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Set Up Claude Cowork better than 99% of people — Transcript

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0:00So, 2 months ago, I downloaded Claude
0:02Cowork to my Mac and stared a blank
0:05screen for about 10 minutes [music]
0:06before closing it. I had no idea what to
0:09do with it. Today, it reads my email,
0:12manages my calendar, writes in my voice,
0:14and connects to my Notion workspace
0:16[music] and second brain. It can create
0:19PowerPoint presentations, clean up my
0:21desktop, and code entire websites for
0:23me. And with the release of scheduled
0:25tasks in Cowork, it even works for me
0:29while I sleep. The difference? Seven
0:31steps. And I'm going to show you exactly
0:34what each one is. Trust me, by the end
0:36of this video, you'll be ahead of 99% of
0:39people using Claude and Cowork on their
0:42Mac. And it's only really a morning's
0:44work. No code, no tech background
0:47needed. If you can install an app and
0:49type a sentence, you can do this. Trust
0:51me, you have to try it. Even if you've
0:53never touched an AI tool, I don't know
0:55how to emphasize this enough. You will
0:57have a fully working assistant by lunch.
1:00And that safety question everyone has,
1:02well, should I really let AI touch my
1:04stuff? I'll answer that too, properly,
1:07so you can trust it. I can't believe I'm
1:10just telling everyone this for free.
1:11Once you've watched this video, if you'd
1:13like to have a fully ready-made version
1:16of a Cowork OS system that basically
1:19does all of this and more for you and
1:21onboards you, leading you through the
1:23process, I've been developing my Cowork
1:26OS templated system. It's going to build
1:29out the entire system for you with all
1:32the folders, [music]
1:33plugins, and skills. I've created an
1:36onboarding coach, a system review, and
1:38first week guide, and it literally
1:40onboards you to Claude Cowork at a level
1:42[music]
1:43that I'm going to teach you how to do
1:44here and more. And I've designed what
1:47I'm calling my flagship feature, a
1:49system review that will help you improve
1:52Claude Cowork automatically using the
1:56system. So, if you want to fast track to
1:58your best Claude co-work experience,
2:01make sure you go and download co-work
2:03OS. If you're watching this in the first
2:05couple of weeks of release, click that
2:06link below and you'll get early bird
2:08access to the templated system from me.
2:11And otherwise, well, you can probably
2:13just download it now if you turn up a
2:14bit later. Enjoy.
2:16>> [music]
2:17>> Step one, before you do anything else,
2:20you'll need to get co-work onto your
2:22Mac, or rather, the Claude desktop app.
2:24So, you're going to go to
2:25claude.com/download
2:29and then you're going to click whichever
2:30you're using. I'm a Mac user, so that's
2:32what I'm demoing. Download the Mac app,
2:34drag it onto applications, and open it.
2:36That's it. Simple as that. And you'll
2:39see something like this. You need to
2:41sign up to a Claude account. If you
2:43haven't, it's free, but I actually
2:45recommend picking the pro plan, which is
2:48£15 in the UK a month, and that's a
2:52fantastic option. I'm actually paying
2:54this max, and I have to say it's the
2:57best investment I've made this month. By
2:59far, it has 10x'd, or at least 5x'd, the
3:02work I've got done. So, it genuinely is
3:05a very, very good bet. And what you're
3:07going to end up with when you're loaded
3:09up and have your account is something
3:10looking a bit like this. You'll see
3:11there is the chat feature. Now, you're
3:13probably used to seeing this if you've
3:15used any LLM, and you'll have your
3:17projects if you already have a Claude
3:19account, which you can work with here.
3:20This is what I did years ago online, and
3:22all of my old systems are here. But,
3:24we're not going to worry about that.
3:26We're going to go into the co-work tab.
3:28And of course, you have a very pleasing,
3:30easy-to-use interface with Claude code
3:33if you want it. Now, for those of you
3:35that don't know, Claude co-work is
3:37designed for your work. It works on your
3:40computer in a folder, or in your
3:42folders, and it's actually a wrapper
3:44which is using the Claude code base
3:46model. Now, the first thing you should
3:48do once you get into here is set it up
3:50in a folder. So, we're going to select a
3:53folder to put it in. This is my current
3:55one. I've just got it in users and I've
3:57called it Claude Co-work. But, we're
3:59going to choose a different folder.
4:00We're going to go to documents and I'm
4:03going to create a new folder here and
4:04call it
4:07Claude Co-work demo cuz I'm going to
4:09show you how to set this up again. So,
4:10let's create that. There you go and open
4:12it. And I'm going to allow. Now, that
4:15means that Claude can only work in that
4:17folder. Now, you should think of this
4:19folder as your shared work space with
4:21Claude. Everything you want Claude to do
4:23in Co-work goes in here. Everything you
4:25don't stays outside. And that goes for
4:28what it can see as well. The next thing
4:30I think you should do is click here and
4:33select the model you want to work with.
4:35I recommend turning on extended
4:36thinking. Sonnet is good for most tasks.
4:39Opus is absolutely incredible and super
4:42powerful, but it will burn through more
4:44tokens. I'm on a max plan though and
4:46I've been absolutely rinsing it and it's
4:48absolutely fine. So, depending on what
4:50you choose to pay, it's worth playing
4:51with this cuz it is amazing at doing a
4:53lot of different tasks. But, yeah, this
4:55for faster quick answers. I recommend
4:57Sonnet to get started. Opus if you want
4:59to do more ambitious projects as it says
5:01here. We'll talk about the scheduled
5:03task later cuz you got to stick around
5:05for that cuz it's probably the best
5:06thing. But, there's a lot more we need
5:08to do before this truly becomes a
5:10personal assistant and it's very easy to
5:12do. Before we move to step two though,
5:14let's try a simple task to demo Claude
5:17Co-work in action. And what I'm going to
5:19do is I'm actually going to break my
5:21rule immediately. I'm going to go to
5:24desktop and I'm going to allow that.
5:26Okay. Hey, Claude, I'd like you to go
5:28ahead and clean up my desktop or
5:30downloads files. Organize them into
5:33folders by category and rename anything
5:35that might need a better description. If
5:37it looks like I've already named it the
5:39file, leave it named as it is. And there
5:41you go. And actually, I'm just going to
5:43say desktop.
