The Claude projectssetup

Part 2 of 3 in setting Claude up properly. If you haven’t done part 1 yet, start with the 5 minute Claude setup. Part 3 is the Claude toolkit setup.

You’ve set Claude up, and you still run out of messages before the week is over. Or it still feels like it’s meeting you for the first time every chat.

Both come down to 4 settings that a lot of people never touch. This guide walks through each one.

Before you start

What you need: a Claude account, ideally with part 1 done.

How long: about 15 minutes for all 4.

Tech skills: none. There’s no code and nothing you can break.

Free or paid: steps 1, 2 and 4 work on a free account. Free accounts can make up to 5 projects. Step 3, Research, needs a paid plan.

This guide doesn’t name the models on purpose. They change every few months. Look for the biggest one and the smaller, faster ones in the menu, and everything here still works.

The 4 settings at a glance

Setting	What it does for you	Time
1. Pick the right model	Stops you burning your limit on quick questions	1 min
2. A project for each part of your life	Every chat already knows the background	10 min
3. Turn on Research	Claude reads lots of sources first, and shows you where each answer came from	2 min
4. Thinking and effort	Claude works the hard problems through properly before it answers	1 min

Step 1: Pick the right model

Time: 1 minute.

Next to the send button there’s a small menu showing which version of Claude you’re talking to. The biggest one is the smartest, but it also uses up your limit the fastest. If it’s answering every quick question too, that’s where your messages are going.

Do this

1. Open a new chat.
2. Click the model name next to the send button.
3. For everyday stuff, pick a smaller, faster one. Click More models if you can’t see it.
4. Switch back to the biggest one when the job is genuinely hard.

You can switch halfway through a chat. If something starts simple and turns into real work, just change it and keep going.

Use a smaller, faster one for	Use the biggest one for
Quick questions	Long documents and real analysis
Rewording or tidying something you wrote	Anything with a lot of steps
Summaries and formatting	Work you’re actually sending to someone

You’ll know it worked when you get to the end of the week without hitting your limit, and the quick answers feel no different.

Step 2: Make a project for each part of your life

Time: 10 minutes.

A project is a folder for your chats. You put your files and instructions in once, and every chat you start inside it already knows the background. You never set the scene again.

The mistake is making one project called “Work” and throwing everything in it. Make one per area.

Do this

1. Click Projects in the left sidebar.
2. Click New project and name it after the area, like “Work” or “Money”.
3. Add the files that area always needs.
4. Fill in the project’s instructions. The prompt below does it for you.
5. From now on, start your chats inside that project.

Three good ones to start with

• Work. The stuff you keep re-explaining. Your clients, your team, how your business runs.
• Money. Your budget, what you’re saving for, the bills you’re trying to sort out.
• The side project. Whatever you’re building outside your job.

Let Claude write the project instructions

Every project has its own instructions box. Your instructions from part 1 apply everywhere. The project’s only apply inside that project. Paste this into a new chat:

I'm setting up a Claude project for one area of my life and I need the project instructions.

The area: [work / money / my side project / something else]
What I'll use it for: [the kinds of questions I'll ask in it]
What you'd need to know every time: [the background I'm sick of repeating]
What a bad answer looks like here: [what I don't want you doing]

Ask me questions one at a time until you've got enough. Push back if I'm vague.

Then write the project instructions as one block of plain text I can paste straight in. Under 200 words. Rules about how to answer first, background second.

Each project keeps its own memory. What you talk about in your Money project doesn’t leak into your Work project, which is what keeps the answers sharp.

You’ll know it worked when you start a chat inside a project, ask something with no background at all, and the answer already knows the context.

Step 3: Turn on Research

Time: 2 minutes.

Normally Claude answers from what it already knows. Research makes it go and read first, across lots of sources, then come back with links so you can check every claim.

Do this

1. Start a new chat and click the + in the message box.
2. Choose Research. Research only works with web search on, so if Claude asks, switch Web search on too.
3. Ask your question and give it a few minutes. It’s slower because it’s actually reading.

When it’s worth the wait

• Comparing options before you spend money
• Anything where out-of-date information would cost you
• Checking whether something you read is true
• Getting up to speed on a company, a product or a market

Open the links. The whole point of Research is that it shows you where everything came from. A source you never click isn’t doing anything for you.

You’ll know it worked when an answer comes back with sources underneath, and clicking one takes you to a real page that says what Claude said it says.

Step 4: Thinking and effort

Time: 1 minute.

Thinking is when Claude works a problem through properly before it answers, instead of firing back the first thing it comes up with. Effort is how much work it puts into each answer. Both live in the same menu as step 1.

Do this

1. Click the model name next to the send button.
2. Click Effort and pick a level.
3. If you see a Thinking or Extended switch in that menu, that’s the thinking toggle. On the newest models thinking is always on, so you won’t see a switch, and effort is the setting that matters.

Which level to pick

Level	Use it for
Low or Medium	Everyday stuff. Makes your limit go further.
High	The best balance of quality and speed
Max	The decisions you’re actually losing sleep over. Slower, and uses more of your limit.

Don’t leave it on max for everything. Higher effort uses up your limit faster, which is the exact problem step 1 fixes. Turn it up for the hard stuff, then back down.

You’ll know it worked when you ask the same hard question on low and on high, and the high answer catches something the low one missed.

The final check

• I use a smaller model for quick questions and the biggest one for real work
• I’ve made at least one project for a real part of my life
• That project has its own instructions, written by Claude interviewing me
• I’ve run one Research question and opened at least one source
• I know where effort lives and I’ve turned it up for something hard

Done? Part 3 is the Claude toolkit setup.

If something looks different

I can only see one model in the menu. Click More models. If there’s still only one, your plan or your work account may only have one available.

I can’t find Projects. It’s in the left sidebar. On a narrow window the sidebar hides itself, so open it first.

Research isn’t in the + menu. Research is on paid plans only, and web search has to be switched on for it to work.

I can’t find the Thinking switch. On the newest models thinking is always on, so there’s no switch. Use Effort instead.

My project still gives generic answers. It’s nearly always the project instructions. Check there’s a section on how you want to be answered, not just a description of the area.