: Gmail and Google Drive. Those two alone will save you hours in week one.
Do this safely. You sign in through each app’s own login… Claude never sees your password. You can disconnect any tool in one click, anytime. Claude can read your Gmail and draft replies, but it cannot send them for you. You always hit send yourself. That’s the safety line.
Skip anything tied to money or private client data until you’re comfortable with the pattern. Come back to those later.
Step 4. Learn to switch models.
Claude isn’t one model. It’s a small family, and picking the right one makes a real difference. Most people never touch this and burn their monthly limit on the biggest model doing tiny tasks.
Where: click the model name at the top of any chat (or under the message box on a new one) and pick a different one. You can switch mid-conversation. It kicks in on the next reply.
The rule of thumb, in plain language:
- Opus is the heavyweight. Use it for the hardest, highest-stakes work. Strategy calls. Deep analysis. A pricing decision. A hard email. Anything where being wrong actually costs you.
- Sonnet is your everyday default. Fast, sharp, handles most of what you throw at it.
- Haiku is the speed pick. Use it for quick lookups, reformatting, one-line answers, things where you just need it done in seconds.
The names change every few months as Anthropic ships new versions. The rule doesn’t. Heaviest model for hard things. Lightest for quick things. That’s it.
Most people leave it on the default and never think about it. Just knowing you can switch puts you ahead.
Step 5. Create one project.
Projects keep a whole area of your work in one place. Files stay there. Instructions stay there. Every chat inside the project already knows your setup.
How:
- Click Projects in the left sidebar, then New project in the top-right.
- Fill in “What are you working on?” (the project name, like “My Business” or “Client X”) and a short line for “What are you trying to achieve?” Click Create project.
- Click Set project instructions. Type the background Claude should always know for this project. Save.
- Click + to add files. Upload the documents you’d hand a new assistant on day one. Start with just two or three… don’t go overboard.
- Start a chat inside the project. It already knows.
What to put in your first project: whatever part of your life or work you carry the most mental load for. If you’re an entrepreneur, make it your business. If you’re job hunting, make it that. If you’re planning a wedding, make it that.
The whole point is that you stop being the sole keeper of the context. The project holds it. Every chat inside it starts already knowing.
Once you’re comfortable, spin up a second project. Then a third. One for each big area of your life. Each one stays its own world.
The order to do them in
Not all in one sitting.
Today: Steps 1 and 2. Get the app. Fill out your instructions. That’s an hour, tops.
Tomorrow: Step 3. Connect two tools you use every day.
This weekend: Steps 4 and 5. Learn the model switch. Build your first project.
Five days, five moves. By the end of the week, Claude will feel like a different product than the one you’re using today. That’s not because Claude changed. It’s because you gave it what it needs to actually be useful to you.
If you only do one thing
Do Step 2. Fill out your instructions. It’s the one move on this list that upgrades every future chat you’ll ever have without any other change. Ten minutes of setup. Compounds forever.
Prompts and skills are what you do after this. These five are the foundation that makes all of that work.