5:45Make sure you don't touch or do anything
5:47to the Claude co-work demo folder. Now,
5:50I could set this going
5:53and it's going to ask, are you
5:55absolutely sure you want to do that? I'm
5:57going to say allow. Actually, before you
5:59do anything, don't mess with anything
6:01that's already within a folder, only
6:03files that are on the desktop.
6:06I'm just going to clean that up, so it
6:08definitely doesn't mess with things. So,
6:10as you can see, you can also add a
6:12little extra comment in the queue and
6:14when it's ready to read it, it will also
6:15make sure it checks that. So, it should
6:17leave everything that's in folders as
6:19they are and then just clean up these
6:21files for me. Got it. Only loose files
6:24leaving existing folders
6:26there.
6:27And here we go. Here's what it sees,
6:30screenshots, screen recordings, FigJam
6:32PDF exports, documents. I'll also clean
6:36up these items. Now, as Claude works,
6:39you'll see you have this progress view
6:40on the right-hand side and you can see
6:43the tasks it set itself. So, it's really
6:45amazing. This is Opus giving itself a
6:48set of tasks and working through it. A
6:50really nice thing to do when you're
6:51using it is just open this up and see
6:53what it's doing. You'll see it's going
6:55through its list, following certain bits
6:57of information, and that can be a really
6:59nice way to work out how it's working.
7:02You'll also see instructions that it's
7:04read. It's got a Claude MD instruction
7:06file that's on the desktop with nothing
7:09in it and we'll get round to that in a
7:11moment and then context. This will show
7:13you any tools it's referenced which
7:14we'll get on to in a little bit. Now, if
7:16you're unsure about something like this,
7:18are you sure you want it to delete
7:19something? Well, first of all, great,
7:21it's checking, but you can also go,
7:24"What files are you asking to delete,
7:26please?"
7:29And I can just reply to it like that.
7:31And there you go. It's really simple.
7:33You don't have to agree to anything you
7:34don't want and immediately everything
7:36cleaned up, labeled, and renamed as
7:39needed. So, these reference PDFs have
7:42been adapted and dropped in. Fantastic.
7:45The other thing I truly recommend using
7:47something like this is get yourself a
7:49voice transcription or dictation or
7:52interface. I use WhisperFlow. I've
7:54linked it below and you'll see why cuz
7:56it just saves so much [music] time. So,
7:57there you go. That is what Claude can
7:59do. It can interact with your computer.
8:01But right now, CoWork doesn't know
8:03anything about you or how you work. It's
8:06just a blank slate. Step [music] two is
8:09where the real setup starts.
8:12Step two is [music] write some global
8:14instructions. This is the single most
8:16important thing you'll do in the whole
8:18setup and it's really easy to miss.
8:21CoWork has a settings area down here. If
8:23you click on your name and go to
8:25settings, you'll see a a bunch of
8:28settings and you can look through these
8:29and we'll get into these in a moment.
8:31But this is where you can write global
8:32instructions. So, if you did it here,
8:34this would be instructions for
8:35everything you do across chat, CoWork,
8:38and code and you can absolutely do that,
8:41but I recommend potentially having one
8:43set of instructions for CoWork. So, you
8:45click on the CoWork tab, go to global
8:47instructions, and we're going to click
8:48edit, and we can create instructions in
8:51here. Now, these are rules that it reads
8:54at the start of every conversation.
8:57Think of it like handling a new
8:58assistant a manual on their first day.
9:01And this is simply called a Claude.md
9:04file. Essentially, a markdown file, a
9:06simple text file that can be at a system
9:09level and you can then add it to any
9:11folder to give that folder its own
9:14specific instructions as well. So, you
9:16can either write your own or you could
9:17get Claude to help you. So,
9:20let's do this.
9:22Hi Claude, I'd like to create some
9:23global system instructions for you that
9:26you read every time you work with me, no
9:29matter what folder within this main
9:30folder you are working within. Could you
9:32suggest what a solid system instruction
9:35would be?
9:36Now, here's what I would want to put
9:39into it. I'd like to include in this a
9:41couple of suggestions, who I am, like my
9:44job, that I'm a non-tech user, and so
9:47I'd like you to always talk to me in
9:49non-technical language and explain
9:51things as you go, so I never get
9:52overwhelmed by technical information.
9:54I'm a content creator and theater
9:56director.
9:58Speak to me in plain English, never
10:00jargon. Be direct, don't over-explain.
10:03If you can just do the thing, do it. So,
10:05share with it also what you need help
10:06with. I work with email, Notion, Google
10:09Drive, and content creation. My
10:11preference is a British spelling, warm
10:13but direct tone, challenge me if there's
10:15a better way. Let's add some safety
10:17rules, never delete, send, or publish
10:19anything without first checking with me.
10:21And any other recommendations you had
10:22for a really solid system instructions.
10:25I would also add that I want you to be
10:27honest with me. If you think there is a
10:29better way of doing things or that I'm
10:31risking overcomplicating or going too
10:33far down rabbit hole, you should flag
10:35it. So, you can just talk to it like
10:37this. I'm going to click let's go, let's
10:39see what it does.
10:41So, it's looking at this workspace and
10:43found an empty directory. So, we're
10:45going to create a file called claw.md
10:48and it lives at the root of your
10:49workspace and picks up automatically
10:51every session. Great. So, it's
10:53explaining everything to me because I've
10:54said I want that. That's what you need
10:56to do. Make sure you tell it that.
10:58Done. Here's Here it is.
11:01Don't build a spaceship when a bicycle
11:02will do. Great. Clear recommendations
11:05for overlong prompt options, scope drift
11:08check, no overwriting. Sounds good. Let
11:10me view the file and then you can take a
11:13look at it here, which is great. So, now
11:16if we go to the folder,
11:19we can see the Claude file and there it
11:22is. Fantastic. Now, one thing I
11:24recommend is this. Is it worth me
11:27dropping this into the co-work global
11:29instructions window in settings for
11:32co-work, so it's pervasive across all
11:34folders.
