Give Claude Code an hour!
Five things you do once, and every task after them benefits. An hour of setup after which Claude Code works completely differently from day one.
Most people start Claude Code, tell it something, get an average result and decide it isn't worth it.
Yet what they're missing isn't ability or a better model. They're missing five things that fit into a single morning — and that every task after them builds on.
It isn't a course. It's a checklist you tick off, and you're done.
- 5 minutes Open it on real work
- 15 minutes Write the brief into a file
- 10 minutes Tell it how you want to work
- 15 minutes Give it the facts about your work
- 15 minutes See one thing through to the end
First, choose what to spend the hour on
before you startThe hour only starts once you know what should exist at the end of it. It's not a formality — it's the one decision nobody else can make for you.
Pick something where you can tell whether the result is good. Your own work, not an exercise. Something you have to hand in anyway.
And the first time, feel free to scale it down: not a whole company system, but one spreadsheet, one overview, one page. A small thing seen through to the end tells you far more than a big one left half-done.
Do it now: write down in one sentence what should exist at the end of the hour. If it sounds like three days' work, cross out half.
Open it on real work
5 minutesNot on a test folder. On the one where you have something in progress that's waiting for you today anyway.
Claude Code runs on a folder and sees into it. What isn't in it, it doesn't know about — and what it can't work out, it makes up.
A test project is the fastest way to learn nothing. With your own work you can tell straight away whether the result is usable.
Do it now: choose a folder with material for something you have to hand in. Open it in the app.
Write the brief into a file
15 minutesThe most important file in the folder isn't the one with the data. It's the one with the brief.
It's not about length, it's about precision. Every decision you don't make, it makes for you — and makes it differently.
A brief in a file has one advantage over a brief in the window: it stays. Next time you just adjust it instead of making it up all over again.
Do it now: create a file called
brief.md. Write in it what should come out, for whom, in what format — and what definitely must not be in it.
Tell it how you want to work
10 minutesCLAUDE.md holds standing instructions. You write them once and they always apply, so you don't have to repeat them in every conversation.
They cover how it should talk to you, what to stick to and what not. Nothing technical — it's a description of how you want to be worked with.
Do it now: download the sample CLAUDE.md, delete what doesn't apply to you, and rewrite it for yourself.
Give it the facts about your work
15 minutesThe agent has no way of knowing what you do, what you call things and which numbers are valid. Until you tell it, it fills in the gaps.
Four rules that pay off: facts, not marketing · short files instead of one long one · numbers in one place · a date on everything that ages.
Do it now: write three short files — what you do, what you call things, where the valid numbers are.
See one thing through to the end
15 minutesThe rest of the hour isn't for setting things up. It's for the result.
Ask for a file, not an answer. Not "explain to me how to do it", but "make a page out of this and save it here". That's what turns a chat into a tool.
And the first result isn't the last. You say what's wrong, and it gets fixed. Ten times if need be — that's quicker than describing it perfectly the first time.
Do it now: give it the task from step 1. When something comes out, have it revised twice.
Three switches, one minute
- Mode — Auto for everyday work, Plan before you let it loose on something bigger. You can change it at any time.
- Model — Sonnet for most things, Opus when Sonnet doesn't quite get there.
- Dictation — speaking is faster than typing, and on a long brief you'll notice.
What not to do
- Don't start with a sample project. With someone else's brief you can't tell whether the result is good.
- Don't write the brief in the window. It disappears with the conversation, and next time you start again.
- Don't expect it to remember on its own. Whatever should apply next time has to be in a file.
Where next
- Getting started — each of these steps in detail
- Next steps — knowledge base, connecting email and data, tokens
The full guide with all the details is at claudecode.pepamech.cz/en — Claude Code for Grandma.