My new rule is that if more than three people ask me about something, I’m going to write about it. Recently, that has been Claude — how I use it, and how people can start using it themselves.
My new rule is that if more than three people ask me about something, I’m going to write about it.
Recently, I have consistently been asked about Claude, how I use it, and how people can start using it themselves. So, I decided to put together this guide.
Obviously, this is not meant to replace actually engaging with people. I don’t want to respond to someone by saying, “Hey, I don’t want to explain it to you. Just go read my article.” That’s pretty selfish.
This is more of something I can send afterward so that you have the notes, can return to them when you need them, and start applying these tools in your day-to-day life.
The best first step is simply to download Claude and get familiar with it.
Open it. Test it out. Explore the different sections and see what it can do.
There is the normal Claude chat, Claude Cowork, and Claude Code.
If you are not technical, you can probably spend most of your time in Cowork. It can control your computer, create files, and work with you to make things you might need on a day-to-day basis, like PowerPoints, Word documents, Excel files, and so on.
If you want to build websites, apps, or more advanced tools, then you can start exploring Claude Code.
There is a lot of information about both of these that you can Google, and I’ll drop some documentation here in case you’re interested.
The majority of my time in Claude is spent either in Cowork or Claude Code. Since I’m building websites and other things on a day-to-day basis, I use Claude Code a lot. For most people, though, I think Cowork is where you can get 90% of the value.
There are also other things, like Claude Design. If you need to design something, or if you’re a more creative person, it can help you come up with ideas for things you’re building, presentations you want to make, or designs for literally anything.
I’ve had Claude draft and send multiple emails. Recently, I had it research property managers for my house in Seattle. I also had it make a presentation for a client I’m trying to sign for a new business I’m starting.
What else have I done?
For work, I’ve used it to conduct competitor reviews, clean up customer interview notes, and turn those notes into presentations.
For my career, I’ve used it to help me prepare for interviews, create a Quizlet-style version of interview questions, and build an interview tracker.
For my personal life, I’ve used it to make a plan for renewing my U.S. passport, create a recovery plan for a sports injury, and build a proper training schedule.
I also built a to-do list and life tracker with it and shipped it. That’s on my GitHub if you’re interested.
You can think of GitHub as something similar to Google Drive, but for websites, code, and other things you might want to build or share with people.
One of the coolest and most unexpected ways I’ve used Claude was with Ableton Live.
I used Claude Cowork to control my computer and move settings around in Ableton. It helped me create the proper guitar pedal effects and recreate synth sounds from songs and synths that I had heard.
As most people know, Ableton is complex to use. Claude can actually move the settings, help me make progress, and teach me how to use Ableton better at the same time.
I think that is such a cool and unexpected use case for AI in music.
Obviously, there is a lot of conversation around AI and music. I’m still in the camp that music is fundamentally a form of human expression. Yes, you can create music with AI, but there is something truly beautiful about humans making and playing music together.
I see AI as a tool to enable that rather than replace it, right?
My music teacher also told me that he created an app for ear training in music. I’ve had friends who work in legal tell me that AI has helped them review contracts, while obviously still keeping themselves in the loop and not letting it do everything entirely on its own.
The list goes on and on.
This can apply to almost any business, creative project, or type of work. I’m sure the majority of people have some way they could benefit from it.
One thing I consistently tell people, and maybe I should have put this at the very start, is that if you don’t know how to do something, just ask Claude.
If you don’t know whether it can do something, ask it.
Ask whether it can help and how it might approach the problem. It can guide you through the process and recommend different ways to do it.
You can bring it almost any problem. I’ve even asked it about personal work problems, which I’m a little ashamed to admit, but it was helpful. It actually gave me a good perspective on how I was wrong, so it was valuable in that way too.
The point is that you don’t need to already understand everything it can do before you start using it. You can ask it what is possible along the way.
The most important thing as you start using AI is to ask why it did something a certain way.
Test it. Ask questions. Understand the theory behind what it is doing and the decisions it made.
You will learn so much along the way.
That’s my favorite thing about all of this. To me, it’s not just doing my work. It’s making me better at my job, my career, and the other things around me because I’m learning as I do them.
It gives me the information I need because I ask for it.
It is easy to stop learning and simply have AI do everything for you. But it becomes so much more powerful when you also learn from what it is doing.
I’m obviously a little biased in how I use it because I work in tech and have a nonprofit, so the majority of my examples come from those areas. But there are literally hundreds of places where you can see what other people are building. Reddit is a great place to find examples of what people have made with Claude.
It’s truly amazing.
Something else that is important to note is that it takes a minute.
It won’t always get things right on the first try, and that’s okay because we don’t get things right on the first try either, right?
You have to be a little patient. Obviously, some people expect that because it is a machine, it should understand them perfectly on the first try. At the same time, I think there is a lot of value in seeing the different iterations and continuing to make the result better.
Something that has become super popular recently is building a prompt in a way that allows it to test and improve its own work.
There are things called loops, and then there is an even more advanced version called graphs. You can look into those if you’re interested.
Long story short, instead of asking:
Hey, can you make this presentation? This is what I want.
And then reviewing and iterating on every version yourself, you can ask it something like:
Hey, I want this type of presentation, and I want it to look this way. Please continue iterating until you reach the quality of a 90% presentation. At the end of each loop, grade the quality of the presentation and repeat the process until you reach the expected quality.
You can also give it specific things to evaluate during each loop, such as:
That said, these types of prompts can be expensive in terms of your usage. There is a limit to how much you can use Claude, so I try to use this sparingly.
It can also occasionally start going in the wrong direction. Because of that, I’ve asked it to create quality gates where, before it moves into the next loop, I can review the work myself and make sure it is still heading in the right direction.
That way, it doesn’t spend a ton of time and usage going down a really bad path.
Another key thing to mention is the Claude Chrome extension.
It can look at what you are seeing inside the browser, review things with you, and visually compare what it is creating with what is already online.
It is super, super helpful when you are trying to accomplish something inside the browser, and honestly, it’s fantastic.
Claude is not the only AI tool I use.
I still use ChatGPT for its voice agent because I think it feels better and more natural. I use it to run mock interviews, jot down ideas, and sometimes just have a sounding board.
I’ll often talk through the information for a presentation, Word document, or Excel file in ChatGPT and then transfer it into Claude Cowork to actually build it.
Another amazing tool I use is Wispr Flow AI.
I barely type anymore. This entire article was not originally written or typed out. I talked to my computer using Wispr Flow, and it transcribed everything.
It is incredibly good at it.
Ever since I started using it, I’ve barely typed anything at all. It’s fantastic. I honestly don’t know how to go back, and now it’s kind of annoying whenever I’m somewhere I can’t use it.
I’m also curious to learn more about Perplexity. I haven’t explored it much, but people say it’s good for research, so I can’t really speak to that yet.
Claude is something I now use on a day-to-day basis, and it has completely changed my outlook.
More than being a product manager, I feel like a product builder now because I can finally go and build the hundreds of ideas I’ve had, even if some of them are only for myself.
That is so exciting.
I can build a life and task tracker that helps me review whether I’m doing things the way I want to. I can work on my website and photography projects. I can potentially create automations for social media and posting, which I’ve never been very good or consistent at.
All of these things become exciting when using AI because ideas that once felt too complicated or difficult to start now feel possible.
I think that’s the most important thing.
Use it to learn. Use it to build. Use it to become excited about the things you’ve always wanted to do but can finally do now.
So, that is my not-so-definitive, very quick guide to how I recommend people use AI as of August 6, 2026.
What is one thing you have always wanted to build, learn, or finally get done that AI could help you start today?