11:38And here you'll see, yes, absolutely.
11:40Should we delete the old version if
11:42you're always going to read the one in
11:43the global instructions?
11:46So, you can have a little back and forth
11:48of it. Great. So, what we're going to do
11:50is we're going to view the file, select
11:52everything in it by clicking copy, go to
11:55our instructions,
11:57co-work, edit,
12:01paste it in,
12:02and save it. So, that means Claude
12:04always follow those instructions. And of
12:06course, remember that you can add
12:08secondary Claude.md files in any folder.
12:11Or you could set an instruction to say,
12:13when I say downloads, clean up my
12:14downloads like this. Simple as that. So,
12:17now Claude co-work knows your rules, but
12:19it doesn't know you yet. So, my step
12:21three is to fix that, where co-work
12:23becomes a much more effective assistant
12:25with personal context, a memory, and a
12:28better writing style. These ones are
12:31where you suddenly become more advanced
12:33than most users.
12:35So, step three is to create an about me
12:38folder. Take a little look at my current
12:40co-work setup. You'll see I have this
12:43folder here, which if we click into it,
12:45we have a couple of other items in here.
12:46Now, we're not going to get into
12:48absolutely all of this, cuz some of
12:50these are like for another video. And
12:52this folder is going to be where you
12:54teach co-work who you are and how you
12:56want it to act. I have three files in
12:58mine. I have about me, which shares who
13:01I am and what I do. I have a memory
13:04file, which is where Claude will log
13:07memory of its conversations. And I have
13:10a writing rules file, which is going to
13:12inform how it speaks and to avoid that
13:16AI writing style. So, to show you how
13:18simple this is, let's ask Claude to make
13:21them for us while I explain to you and
13:24Claude what they should be. It really is
13:26that simple. So, we're going to jump
13:28back to Claude and say the following.
13:31Hey Claude, I'd like you to create an
13:33about me folder within your co-work
13:36folder, which is going to be the place
13:38that holds three key pages that will
13:40inform how you act every time we
13:43communicate. Once you've created them, I
13:44also want you to give me an update to
13:47your global instructions to ensure that
13:50you always read these three pages every
13:53time we start a session.
13:55I'm going to keep speaking to it.
13:58File one is going to be an about-me.md.
14:02That's going to include my name, what I
14:05do, what my business is, my tools, that
14:08kind of stuff. Let's make a naming
14:10convention for all MD files in the
14:14similar style to what I've written here.
14:16I think the about-me.md could also cover
14:19my audience or customers, my current
14:22projects, everything a smart new team
14:25member would need to know about me on
14:28day one. Let's make this and then we'll
14:30also make file two, which is going to be
14:33writing-rules.md.
14:34This is how I like things to be written.
14:37And to do this, I'd like you to go and
14:39research anti-AI writing style in
14:42Wikipedia, find the page on that on
14:44Wikipedia, and then use it to create a
14:47broken-down description of everything
14:50you should avoid when you write to not
14:52sound like an AI. Finally, I'd like you
14:55to create me a memory. md, which I want
14:59you to update to be a system that you
15:01write memories to, you append to the
15:04bottom of it or update existing entries
15:06if it relates to them and is necessary.
15:09And this file should be the thing that
15:12prevents you from forgetting where we
15:14are with projects and what we're doing.
15:16You then need to reference all three of
15:18these pages for the global instructions
15:20to make sure that you know how to use
15:23them.
15:24Ask me any questions needed, but
15:26otherwise go ahead and build those for
15:28me.
15:29Okay, let's see what Claude does. Now,
15:32this memory.md, this one's clever. It's
15:35a log where you will record global
15:38preferences, decisions, context after
15:40each session, so you make sure that your
15:42global instructions will remind you to
15:45always fill that out. That's going to be
15:46really essential for Claude, because it
15:49means that it's going to be always
15:51updated and clear on where it's at. So,
15:54here we go. It's asking me some
15:55qualifying questions. Who will your main
15:58audience be? I'm going to say it's going
15:59to be all of these. Great. And then you
16:03can write something else in here.
16:06Why don't we do that?
16:09So, now it's worth saying that Claude
16:11has a little bit of context about me
16:13already, right? Because it's already
16:14connected into my workspace with
16:17connectors, but we'll talk about that a
16:19bit later. So, what are your current
16:21active projects? I would say all of
16:23those.
16:27What's your core mission?
16:30And let's say that.
16:31Oh, actually, it's also to help business
16:33owners work with AI and to share
16:36intentional tech on the Better Creating
16:38channel. I have two channels, Systems
16:40Made Better and Better Creating. Better
16:43Creating is the tech channel for
16:45intentional tech, Apple products, desk
16:47setups. Systems Made Better is to help
16:49freelancers, solopreneurs, workers,
16:52founders, business owners leverage AI
16:55and Notion and other systems without
16:58being tech experts.
17:01I'm just going to add that in. So, you
17:03can see it's been working in a few
17:05different ways. And something that this
17:06system does is it can work with multiple
17:10agents at once, which is pretty crazy.
17:13So, this is now working through the
17:15signs of AI writing. It's dragging out
17:17key bits of information. It's building
17:20it all out. It's totally mad. Let's go
17:21and take a little look and see if
17:23anything's turning up. Well, we've got
17:24our about me folder
17:26and our about me file. We can take a
17:28little look at that. And here it is.
17:30It's given quite a lot of information.
17:33Systems may better better creating core
17:35tools, how I think. This is pretty cool,
17:38right? It's giving a load of different
17:40information and it's also obviously got
17:42a bunch of other bits of information
17:43I've already given it because I'm I'm
17:45trying to demo this, but you might have
17:46to tell it a few more things.
17:49Now we've got our memory MD and there is
17:52session log, the active projects, and
17:54key decisions, preferences, append new
17:57entries below this. You can see that's
17:58all working really beautifully. And
18:00we've got our writing rules and it's
18:01created
18:03a detailed writing rules, band phrases,
18:06no superficial in commentary. It's
18:09really cool. You can kind of dive into
18:10it, but yeah, simple as that. I love
18:12that little bit of advice. Very
18:14powerful. So, let's go and see what it
18:15said. Great. It's done it. 14 rules,
18:18system memory, and then we can go check
18:20them out. Excellent. Please tell me what
18:22I need to adjust in my global
18:25instructions and I will paste them in.
