Start Here
The tool matters less than you think
The number one thing that stops beginners is picking. ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini or the new one that launched this week. People spend a month deciding and never actually start.
Here is the thing: the tools change every few weeks. These four things do not. They were true two years ago and they will be true two years from now, because they are about how you set the thing up, not which logo is on it.
So pick whichever one you already pay for, or Claude if you are starting fresh, and do these four things in it. Every step below has the click path for each major tool.
The Map
All four, at a glance
In order. Each one builds on the one before it.
Stop using chat, start using an assistant
Chat answers questions. An assistant does work. This is the single biggest jump, and it is a different product, not a different prompt.
Tell it who you are, once
Paste the interview prompt. It asks you questions, then writes a block you paste into settings. Every future chat starts knowing you.
Connect it to your tools
Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Notion, Slack. This is what lets it act on your behalf instead of talking about acting.
Build your first skill
A skill is a saved recipe for one task. Build one, type "/" to run it forever. This is where it stops being a toy.
Thing 1
Stop using chat, start using an assistant
If you are treating your AI like a search engine, typing a question and copy-pasting the answer somewhere else, throw that habit out. That is the chat feature, and it is the smallest version of what these tools do.
The assistant versions are a different product. Claude Cowork and ChatGPT Work take a goal instead of a question. They read your files, write new ones, use your connected tools, and take multiple steps on their own instead of you being the middleman between every one.
Ask a question, get an answer becomes give it a goal, get a result. That is the whole jump.
Claude
CoworkPick this if you want the most capable version of what this guide describes. Cowork works out of a real folder on your computer, reads and writes files, and remembers across sessions.
Where: Switch from Chat to Cowork in the desktop app
ChatGPT
WorkPick this if you already pay for ChatGPT and do not want to switch. Work mode does the same category of thing: goals in, results out, with access to your connected tools.
Where: Switch from Chat to Work in the app
Gemini
No true equivalent yetBest if you live entirely inside Google Workspace and mostly want it reading your Docs, Sheets, and Gmail. Steps 2 and 3 still work. Step 4 does not, since there is no saved-skill equivalent.
Where: Use it inside Workspace, not as your main assistant
Do not overthink this
Pick the one you already pay for. If you pay for none of them, start with Claude and Cowork. You can switch later and redo steps 2 through 4 in under 20 minutes, because you will have the prompts saved.
Thing 2 — Prompt 1
Tell it who you are, once
This is the highest-leverage 10 minutes in the whole guide. Paste the prompt below into a fresh chat. It interviews you one question at a time, then writes a personal instructions block.
Copy that block and paste it into your settings. The prompt tells you exactly where for whichever tool you are on, but here they are up front: Claude is Settings then Personalization. ChatGPT is Settings then Personalization then Custom Instructions. Gemini is Settings then Saved Info.
From that moment on, every new chat starts already knowing who you are, what you do, and how you want to be talked to. You never re-explain yourself at the top of a conversation again.
Copy-paste prompt
I want you to learn everything about me so that every answer you give me from now on is actually built for me, instead of generic.
Interview me. One question at a time, and wait for my answer before the next one. Do not dump a list of questions on me at once. Keep it conversational, like a friend getting to know me, not a form.
Cover these areas, roughly in this order:
- Who I am. Name, what I actually do all day, what I am responsible for.
- My work. The kind of tasks that fill my week, the tools I use, who I answer to, who answers to me.
- What I am working toward. The next 6 to 12 months, at work and outside it.
- How I want you to talk to me. Direct or warm? Short answers or thorough ones? Should you push back when you think I am wrong, or just do what I asked?
- My level. How much do I already know about AI, and about my own field? Where should you explain versus assume?
- What I hate. The things AI does that annoy me. Over-explaining, hedging, asking permission constantly, corporate voice, whatever it is.
- Anything else that would change how you help me. Time zone, constraints, health stuff, family stuff, whatever I want you to know.
Go one question deeper when an answer is vague. If I say "I work in marketing," ask what kind and for who. The specifics are the whole point.
When you have enough, stop asking and write me a personal instructions block. Rules for it:
- Written in second person, as direct instructions to an AI ("Zach works in X. Default to short answers. Never...")
- Under 400 words. This has to fit in a settings box.
- Concrete. "Lead with the answer, then the reasoning" beats "be helpful."
- Include a line telling you to use my first name in every reply.
- End with a short list of things to never do, pulled from what I told you annoys me.
Show me the block and ask if anything is wrong before we call it done.
