Claude Usage Rules and Prompting Workflow

Rule 1: Stop prompting Claude. Add: "Use AskUserQuestions on [topic]." Let Claude interview you. No more guessing. A good prompt is the one Claude writes by asking. Rule 2: Pay $20/month for Claude. Opus 4.8 the only model worth it is on Claude Pro. Turn on Thinking + Effort: High (complex tasks). "Think before answering (maximum reasoning)." Rule 3: Don't connect everything to Claude. Every connector burns tokens. Most are useless. My only four: Granola, Gmail, Slack, Gamma. A connector reads your data on every call. Rule 4: Stop playing the AI game solo. Build shared Projects, Skills & shared rules. A tool one person "gets" dies. Pick one believer in AI, not ten. Convert them in a week, let them convert the rest. Rule 5: Use Claude even if your company won't pay. Pay the $20 yourself. Run it on your own files. Become someone who "gets AI" before a budget. By the time they approve it, you've built the system everyone depends on.