18:29So, don't forget, if you've put them
18:30into that setup, if you don't want to
18:32just leave them as you've got it in the
18:34folder, you need to go and do this. And
18:36look, it's really simple. It just writes
18:37the whole thing out. Non-negotiables.
18:40Another example of how to keep things
18:42solid and safe. And these are at start
18:45of every session read these. Should we
18:47move the required reading for every
18:49session to the top of the entry?
18:53Great. Yes, go ahead.
18:58It's updating the global instructions.
19:00I can now just click in here, copy
19:02everything, and then we can just jump
19:04back into our settings.
19:07There we go. Save. Now, once you've got
19:09these set, you don't really need to
19:11change them. So, the way to think about
19:13it is once those global instructions are
19:15solid and directing to these other
19:17documents, you won't have to touch them
19:18for a long time. There you go. Next time
19:20you start a conversation, it reads this
19:22file and remembers what happens before.
19:25It's like giving Claude Work a notebook
19:27it checks every morning. The more
19:29specific you are with these files, the
19:30better the results. Vague instructions
19:33get vague outputs. So, let's start a new
19:35task and let's say, "Tell me about how
19:38you
19:40are meant to work with me."
19:42Now, what I should see it do is now read
19:45those instructions. Let's watch.
19:48Boom.
19:50You can tell it's worked because it's
19:51dropped in that it's read all of that
19:53context. Wow. So, in just a few minutes,
19:56you now have a version of Claude Work
19:59that knows your rules, knows who you
20:01are, and remembers what we've done
20:02together. You are now further ahead.
20:05But, it gets even better. It's time to
20:07talk about [music] customization,
20:10skills, and connectors. And let's start
20:13with connectors because connecting tools
20:15you already use transforms Claude into a
20:19whole new level [music] of power. And
20:21the first connection is going to
20:22surprise you with how much it can do.
20:24After that, I'll show you how we can
20:26download or create skills [music] and
20:29plugins to supercharge Claude Work
20:32systems with specialist skills.
20:36So, step four, [music] you can access
20:37this either through settings or just
20:38click customize and click connectors.
20:42You'll see here I've already got a bunch
20:43of things connected. Notion, Slack,
20:45Superbase, and Versel they're connected
20:47to create websites. I've got make.com
20:50automations I can call upon. I'm using
20:53Google Calendar, Google Drive. It's
20:55amazing. Tools like Gmail, which we'll
20:57set up in a moment, which means that
20:59Claude can genuinely manage your emails.
21:01It's amazing. But, first, I just want to
21:03talk about Claude in Chrome because
21:05Claude can browse the web for you. This
21:08is one thing that's worth installing
21:09straight away if you're comfortable.
21:11It's a browser extension that lets
21:13Claude work actually browse websites,
21:15read pages, pull information, fill in
21:17forms, even click through multiple step
21:19workflows. Instead of copying and
21:21pasting URLs into the chat, you just
21:23say, "Go read this page." and it does
21:25it. It's amazing. So, in here, click on
21:28Claude Chrome and you just enable it.
21:30Now, you need to install the Claude in
21:33Chrome extension for the Chrome app.
21:35But, if you just ask Claude to do that,
21:37it will do it. So, actually, why don't
21:39we just say, "I'm demoing how to set up
21:42Claude in Chrome. Could you model what
21:44you would do to help me install it?"
21:48Or even just direct me to the link for
21:50it in Chrome.
21:53So, here you go. This is the kind of
21:54thing you could do. Just ask it. We can
21:56then click open the link and there you
21:58go. You'll get to a page a bit like this
22:00and you can just click install. So, it
22:03is now up here. I have it and it has a
22:06couple of things you need to be aware
22:07of. It's a beta feature. It has risks
22:09included. So, this is up to you whether
22:11you want to try it, but I am finding
22:13it's absolutely brilliant and it will
22:15search the web for you. So, why don't we
22:17do a little demo of this? Could you pull
22:19me up a popular Reddit thread on using
22:23Claude Chrome, please, in the Claude
22:25browser?
22:28So, if we now go to Chrome,
22:31there you go. Here comes the tab.
22:36And for those of you that are worried
22:37about permissions, this is really useful
22:39to see. You can allow things that's do
22:41this time only. And there you go. It
22:42navigated for us. This isn't the perfect
22:45example, but you can often, when you're
22:47building things out, see it do
22:49unbelievable things. This is a bunch of
22:51views that it's been working in in the
22:53past. Do you want to you can just delete
22:55a group and it will just shut those down
22:56in case you don't need to see them.
22:58Yeah, so that's great. So, you'll see
23:00that it was it was researching for me uh
23:02websites that I I quite like the design
23:05of to inspire a website plan. Amazing.
23:08So, back in Connectors, we've got that
23:09set up. So, if you're comfortable giving
23:11it browser access, install it now. 30
23:13seconds and you're done. If not, no
23:15worries. Everything else works without
23:16it. It's a bonus, not a requirement.
23:19But, I have to say it's been very
23:20helpful. Right. Now, let's connect your
23:22actual apps. I've got all of these
23:24already connected. Let's do Gmail. There
23:26it is. It's as simple as this. Find the
23:28connector. You can search for connectors
23:31here. You can click add and browse
23:33connectors and there's a bunch of them
23:35here. I mean, look at this. Essentially,
23:37what I recommend doing is getting on
23:38here and anything that you use, click
23:41the plus button and add it. It will
23:43always ask permission to use it. It is
23:44fantastic. It basically is just going to
23:46be like what you need. I'm using a huge
23:49amount of things in here. I might even
23:51connect my PayPal at some point and see
23:52what that does. But, that gets a bit
23:54scarier, doesn't it? But, yeah, look.
23:55Wix are in there. Marketplace
23:58There's more here since last time I
23:59looked as well. So, the list is growing
24:02exponentially. So, let's do the obvious
24:04one, Gmail. I'm going to click connect.
