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Hey, Josh here 👋
Here is something I notice when people show me how they use Claude.
They spend the first two or three messages of every single conversation explaining who they are. Where they live. That they are retired, or still working, or somewhere in between. That they want it in plain English. That they do not want a wall of bullet points.
Then they open a new chat tomorrow and do the whole thing again.
You can write it down once. It takes about fifteen minutes on a Sunday and it changes every answer you get afterwards. Here is exactly what to put in it, and one thing to deliberately leave out that almost nobody knows about.
The six things worth writing down
Most guides tell you to describe your goals and your personality. That is the wrong list. These six are the ones that actually change what comes back.
1 |
Where you are
Country at minimum, and the state or region if you have one. This single line stops you being told about American tax rules, American healthcare and American consumer law for the rest of your life.
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2 |
What your days actually contain
Not your job title. What you actually deal with. Two grandchildren on Thursdays, a rental property, a small business with three staff, a parent you help with paperwork. This is the line that stops the generic advice.
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3 |
The words you do not want used
Name them. Mine bans jargon and any sentence that starts by telling me what a great question I have asked. Yours might ban bullet points, or headings, or being called a rockstar.
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How long an answer should be
Be specific or it will ignore you. “Be concise” does nothing. “Answer in under 150 words unless I ask for more, and never give me a numbered list of more than five things” works.
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What you want it to do when it is not sure
This is the one almost everybody misses. Tell it to say so plainly, and to tell you what it would need in order to be sure. Otherwise it fills the gap and sounds exactly as confident as when it is right.
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6 |
The thing you always have to say twice
Everybody has one. Think of the correction you find yourself typing over and over. That is the single highest value line in your whole brief, so put it in first.
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Fill this in and paste it
Copy the whole thing, replace the brackets, and delete any line that does not apply to you.
I live in [country, and state or region].
My situation: [two or three plain sentences about what your weeks actually contain. Work, family, property, anything you regularly deal with.]
How to talk to me: plain English, no jargon. If a technical word cannot be avoided, put what it means in brackets straight after it.
Length: keep answers under [150] words unless I ask for more. Never give me a list of more than five things.
Never: [the words, formats or habits you do not want. Be specific.]
When you are not sure: say so plainly, tell me how sure you are, and tell me what you would need in order to be sure. Do not fill the gap.
The thing I always have to repeat: [your one correction].
Before a long answer, ask me one clarifying question if it would change what you write.
Where it goes: click your initials in the bottom left corner, then Settings, then Instructions for Claude. Paste it in there and it applies to everything from then on. If you would rather not touch settings at all, just paste it at the top of any conversation that matters. It works either way.
Give it fifteen minutes. The difference shows up on the very next question you ask.
If you would rather not do it by hand
You have just seen how much of this is decisions rather than typing. Working out what to put in each line is the slow part, and it is the part most people give up on halfway through.
That is what The Complete Claude System is. Memory set up so it remembers you properly, four projects so nothing gets lost between conversations, and five ready-made setups you paste in once and never think about again. It is the done version of the page above, plus everything that sits around it. Thirty days, money back, no forms.
The one thing to leave out
This is the part that surprised me, and it goes against what every other guide will tell you.
MIT researchers reported in February this year that personalisation features made four out of five models they tested more agreeable, not less. The more the thing knows about you, the more inclined it is to tell you what you would like to hear.
Which gives you a clean rule for writing the page.
Put your facts in. Leave your opinions out.
Where you live is a fact. What you deal with on a Thursday is a fact. How long you want an answer is a fact.
“I think the insurance company is being unreasonable” is an opinion, and if you write that into a permanent brief you have quietly instructed it to agree with you about insurance companies forever. Keep your views in the conversation where you can change your mind.
That is the whole thing. Fifteen minutes, one page, and you never explain yourself from scratch again.
Hit reply and tell me your line six, the correction you are tired of typing. I am collecting them, and I read every single reply.
Talk soon,
Josh
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