Four words: turn this into a skill. It saves the whole process, the steps, the format, what you asked for. Next time you ask for it by name. Plus the 5 skills a business of one should save first.
You did a task in Claude. You cleaned up your meeting notes into a client summary, and it took 4 tries to get the format right. Then you closed the window. Next week you will do the 4 tries again.
A skill is that task, saved. The steps, the format, the rules you gave it along the way, all in one file Claude reads whenever the job matches. Like a recipe card taped inside the cupboard door: you do not remember the recipe, you open the door.
Saving one takes 4 words. Anything you do by hand twice, the second time, you type them.
Finish the task first. Get it right, correct it until the result is what you wanted. Then, instead of closing the window, type this.
Turn this into a skill. Keep every step we just did, the format of the finished result, and every rule I gave you along the way. Name it after the job it does. Ask me one question if anything important is missing, then save it.
Someone who runs a daily show has 124 of these, and they have run more than 6,000 times. He did not build them on a weekend. He built them one at a time, every time he caught himself repeating something. That is the whole method.
Each card is the first-run prompt: do the job once with it, correct the result until it is right, then type the 4 words. The skill remembers the corrections.
The call ends, the summary is done, the client has it in an hour.
Here are my notes from today's call with [client]: [paste]. Write a client summary in 3 parts: what we decided, who does what by when, and open questions. Under 150 words, plain English, written to [client's first name]. Dates as Mon 25 Aug. End with "reply if I got anything wrong."
The Friday email every retainer client should get and most do not.
Here is what happened this week on [client]'s project: [paste your notes or bullets]. Write a weekly update under 200 words: what got done, what is next, the one thing I need from them. Warm, direct, written to [first name]. No apologies, no promises on dates I have not confirmed.
The email you put off for 9 days because you do not know how to say it.
[Client] has an invoice for [amount] that was due [date]. This is nudge number [1, 2 or 3]. Write the email. Friendly and clear, under 80 words. Assume they forgot. Include the amount, the date and how to pay. For nudge 3, add one sentence on what happens next, without threatening.
You recorded the video. This writes the words under it.
Here is the transcript of a 45 second video I recorded: [paste]. Write the caption: line 1 is the one sentence that makes someone stop, then 3 short lines that add what the video did not say, then one question. Single line breaks only. Under 90 words. Do not repeat the video. [Your rules, e.g. no em dashes, no hashtags in the body.]
Notes in, first draft out, in your structure and your price.
Here are my notes from a discovery call with [prospect]: [paste]. Draft a proposal in this order: their problem in their words, what I would do in 3 steps, what is included, the price of [package] at [price], the next step. Under 400 words, written to them, no jargon. Flag anything they said that I did not answer.
Do these 5 and you have a Friday that runs itself. Then keep going, one at a time, every time you catch yourself doing something by hand for the second time.
A skill saved from one task knows that one task. It does not know the rest of your business, and after a few weeks you will notice the same 3 corrections coming back. That is the moment to open the skill and put them in for good.
You do not need to be technical for any of it. A skill is a set of instructions saved in a file called SKILL.md, and you change those instructions by talking to Claude in plain English. Claude does the typing.
Every skill lives in a folder on your computer, inside one called .claude/skills (personal skills) or a .claude/skills folder inside a project. Before you change anything, make a copy of that folder somewhere safe. When a skill gets updated, the update overwrites the original and takes your edits with it, with no warning.
If you cannot find the folder, ask Claude, "where is this skill saved on my computer?" and it will tell you.
This prompt is written for the skills you save with the 4 words. Fill in the brackets and paste it into Claude.
I want to customize my [skill name, e.g. client summary] skill so it works the way my business does. Here is my business: [what you do and who you serve]. The job this skill does: [one sentence]. The corrections I keep making: [e.g. it keeps adding a greeting I do not use, it forgets to put dates as Mon 25 Aug, it goes over 150 words]. My rules for anything with my name on it: [e.g. no em dashes, no exclamation marks, never promise a date I have not confirmed, sign off with just my name]. Where I use this: [Claude app, Claude Cowork, Claude Code, or ChatGPT]. Rewrite the skill so every one of those corrections is a rule it never breaks, keep the steps in the same order, and tell me in plain English what you changed. Leave the section at the very top between the dashes exactly as it is.
What to tell it