24:07It says, "Do you want to connect Claude
24:09to Gmail?" Continue. I'm going to select
24:12my email address.
24:14Continue.
24:15Now, you can only connect one account
24:17these days. Hopefully, multiple accounts
24:20will come soon. But,
24:22there you go. It is kind of done. And
24:24you can just decide within Gmail what
24:28permissions you want to give. Now, for
24:30other systems such as Notion, there's
24:32lots and lots of permissions, right?
24:33That you could adjust depending on what
24:35you're comfortable with allowing it to
24:37do or if you want it to need approval or
24:40just it's blocked from doing. It's
24:41pretty simple to do. Connect that. I
24:43really recommend connecting calendar.
24:45That will allow it to search your
24:47calendar as well and check what's going
24:49on for you in the week and so on and so
24:51forth. Create calendar events, all the
24:53rest of it. So, why don't we test
24:54calendar and Gmail?
24:56I'm just testing your connectors.
24:58Please, could you check my inbox and my
25:01calendar and let me know anything that's
25:03important for tomorrow.
25:07So, it's now loading tools. You can see
25:10them here. You can open them up and see
25:12what it's doing if you really want to
25:13understand it. You'll see that it has
25:15loaded Google Calendar and Gmail. It's
25:17listing events and here's the rundown.
25:20So, let's just shut this up. Your
25:22morning kicks off with a weekly meeting
25:24with Lisa. Great. I've got a partnership
25:26and then I'm going to the Adobe Create
25:28Alive event 1 to 7:30. I've also got to
25:31go to Selfridges and return a top. There
25:33you go. And then a bunch of emails worth
25:35noting from different people speaking at
25:37a Notion AI Labs for startups. We've got
25:40a check-in with my strategist. Couple of
25:42people I'm working with. Look at that.
25:44And some brand collabs.
25:47>> [laughter]
25:47>> I got I made $583
25:50on a paper-like commission. Love it. So,
25:53why don't we just say, "Could you draft
25:55me a reply to Ben Far based on the
25:57conversation? I will likely want to book
26:00a meeting with him." So, let's ask him
26:02for availability.
26:05And because I've said book a meeting, my
26:08WhisperFlow has inserted my Calendly
26:10link. Really cool. So, let's just see if
26:12that works.
26:14Now, let's imagine that I was happy with
26:16that. You could just send it. But, I'm
26:18actually going to say this, "This is
26:20great. Please, put it in a draft in the
26:22thread ready for me to send. In future,
26:24just create the drafts in my email for
26:27anything I ask you to do and I'll be
26:30able to check them there. You can just
26:31share me a list of what it is. Please
26:33update your memory or instructions as
26:36needed to make sure you do this." And in
26:38that way, we can give it feedback to
26:40update notes so that it always does
26:42these things. So, the safety question
26:44everyone asks, should I let AI read my
26:47emails? Well, there you go. Two things.
26:49First, Cospace creates drafts only. It
26:51doesn't send unless you tell it to.
26:53Second, your global instructions, if
26:55you've created them like I have, already
26:57say never send without me checking them.
26:59But on that note, if you're feeling a
27:01bit more risk-averse while it updates
27:03our memory and it's dropped the Gmail
27:05draft in, I recommend going into
27:06settings, going into privacy, and within
27:10this view, making sure that help improve
27:12Claude sending sessions to Anthropic AI
27:16models, I would turn that off. If you
27:18want to be helpful, great, but this is a
27:19way to ensure that not many in bits of
27:22information are dropped in. And for
27:24proof,
27:25here we can see Ben's email to me and
27:28the draft is ready to go. Now, on
27:30connectors, I do want to talk about
27:32Notion cuz this is where connectors for
27:34me gets super serious. This one is
27:37personal because Notion is where I run
27:39my entire business. If I jump over to
27:41Notion and we take a little look in it,
27:43this is where I keep projects,
27:45knowledge, meeting notes. I even have
27:48down here an agent brain section with
27:51specialist knowledge on things like
27:54YouTube strategy with a vector database
27:57of information on how to do better
27:59creation or, for example, an online
28:02business knowledge base that helps me
28:04with strategy around product marketing
28:06and brand development. If you connect it
28:09in the same way through the connectors,
28:10what happens next is different from
28:12email and calendar because Notion holds
28:15context, not just messages and meetings.
28:18So, in this system, I have everything
28:20about my business. So, get that set up
28:23and then we're in a very different
28:25situation. If I'm going to go back to my
28:26chat about the global instructions, can
28:29you search my Notion workspace for my
28:31agentic business method big knowledge
28:33project? It'll be in the projects
28:35database.
28:37So, Notion uses something called an MCP
28:40server. This allows it to query, write,
28:43read, do loads of different things. I
28:45cannot tell you how powerful having this
28:47local connection to it is. Well, it's
28:50found it.
28:51Okay, so this is cool, right? But it
28:53took quite a few attempts to find it. It
28:56has now found it and it's going to find
28:58information about it. But it's big, it's
29:01a detail project page. This is your flag
29:03pit product ecosystem in progress. We're
29:06going to be building all these things
29:07out. Great, these are all my current
29:09plans. Very exciting, very exciting. But
29:12I would like to now be able to better
29:15understand the system. I'd like it to be
29:17able to read it more effectively. So if
29:20you're a Notion user, I recommend doing
29:21something like this. In my about me
29:23page, I'm adding a my context map. So
29:26what I could do is ask it to search this
29:28page by just clicking the copy the link
29:30to page, which has all of my databases
29:33within it. And then get it to create a
29:35context map of my Notion system. Look at
29:38that. So I've built that in. So I'm just
29:40going to copy the one I've made about me
29:43and drop it in. I've just dropped a my
29:46context map MD file in your about me
29:49folder, which gives a clear breakdown of
29:52my Notion workspace for you to more
29:54easily find things in the future. Please
29:56can you share with me an updated
29:58Claude.md file so I can paste it into
30:00your global instructions referencing
30:02this so it can be updated and always
30:05looked at.
30:07So there you go, it's found that. It's a
30:09sat nav for your entire workspace.
