AI for Life

Lesson 8

Complete One Guided Real-Life Workflow

You complete one real workflow from start to finish and walk away with a finished artifact: a polished email or document, a clear decision document, or a written recommendation in your own words. You will have used the whole course in a single task, which is the point of everything up to here.

Reading about a skill and using it are different things. This lesson is where it becomes yours. When you finish, you will not just know what Claude can do, you will have done a real piece of work with it, the same way you will keep doing from now on.

~30 min This whole lesson works on a free Claude account, in Chat, on a computer or a phone. You only type or paste text, so no paid plan is needed. There is one optional, clearly marked section that shows how the same workflow would scale up on a paid plan, but you do not need it to finish. See content/capabilities.yaml (chat, mobile-apps).
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Phase 1: Set Up Your One Real Workflow

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On a phone
You can do this whole capstone on a phone. Everything here happens in Chat, which is on the free plan and the mobile app (see content/capabilities.yaml: chat, mobile-apps). You only type or paste text, never a file. In the Claude app the message box is at the bottom, and where a step says "press Enter" to send, you tap the send button instead. The one optional paid section is marked clearly, and you can skip it and still finish everything.

Pick Your One Workflow

Tool: Chat ~3 min
This is the finish line of the course, and you cross it by doing, not reading. You are going to take one real task all the way through, start to end, and keep what you make. Pick something you actually have on your plate right now. Real beats tidy every time. Choose one of these three tracks. Each ends with something you can genuinely use: Track A, clean it up. You have messy notes, or a rambling voice memo you had turned into text, and you want one clear email or document out of it. (Most phones can turn a voice memo into text, or you can just type a few rough sentences.) Track B, decide it. You have a real decision to make: a trip to plan, an event to organize, a family choice to weigh. You want to end with a clear decision document you could share. Track C, choose it well. You are picking between a few options for a purchase or a choice, and you want to decide on purpose, with the facts checked, not just grab the first thing. Pick the one that is most useful to you today. You only do one. There is no wrong choice, and no track is harder than the others.
Note
Not sure which fits? If your task is mostly "make this messy thing readable," that is Track A. If it is "help me decide," that is Track B. If it is "help me choose between options," that is Track C. Still torn? Pick the one you would be glad to have finished by the end of this lesson.

Name the Outcome First

Tool: Chat ~4 min
Before any prompt, do the thing Lesson 2 taught: say clearly what you want to end up with. The single biggest difference between a great result and a frustrating one is whether you named the target before you started. In one sentence, finish this: "When I am done, I will have ______." For Track A that might be "one warm, clear email to my landlord." For Track B, "a one-page plan for the family reunion with a recommended date." For Track C, "a short written pick between three blenders, with my reasons." Get it down to a single, plain sentence. Then let Claude sharpen it with you. Open Claude (you start in Chat, which is free), paste this, and send it (press Enter, or tap the send button on a phone):
Prompt: copy, fill in your outcome, and paste into Chat 
I'm about to work on one task with you and I want us aimed at the same target. Here is the outcome I want: [WRITE YOUR ONE-SENTENCE OUTCOME]. Ask me up to three quick questions to make sure you understand it, then restate the goal in one clear sentence I can keep in front of me while we work.

Answer its questions in plain words. When it restates your goal and it sounds right, you have your outcome. Keep that sentence handy. Everything else in this lesson serves it. You can keep this sentence general for now, no real names or addresses needed yet, and there is a full note on what to leave out just before you paste anything real.

Choose Your Tool and Say Why

Tool: Chat ~3 min
Now the Lesson 7 move: pick the tool, and be able to say why. For all three tracks in this lesson, the right tool is Chat, and here is the why, out loud: your task is thinking and writing, done in a conversation, and Chat is the tool for thinking and writing. It is also free and works on a computer or a phone (see content/capabilities.yaml: chat, mobile-apps), so nothing is in your way. That is the honest answer for a first real workflow. You could reach for a bigger tool, but you should not need to here. Cowork and Claude Code exist for jobs that are clearly bigger than a conversation, real work across many files, or something structured being built and changed step by step (capabilities.yaml: cowork, claude-code). Those need a paid plan and a computer. Today, Chat is the fit, and knowing that is the skill.
Note
Say it to yourself in one line: "I'm using Chat because my task is thinking and writing, and Chat is free on any device." That sentence, naming the tool and the reason, is exactly the judgment Lesson 7 was about. You just used it.

Phase 2: Do the Work and Finish It

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Safety first

Before you paste anything real

This lesson works best with something real, which means you may paste personal notes, a voice memo, or details about other people. That is normal, and it is how Claude helps. But leave out the truly sensitive parts: full account, card, or Social Security numbers, passwords, and other people's private details that are not yours to share. If a detail is not needed for your outcome, drop it or replace it with a placeholder like [MY ADDRESS]. When in doubt, leave it out. This is the "guard what you share" habit from Lesson 7, and it costs you nothing.

