Do These 5 Things First

You commented “Claude,” so here it is. Five things that turn Claude from a chatbot you type questions into, into an assistant that actually does work for you. Most people never get past the basic chat window, and that’s exactly why these five feel like a secret even though they’re sitting right there in the settings menu.

Before anything else, go to Settings, then Capabilities, and switch on “Code execution and file creation.” That one toggle is what unlocks most of what’s below, so don’t skip it.

How to set up a Skill

Open a normal chat and tell Claude what you want it to remember how to do. Something like “I want to create a skill for quarterly business reviews.” Upload a few real examples of how you actually write that thing, templates, past drafts, whatever exists. This is the step people skip, and it’s the exact step that makes the Skill sound like you instead of a robot. Answer whatever clarifying questions come back, and let Claude build and save the file.

Once it’s saved, go to Settings, then Capabilities, then Skills, and toggle it on. To check it worked, ask for the real task rather than saying “use my skill.” Watch for Claude mentioning the Skill by name while it’s thinking. If you don’t see that, it didn’t fire.

This needs Pro or higher, and Skills don’t carry over between claude.ai, Claude Code, and the API, so you’d need to build it again in each place you use it.

How to set up a scheduled task

Go to claude.ai, open the Home tab, and select Cowork at the bottom left of the message box. Click Scheduled in the sidebar, then New Task in the top right. You can either describe what you want in plain language and let Claude build it, or fill in the task name, prompt, and frequency yourself.

Pick daily, weekly, hourly, or manual for how often it runs. A solid first one is a 7am briefing summarizing your emails, Slack, or calendar from the last 24 hours. Write the prompt with actual detail, since nobody’s there to clarify it for Claude once it’s running. Group by sender, flag anything urgent, keep it under 200 words, that kind of thing. Your laptop can be off the whole time. It runs on Anthropic’s end, not yours.

This one’s in beta and rolling out to Pro accounts gradually, so if you don’t see Cowork yet, that’s not a mistake on your part.

How to build and publish an artifact

Click Artifacts in your sidebar. Describe the problem you’re solving rather than the exact thing you want built, answer Claude’s follow up questions, then say “can you create this for me.” It’ll open in a window next to the chat.

Once you’re happy with it, click Publish and copy the link. Anyone you send it to can open and use it without a Claude account. Keep in mind unpublishing is permanent. You can’t republish that same artifact again once it’s taken down, so treat publishing as a real decision, not a test button.

Free and Pro accounts can publish artifacts publicly. Team and Enterprise accounts can only share inside their own organization, so a free account actually has more reach here than a paid business one.

How to add a plugin

Go to Customize, then Plugins, then Browse Plugins, and hit Install on whichever one fits your work. There’s a default marketplace already loaded, plus separate ones for legal, financial services, and life sciences if any of those apply to you.

Install just one to start. Give it a real task from your actual week in a fresh chat, not a test question, and judge it on whether it noticeably changes what Claude gives you back. Only add a second plugin once the first one has proven itself. Stack too many at once and Claude gets confused about which instructions to follow.

This needs any paid plan, so anything above Free.

How to install Claude in Chrome

Go to the Chrome Web Store, search for Claude, and confirm the listing is published by Anthropic before installing anything. Click Add to Chrome, sign in with your usual account, then pin the extension to your toolbar so you don’t forget it’s there.

Once it’s installed, it can see the page you’re on, click through forms, open and switch tabs, and take screenshots while it works. There are real limits built in. It won’t touch adult sites, it asks permission before anything financial, and it refuses things like stock trades or handling sensitive personal data outright. You’re still responsible for anything it sends or submits, so treat it as a capable assistant, not an autopilot.

A good first test is something repetitive, like updating a CRM entry after a call. Be specific about which tab and which field, since it can’t guess which browser tab you mean.

Where to start

Don’t try to set up all five in one sitting. Flip the code execution toggle first since it takes seconds and unlocks the rest. Then install the Chrome extension and use it once today. After that, build one Skill, publish one artifact, add one plugin, and set up your first scheduled task, in whatever order fits your week. One a day gets you through all five faster than you’d think, and doing even three of these puts you ahead of most people who use Claude.