30:11Fantastic. It loves it.
30:14It's loving its own workspace. I made it
30:16with it when it was a previous version.
30:18And then of course you would just take
30:19that, paste it into your global
30:20instructions and you're good to go if
30:22you're using that method. Okay,
30:23following this, please could you check
30:26what tasks I have due this week in my
30:28tasks database?
30:30Let's now see if it does a bit of a
30:31better job. Now you can see the
30:33difference now. It immediately found the
30:35exact database. Got a load of data back
30:38and it's now running commands to give us
30:41the results. Now with a context map like
30:44this, even if you don't use Notion, make
30:46one for whatever files or systems you
30:49use and add it to your about me and you
30:51will have CoWork connected to wherever
30:53you keep your plans, [music] projects,
30:55notes, knowledge base. Combined with
30:57this about me folder, it understands who
31:00you are, how you work, and what you're
31:02working on. The other advantage of
31:03creating context maps for your connected
31:06tools is that it stops Claude burning
31:08through so many credits tokens trying to
31:11find things.
31:13Awesome. So, look at that. It's found my
31:15tasks. I've got 41 overdue tasks. I have
31:19not cleaned these up, but it might help
31:21me triage them. So, uh this is a really
31:24brilliant way to clean them up. Would
31:25you mind triaging the overdue tasks or
31:28updating due dates for the next week or
31:31so based on priorities.
31:34And you know, if you're using something
31:35like Google Docs, Obsidian, the
31:37principle works the same. Give CoWork
31:39access to where your information lives.
31:42So, here is the view. It's cleaning this
31:44up at the moment. Getting smaller.
31:47Smaller again. I mean, look at this.
31:49It's clearing everything up. It's now
31:51actually updating its memory because it
31:53learned about my project and product
31:55information. Very helpful. So, that's
31:58connectors. You've now got a configured
32:00AI assistant that knows you, connects
32:02your tools, and remembers your history.
32:04That's the setup most people never get
32:06to. But now, what CoWork can actually
32:09create?
32:11So, step five is to use built-in skills,
32:14specialized abilities that allow it to
32:18create specific file types. It can
32:20specialize in documents, spreadsheets,
32:23presentations, PDFs. It makes all
32:25[music] of them. Don't think of AI as
32:26the tool. Think of it as the colleague
32:28using the tools themselves. Then, your
32:32entire experience of AI and agentic work
32:34will transform. Now, there's loads of
32:36ways to create skills. If you go to
32:38customize skills and then plus sign,
32:41you'll see you can create with Claude,
32:42write skill instructions, and upload
32:44skills. And there's examples which you
32:46can turn on here and then customize to
32:48your own needs. For example, canvas
32:51design. For example, visual arts, PNG
32:53and PDF documents. Quite nice. We can
32:55just turn it on and you've got it
32:57basically. It'll do it when you ask it
32:59to do it. This is worth turning on, the
33:00skill creator, cuz it will help you
33:02create them. So, for example, why don't
33:05we do this? Write me a one-page project
33:08brief for the Agentic Business
33:11Accelerator I'm planning as a Word
33:13document.
33:14I'm going to do this in Sonnet to save
33:16some credits.
33:18You can see it's reading the docx
33:20reference file there. It's loading its
33:22tools. It needs a bit more information.
33:24And what's great is it wants to be
33:26precise and clean. And it's using
33:28something called ask user question.
33:30Little tip, if you build your own
33:31skills, which you can just ask it to do
33:33using the skill creator skill, you can
33:35ask it to add in the ask user question.
33:38So, let's call it a course program and a
33:41community Oh, it's a live cohort as
33:43well. It's those two.
33:45Great. Internal, just me. There you go.
33:47Clarity and roadmap. So, it's just gone
33:49for a couple of questions. Let's see if
33:50it builds it. So, here you go. It's
33:53writing it, generating a Word document,
33:55and then it'll validate and save to the
33:57workspace folder. And we should see that
33:59turn up shortly. Now, obviously, you
34:01don't want to sit here while it does
34:02things. Ultimately, once you give it
34:04skills which break down steps to larger
34:07tasks, you can set it going, leave,
34:11and let it do the work. It's absolutely
34:12amazing. And there it is. It just turned
34:15up. It'll say you can view it.
34:17But why don't we just skip to the
34:19view.
34:20Open this up. And if you like things to
34:23look nice, you can always say make it
34:25look pretty. But just at that, it has
34:27done a very good job of creating me a
34:29quick one-page document. Just these
34:33ideas of using these tools means that
34:35you can go really far, really quick. But
34:37it gets a lot better than that. So,
34:39let's close that up. Since we have
34:41limited it to the Claude co-work demo
34:44area, we might want to now create a bit
34:47more of a folder system in our co-work
34:49system for documents that it creates
34:50using those built-in skills. And then
34:52I'll show you how to make your own
34:54skills. This was great. I noticed that
34:55you're just having to drop new items
34:57into the workspace folder that you're
34:59working in. Let's create a outputs
35:02folder, which is where you should put
35:04any outputs. And if it's for a new
35:06project, create a new project folder
35:09within that outputs folder. And I think
35:11we should therefore also have a projects
35:13folder in the main workspace, which is
35:16where you add memory and Claude MD files
35:19for specific projects. If you're unsure
35:22if I'm starting a new project, ask.
35:24Otherwise, you can create a project for
35:26new items with the output folder sub
35:30folder and the projects sub folder
35:32matching.
35:34Any questions, let me know. Otherwise,
35:36add these to our system. And I think for
35:38this task, we'll add it to Opus.
35:41Now, the point of this is that you get a
35:43much cleaner look. I have my about me
35:46section, but I then have Claude outputs,
35:49where each output is within a project,
35:52and projects, where key projects have
35:55their own memory and project brief. This
35:58is so powerful because it means that you
36:01keep context running through each
36:03project. So, this is the thing to think
36:05about. I've got plugins and skills and
36:07templates here. Don't worry about those.