Turn Your Raw Material Into a First Draft

Tool: Chat ~6 min
Time to make the first real version. Below are three starter prompts, one per track. Use only the one for the track you picked. Copy it, fill in the bracketed part with your own material, and send it. You will get back a first draft, not a final one, and that is exactly what you want: something real to react to and improve.
Track A prompt (clean it up): copy, paste your notes, and send 
I'm going to paste some rough material: messy notes or a voice memo that was turned into text. It's out of order and unpolished. Turn it into one clear, well-organized [EMAIL or SHORT DOCUMENT] that says what I actually mean. Keep my meaning and keep it sounding like me, but fix the flow, the order, and the grammar. If something important seems missing or unclear, ask me before guessing. Here is the material: [PASTE YOUR NOTES OR TRANSCRIPT].
Track B prompt (decide it): copy, describe the decision, and send 
I need to make a real decision and I want to think it through clearly, then end with something I can share. Here is the situation: [DESCRIBE THE TRIP, EVENT, OR CHOICE, WHO IT AFFECTS, AND ANY LIMITS LIKE BUDGET, DATES, OR MUST-HAVES]. First ask me anything you need to understand it. Then lay out the realistic options, the main trade-offs of each, and what would push me toward one. Keep it plain and honest, and tell me if you think I'm missing an option.
Track C prompt (choose it well): copy, describe the choice, and send 
I'm choosing between a few options for [DESCRIBE THE PURCHASE OR CHOICE] and I want to decide well, not just fast. Help me build a simple way to compare them: the features or factors that actually matter for someone like me, the questions I should ask, and the specific facts I'll need to check for myself from the seller or an official source. Do not rely on remembered prices or specs, since those can be out of date. Give me a short checklist of what to go find, and I'll bring the real numbers back to you.
Note
Read what comes back, then keep going with plain follow-ups: "make it shorter," "warmer," "add a line about the deadline," "give me one more option." A conversation is the point. You steer, Claude drafts.

Check It Before You Rely On It

Tool: Chat ~4 min
This is the step that makes your result trustworthy, and it is the boundary from Lesson 7: Claude can sound completely sure and still be wrong, and it may not know very recent things. So before you send, book, buy, or share anything, check the facts. Scan your draft for anything a reader would act on: names, numbers, dates, prices, addresses, claims about how something works. For Track C especially, this is where you go get the current price, dates, and details yourself, from the seller or an official page, and bring them back. Claude helps you think. You confirm the facts. That split is what a skilled user does every time. Let Claude help you find what to check. Paste your draft after this prompt:
Prompt: copy, paste your draft after it, and send 
Here is my draft. Before I rely on it, list every fact, name, number, date, and price in it that I should double-check against a real source, and tell me which ones you are least sure about or that might be out of date. Do not guess the correct values. Just point me at exactly what to verify. Here is the draft: [PASTE YOUR DRAFT].

Then go confirm those specific things yourself, from a trustworthy source. A thirty second check is cheap. Being confidently wrong in front of someone is not. If anything you paste in touches money, medical, or legal matters, remember Lesson 7: Claude helps you understand it, but a person makes the call.

Shape the Final Version

Tool: Chat ~5 min
You have a checked draft. Now make it the finished thing, the actual artifact you set out to produce. If you went and gathered new facts (a current price, real dates, the details you looked up for a purchase or plan), paste those into the chat first so Claude works with the confirmed numbers, not the old guesses. Then tell Claude who it is for and the exact form you want, and give it one last polish. Copy this, fill in the brackets, and send it:
Prompt: copy, fill in the brackets, and send 
Make this the final version. It is for [WHO WILL READ OR USE IT], and I want it as [AN EMAIL / A ONE-PAGE DOCUMENT / A SHORT DECISION DOCUMENT WITH OPTIONS AND A RECOMMENDATION / A SHORT WRITTEN RECOMMENDATION WITH MY REASONS]. Tighten it, fix the tone for that reader, and lay it out cleanly with clear sections or a short list if that helps. Keep it in my own words, not fancier than I would actually write. Give me the finished version I can copy out and use.

For Track C, add one line at the end in your own words: which option you are choosing and why. The recommendation should be yours. Claude helped you weigh it, but you make the pick.

Note

Optional, only if you have a paid plan

Everything above finishes on the free plan, in Chat, on a phone. This is just to show you the same job scales up when you are ready, no need to do it now. On a paid plan and a computer, Cowork could take a whole folder of your material, notes, receipts, files, and produce the finished document for you start to finish, instead of you pasting pieces into Chat (see content/capabilities.yaml: cowork). And if your artifact is something structured you will keep changing, like a simple one-page website version of your plan, Claude Code could build it and let you approve each change (claude-code, claude-code-desktop-tab). Both need a paid plan and a computer, and if you do not see Claude Code in your app, either your plan does not include it or your app is out of date. You do not need either to complete this lesson.
If something is not quite right
  • The draft missed the point of what I wanted. Tell it plainly what is off and re-share your one-sentence outcome. "That is too formal, and you missed that this is for my sister" fixes more than starting over does.
  • Claude gave me a fact or number and I am not sure it is right. Assume it needs checking. Confirm names, prices, dates, and specifics against a real source before you rely on them. That is the verify step, not a failure.
  • Pasting a lot of text on my phone is awkward. Break it up. Send your material in two or three shorter messages, then ask Claude to work with all of it together. It remembers the conversation.
  • The optional paid section mentions tools I do not have. Skip it. It is clearly marked optional and changes nothing about finishing this lesson. Your whole workflow runs in free Chat.

Save It, Then Look Back

Tool: Chat ~5 min
Last step, and the most satisfying one. Copy your finished artifact out of Chat and put it where you will actually use it: paste the email into your mail app, save the document or plan in your notes, keep the recommendation somewhere you will see it when you decide. That saved artifact is proof you did the whole thing. Then take one minute to look back. You just ran the full arc: you named the outcome, chose Chat and said why, worked the prompts for your track, checked the facts before trusting them, and produced something real. That is exactly how you will use Claude from now on, on your own tasks, without a lesson telling you each step.
That is the whole course in one real task: name the outcome, pick the tool, do the work with good prompts, check the facts, and finish something you can use. You have now done every kind of work this course set out to teach, on a task that was actually yours. That is not a small thing. Well done, and welcome to using Claude for real.