Intro to Claude Cowork

• How Cowork connects to a folder on your computer
• What it can read, rename, move, and summarize
• The five-step workflow we'll use today

• Click the Work in a project dropdown below the prompt window
• Select Choose a different folder at the bottom of the menu
• Navigate to your folder: Desktop, Downloads, or the Sterling practice folder — click Open
• The folder name will appear in the dropdown confirming it's connected

• Ask Cowork to tell you what's in the folder: file types, document categories, anything notable
• See how it reads file contents, not just filenames

Take a look at my folder and tell me what's in it. What types of documents are there? What topics or projects do they seem to relate to? Give me an overview before we do anything else.

• Ask Cowork to suggest a clean folder structure based on what it found
• Ask for a consistent file naming convention; review before anything moves
• Approve the plan, then let Cowork execute

Based on what you found, suggest a clean folder structure I could use to organize these files. Don't move anything yet; just show me the plan first.

The files in this folder have inconsistent names. Suggest a clean naming convention like YYYY-MM-DD_VendorName_DocumentType, and show me what each file would be renamed to. Don't rename anything yet; just show me the before and after.

That looks good. Go ahead and rename the files and organize them into the folder structure you proposed.

• Now that files have meaningful names, ask for summaries across the set
• Get a one-paragraph summary per document, plus an overall summary

Now that the files are organized, read through all of them and give me a one-paragraph summary of each document, followed by a short overall summary of what the whole set covers.

• Ask Cowork to flag anything time-sensitive, overdue, or unfinished
• Pull out specific action items, deadlines, and decisions across all documents
• Export as a clean list ready to paste into an email or task manager

Scan through all the documents and flag anything that looks time-sensitive, overdue, or that requires action soon. Include due dates and amounts where relevant.

Pull out all action items, deadlines, and decisions from these documents and list them in a clean format I can paste into an email or project tracker.

You've completed the full workflow once. Now try it on a different folder, go deeper on a step, or experiment with your own prompts. Kevin circulates to help.

• Open floor: what worked, what surprised you, what didn't go as expected?
• Your homework: run this workflow on one real folder this week
• Share your feedback:  Give Feedback

• Kevin stays on for anyone who wants to keep working, go deeper, or try something new
• Bring a harder folder, a different use case, or just questions you didn't get to ask
• Drop in and out as you like — no structured agenda

• Focus: Communication automation and task routing
• Takeaway: Automate email drafts, chat notifications for priority senders, and task conversion