36:09I think today, just focus on a projects
36:11folder and an outputs folder. Give your
36:13instructions clarity that it should put
36:15outputs into here and project working
36:17documents into projects. This
36:19essentially becomes a second brain
36:21folder system for your Claude co-work
36:24account. There we go. Let's take a
36:26little look at it, and there we go.
36:28We've got our outputs and our projects.
36:30You'll see in here we've got the Word
36:32document it created. It's just put it in
36:34there. And here we've got the Claude MD
36:36for the business accelerator that it's
36:38naturally built. Amazing. Didn't have to
36:40say much. And a memory where it
36:41remembers what happened. Oh my god.
36:44It's so clever. So, yeah, you really
36:46can't go wrong. Hopefully by now you're
36:48realizing how simple this is. Uh totally
36:51blows me away. I love this. Please,
36:53could you add an update for our global
36:55instructions and make sure they're
36:57updated. Oh, you've already done it.
36:58It's already done it. Look, there you
36:59go. It's way ahead of me. Brilliant.
37:02I've got a really cool skill here that I
37:03downloaded online, which is called
37:05front-end slides. And this will create
37:08rich text HTML presentations. But, let
37:12me just jump in therefore and show you
37:14in my outputs
37:17an example of this. So, I created this
37:19slide using the skill I downloaded. And
37:22it's amazing. All I did was share a
37:24Notion script where I talk in another
37:27video about my [music] CASA framework
37:29and using Notion and Claude as your
37:31system for organizing your business with
37:34AI. And it created this slide. And I
37:37actually use it in that video that I've
37:39just recorded. [music] Look at the
37:40animations. It's unique. It's beautiful.
37:43This is what's possible now. Kind of
37:45makes PowerPoint less useful because
37:47[music] why don't you just get it to
37:48create something from a document? It's
37:50absolutely amazing. Well, hopefully that
37:53gives you some inspiration about skills.
37:55They're like giving Co-work professional
37:57software training. [music] It doesn't
37:59just write text, it creates properly
38:01formatted files that you can use and
38:03pass on to colleagues within your
38:06system.
38:08So, think of built-in skills handling
38:10standard simple singular jobs. But, what
38:13if we could teach Co-work something no
38:16one else has? That's what plugins do.
38:18And it's where things get really
38:20impressive. So, I'm going to go to
38:22customize, personal plugins, add plugin,
38:24and browse plugins. And you'll see a
38:27bunch of plugins that Anthropic just
38:29offer already. This legal plugin is what
38:33took a ton of value off a bunch of
38:35companies when Claude announced it. Just
38:38add it and you've got a legal assistant
38:40that can help you do all of this. Triage
38:43incoming NDAs, prep for meeting. I mean,
38:46it's it's amazing. Just add it and you
38:48kind of got it. So, I've got legal here.
38:50It'll do these things and I can click it
38:52to do certain things. I've got an
38:53engineering one which will help me
38:55review code and bugs, design systems and
38:58services architecture. Like, it's
38:59totally amazing. Apollo, if you install
39:02that, it it can search for qualified
39:04leads for your business. And I've built
39:06my own plugin to build plugins. This is
39:09the specialist sub-agent builder and
39:12this builds custom AI specialist
39:14sub-agents with searchable knowledge
39:16bases and it turns your expertise into
39:19ready-to-install
39:21plugins that you can use in your system.
39:22This means that you can have something
39:24like my YouTube specialist, which is a
39:26strategist which I can then feed
39:28information, whether that be a Notion
39:31database or built into the plugin, and
39:33it can help you. So, this is how easy it
39:35is to add a plugin to your business.
39:37We're going to browse plugins. I quite
39:38like the idea of a customer support
39:40plugin. I'm going to click install. I'm
39:42then going to Where is it? There it is.
39:44Manage it and I'm going to click
39:45customize in the top right and it just
39:47says, "Customize the customer support
39:49plugin for me based on my company."
39:54Triage and manage customers inquiring
39:58about Notion templates, Claude code,
40:01plugins, icon packs, and any of the
40:03products I sell on bettercreating.com.
40:10So, it's now going to read about who I
40:12am and what I'm doing and invoke the
40:14plugin customizer skill that it has.
40:17It's going to find that plugin that we
40:19just built or added and then just go and
40:21do it. I mean, that's kind of it. If you
40:23briefly come back,
40:24this is customizing this plugin beyond
40:27belief. It's absolutely fantastic. It's
40:28just asked me about the questions. I
40:30will shortly have a customer support
40:33plugin that works for me and I can go
40:34and update it continually. Amazing. As a
40:37recap then, think of skills as the tools
40:39already in Co-worker's toolbox or
40:41specific toolbox items that you can add.
40:45Plugins are like hiring a specialist who
40:47brings their own tools and methods. This
40:50marketing strategist, social repurposing
40:52agent, and YouTube specialist plugins,
40:55they were built with my specialist
40:57sub-agent builder. I've packaged it as a
40:59tool that can be used to build plugin
41:01specialists and you can find it on
41:03bettercreating.com. No code required,
41:05step-by-step setup. So, if you want to
41:07extend Co-worker with your own
41:09specialist agent [music] systems with
41:11their own knowledge bases, the link's in
41:13the description. Tools connected, skills
41:16working, plugins installed. There's one
41:18more level and [music] it's the one that
41:20blows people away. What if Co-worker
41:22could do things for you while you were
41:24not even there or asleep?
41:27Step seven, set up scheduled tasks. I
41:30think this is my favorite feature, the
41:31one that makes Co-worker feel like it's
41:33actually working alongside you.
41:35Scheduled tasks run automatically on a
41:38timer. Everything you've configured,
41:39your instructions, your connectors, your
41:41contacts, and they do real work on a
41:43schedule. It just means that you set
41:45them up and [music] they are triggered.
41:47All you need to ensure is that your
41:48computer is turned on and has internet
41:51connection. So, this is an argument for
41:53essentially having this on a permanent
41:55desktop [music] computer that you leave
41:57on. Here's how it works. Let me just
41:59show you a couple that I've created.
42:01This took me moments. Weekly briefer, I
42:03just set it up to connect to Gmail every
42:06Tuesday at 10:00 and you just write
42:08instructions. Please search my tasks and
42:11projects in Notion, Gmail calendar, and
42:14my hello@ email, and share an overview
42:16of the week ahead. That's kind of it.