Then tell me exactly where to paste it in whichever tool I am using:
- Claude: Settings, then Personalization (some versions call it Profile or Personal preferences)
- ChatGPT: Settings, then Personalization, then Custom Instructions
- Gemini: Settings, then Saved Info
Ask me which one I am on and give me the click path for that one.
Answer honestly, and slowly
The interview is only as good as what you put into it. If you give one-word answers you get a generic block. The question about what annoys you is the one most people rush, and it is the one that does the most work.
Thing 3
Connect it to your tools
Out of the box your AI can only talk. Connectors give it hands. Once a tool is connected it can see inside that tool and act there, instead of you copy-pasting back and forth all day.
The click path: Settings, then Customize, then Connectors. Search for what you actually use and turn it on. On ChatGPT the same idea lives under Settings then Connected apps.
Gmail
Triage the inbox, draft replies, chase follow-ups you forgot about.
Calendar
Real agendas, meeting prep, and a morning brief that knows your actual day.
Drive or Docs
Pull context from files you already have, and write new ones where you work.
Anything else
Search it in the connectors list. If it is not there, google the tool name plus "MCP connector." It exists for roughly 95% of tools.
Test it worked
Ask "what is on my calendar tomorrow?" You should get the real answer. If it offers to help you check instead, the connector is not live yet.
Thing 4 — Prompt 2
Build your first skill
If you do not know what a skill is: think of it as a recipe. A saved set of instructions for one specific task, so you never explain that task again. Build it once, run it forever.
Once it is built, you run it by typing / and then whatever you named it. That is it.
The prompt below does not ask you what to build, because most beginners do not know yet. It interviews you, finds the highest-leverage repeated task in your week, scores the candidates in front of you, then builds and tests the skill live.
Copy-paste prompt
I want to build my first AI skill. A skill is a saved set of instructions for one specific task, so I never have to re-explain it. Like a recipe you can run again. Do not ask me what to build. I do not know yet. That is your job. Find it, then build it. STEP 1 — FIND THE TASK Read everything you already know about me from my personal instructions. Then ask me a handful of questions to find repeated work in my week. Things like: - What did you do more than once last week? - What do you put off every single time it comes up? - What do you re-explain to me from scratch in every new chat? - What takes you an hour that feels like it should take ten minutes? Then score the candidates on three things and show me your work: - FREQUENCY: how often it comes up - DREAD: how much I hate it, or how often I skip it - DOABILITY: how cleanly you could actually do it with the tools I have connected Give me your top 3 as a ranked list with one line of reasoning each, then recommend the ONE to build first. Wait for me to confirm or override. STEP 2 — DESIGN IT BEFORE YOU BUILD IT Once I pick one, write out in plain English: - What the skill does, step by step - What it needs from me each time I run it - What it needs from my connected tools - What the finished output looks like - What it should do when something is missing or ambiguous Show me that plan. Do not build until I say go. STEP 3 — BUILD IT Build it as a real saved skill, not a chat message I have to copy around. Use the built-in skill creator if the tool I am on has one. Name it something short and obvious, one or two words, so it is easy to type. Tell me the exact name and how to run it. On most tools that is typing "/" followed by the skill name. STEP 4 — TEST IT IN FRONT OF ME Run the skill once, right now, on real input. We both watch it work. If the output is wrong, off-tone, or missing something, fix the skill file itself, not just this one run. Then run it again. Repeat until it is right. STEP 5 — TELL ME WHEN TO USE IT Tell me plainly: what triggers this skill, how often I should expect to run it, and if it should be on a schedule instead of manual, say so and set that up. One rule: build ONE skill and build it properly. Do not try to automate my whole week today. I want one thing that actually works, that I will use, and then I will come back and build the next one. Start with Step 1.
Tool note
Saved skills work in Claude and in ChatGPT. Gemini has no real equivalent yet, so if you are on Gemini, things 1 through 3 still land and thing 4 is the reason to try one of the other two.
Do Not
Three ways beginners lose the plot
Hunting for the perfect prompt
A good prompt on an unconfigured AI loses to an average prompt on a configured one. Do steps 2 and 3 and your prompts stop mattering as much.
Doing all four in one sitting and burning out
Step 2 alone changes every answer you get from now on. Do that today. The rest can wait for tomorrow.
Automating everything at once
One skill that you actually run beats five you built and forgot. Live with the first one for a week before building the second.
That Is The Guide
Where you are now
You are using the assistant instead of the chat box. It knows who you are. It can reach into your real tools. And you have one saved skill you can run with a slash.
That is a working AI setup. Not a subscription you feel guilty about, an actual system.
The tools will keep changing. These four things will not. That is why they are worth doing properly once.