Written July 2026. Menus move around, so if a button isn't where I say it is, look nearby, because the idea behind it doesn't change.
If you use Claude in a fresh chat every time, you're starting from zero every time. You paste in the same background, re-explain who your clients are, re-describe your business, and then get something generic anyway because it doesn't know anything about you, which is why it feels so beige.
A Project fixes that, because you load your context once and it stays there permanently in every conversation inside that project.
This takes about twenty minutes, and it's the highest-value twenty minutes you'll spend on any of this.
What a Project actually is
It's a folder for one area of your life, and it holds two things: standing instructions it reads before every reply, and files it can look at whenever it needs them.
That's it, just instructions and files.
You want a separate one for each area instead of one giant one, like my clients, my content, my household or whatever your areas actually are. Mixing them makes every answer slightly worse, because it's holding context it doesn't need.
Step by step
1. In the sidebar, find Projects and create a new one.
2. Name it for the area of your life instead of the tool, so "Client work" rather than "Writing help."
3. Open the project's instructions, which is the part that matters (there's a fill-in version below).
4. Add your files by dragging them in.
5. Start every conversation about that area inside the project from now on. This is the step people skip, and then they wonder why nothing improved.
What to put in the instructions
Copy this, fill it in and paste it. If a line doesn't apply to you, delete it instead of leaving it blank.
WHO I AM
I'm [name]. I [what you actually do, in one sentence].
I [worked in / still work in] [field] for [how long], so assume I know
[the things you don't need explained] and don't assume I know
[the things you'd rather it explained].
WHO I SERVE
My people are [who they actually are, specifically].
They come to me when [the moment they show up].
The sentence they say to me most often is "[an actual sentence one of them said]".
HOW I WANT YOU TO WORK
Ask me questions before you write anything long.
Give me the work itself, not a description of it.
If my request is vague, say so and ask, instead of guessing and producing
something I have to throw away.
If you don't know, say you don't know.
When you suggest something, tell me why that and not the simpler option.
HOW I WANT YOU TO SOUND
Write the way I write, not the way the internet writes.
No em dashes. No emoji.
Never use these words: [your own banned list].
Short paragraphs. Contractions. Say the whole thought instead of
making it a clever fragment.
WHAT NOT TO DO
Never [what you'd hate].
Don't [the pattern that annoys you].The two lines that do the most work are the actual sentence one of your people said and your banned word list. The first gives it a real voice to write toward instead of an imagined audience, and the second is the fastest way to stop your output from sounding like a LinkedIn post.
What files to put in
Good candidates:
- Things you wrote yourself. Add five to ten pieces, because this is how it learns your voice and it works far better than trying to describe it.
- Your offer or service description, as it actually is, not the polished version.
- Real examples of the work. Think past plans, past emails and past reports, with the names taken out.
- Your rules. That means pricing, what you don't take on and how you word difficult things.
What not to put in:
- Anything with a client's identifying details in it. Strip out names, dates of birth, account numbers and medical details. This is a real obligation if you came out of healthcare, finance, or law, and "it's just for me" isn't a defense.
- Forty files. Fewer, better files beat more of them, and ten strong examples of your writing beat a hundred documents you never look at.
- Anything you'd be uncomfortable seeing quoted back at you.
The thirty-second habit that keeps it good
When it produces something wrong in a way that annoys you, don't just fix that reply. Open the instructions and add one line so it never does that again.
That's the maintenance routine. Mine has grown a line at a time for months, and almost every line exists because something irritated me once.
What it looks like when it's working
You open a conversation and type "draft the follow-up for the Thursday call" and it comes back sounding like you, aimed at your actual person, in your format, without you explaining anything.
The first time that happens you'll feel slightly robbed of the forty minutes you used to spend, and then you'll get over it.
If it's still generic after all that
You're chatting outside the project. It's the easiest mistake to make and the most common one, so check where you are.
Your instructions describe your voice instead of showing it. "Warm and professional" means nothing, so put in three things you wrote and say "like this."
You didn't say what not to do. Guardrails do more than instructions, so spell out what to avoid and not just what to include.
Your ask was vague and the project can't save you from that. Context makes a good ask better, but it can't turn a bad one into a good one.