42:18Before doing any research, read these
42:20files about me. Yeah, use the Notion
42:22MCP, blah blah blah. And then it just
42:24has a guide of style instructions, how
42:26it should report, and it sends me an
42:28email, and that's it. Why don't we run
42:30it now, and we'll see what we get. And
42:32if we go back into scheduled, we've also
42:34got a weekday inbox triage. This will
42:38triage my inbox a bit like I showed you
42:40earlier, and give me a full overview of
42:44what there is to deal with. And that
42:46goes at 9:30. And we can actually see it
42:49ran. So, let's take a little look. It
42:52found all of these items, blah blah
42:53blah, and it gives you a little update
42:56like that. Simple as that. And you have
42:57to work out what you want the output to
42:59be, where you want it to put it, but I
43:01would suggest something like set
43:02yourself with an outputs area with
43:04weekly briefing reports, and then it
43:07will just drop them in as an MD file,
43:09and you get your answers dropped in. And
43:11if you want it to format it and turn it
43:12into a Word doc, you can tell it to do
43:14that. A PDF, you can get it as a
43:15presentation, whatever you like. Let's
43:17create a little example here. We're just
43:20going to go to scheduled, new task.
43:22Schedule task only while your computer
43:24is awake, and you can do this too. When
43:26enabled, Claude will prevent your
43:28computer from going to sleep. So, if you
43:30have a laptop, maybe don't use this. So,
43:32yeah, that's all the more reason to own
43:34a desktop computer these days. And if
43:36you watch this channel, I cover a lot of
43:38Apple ecosystem and essential tech. I
43:40think it might now be the time for a lot
43:42of us to consider a home computer and a
43:46laptop. And the home computer is where
43:47you set up all of this. Now, since I
43:49filmed this video, Claude has shipped
43:52endlessly. In fact, they've shipped two
43:55amazing new items, which just take
43:57scheduled tasks to the next level,
43:59Dispatch and Claude computer. So, as you
44:02can see now on the
44:04bar here, we've got our scheduled task
44:06that I was demoing before. If we now
44:08click into dispatch, you can see a
44:09couple of things are going on here. This
44:12allows you to essentially control your
44:15Claude desktop from your phone. This is
44:18why I'm going all in on a always-on Mac
44:22on my desk. So, I'm going to have two
44:23Macs, one to travel with and one that
44:25stays in the studio. You can get Claude
44:27to prevent your computer from going to
44:29sleep, meaning that scheduled tasks will
44:30continue to run, but you can also allow
44:33it to work in your browser. Claude will
44:35take actions in Chrome without asking
44:37permission, including on websites you
44:39haven't approved. So, you need to be
44:41okay with that. And then most
44:43importantly, you've got computer use.
44:45So, if we open the settings on computer
44:47use, you can see you can give it
44:50permission to work within your computer.
44:53You can also deny it from using certain
44:56apps. So, you can add a a kind of
44:58accessibility list. So, there's quite a
45:00lot of granular control, and there's
45:02kind of various different things. But,
45:05the most important part of this is
45:06dispatch. So, that means with the Claude
45:08app, we can open Claude up, and if we go
45:11into the sidebar, you will see dispatch.
45:14And that allows me now to speak to
45:15Claude. Please, could you find out
45:17what's going on in my calendar today?
45:20So, we're going to send that, and now we
45:22should see, as you can see here, it is
45:24talking to the computer. You now have
45:27pretty much a kind of open Claude style
45:29assistant on your desktop that you can
45:31control when you're out and about, and
45:33it will work on your computer and get
45:35back to you. And there you go. I've got
45:37a quick breakdown of my calendar. We
45:39could ask it to go and browse
45:40information, do research, or continue
45:43with projects using the plugins and
45:44skills that we've created. So, just
45:46imagine you have one of these running
45:47every weekday morning before you
45:49finished your coffee, co-workers read
45:51your inbox, sorted everything by
45:53priority, drafted replies for the ones
45:55that need attention. You review it,
45:56tweak it as needed, and send.
45:58Essentially, a personal assistant you
46:00can reach at your office every day from
46:02your phone. What used to take 30-40
46:04minutes now takes five. What's the busy
46:07work that you do that you could get this
46:08system to automate? This could be a
46:10really great combination with Notion and
46:13a business account with personal agent
46:15for working inside Notion and this for
46:17automating your tasks across all of your
46:19platforms. So, that's the seven steps,
46:21but there's a bigger picture
46:23>> [music]
46:23>> that we need to address before you go.
46:25Everything we just set up, the
46:27workspace, the instructions, the about
46:29me files, the connectors, the skills,
46:31the plugins, and the scheduled tasks,
46:32that's the foundation and it's more than
46:34most people will ever configure. But, if
46:37you want to go further, I've built a
46:39framework called the CASA method. It's a
46:42framework that maps out the entire
46:44journey to build an AI-ready digital
46:47home, your consolidated agentic systems
46:50architecture. And yes, Claude co-work
46:53did build this presentation. Most people
46:55[music] get inconsistent results from
46:57AI, scattered information, no context,
47:00generic help up. For everyone that's
47:01downloaded my free guide to building out
47:03an agentic system for your work and
47:05filled out the form, 60% reported
47:08overwhelm with their information. The
47:10number one issue with context was no
47:11clear path and generic output was the
47:14thing that many were struggling with. I
47:15cover all of this on my second channel,
47:18Systems Made Better, so make sure you
47:20should hit subscribe below [music] and
47:21in the description you can find a link
47:23to my free guide for this CASA framework
47:26to consolidate, architect, systematize,
47:28and activate your AI workspace. And hey,
47:31if you're a Notion user, make sure you
47:33go and check out Agent OS and Life OS,
47:36which give you all of these systems for
47:38Notion so you can connect all of the
47:40dots. If that was useful, make sure you
47:42hit subscribe and don't miss the next
47:44one because I'm going to be showing you
47:46exactly how to take this so much
47:47further. Drop your comments below
47:49because I read every single one and I'll
47:51see you on the next one.

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