The best way to learn Claude is to open it and type. There is not much to set up and nothing to break. This lesson is the two-minute tour, so your first go feels like using a tool, not fumbling in the dark.
Get in first. Go to claude.ai in a browser, or install the desktop and mobile apps. Sign in with an email, Google, or your work account. It is the same Claude everywhere, and your chats follow you between devices.
The screen, in one look
Claude's window has two parts, and that is genuinely all you need to know to start.
On the left is the sidebar: a New chat button, a search box, and the list of your past chats (Claude names them for you). Projects, for keeping related chats and files together, live here too; that is a later lesson.
In the middle is the conversation, with the message box at the bottom. In that box: type your message, hit send, and you are off. The + button on the left of the box attaches files and turns on connectors. The small picker next to send chooses the model and how hard it thinks. That is the whole cockpit.
Your first message
Here is the one habit that matters most: talk to Claude like a sharp colleague, not a search engine. Full sentences, a little context, a clear ask. No keyword tricks, no stiff formal wording.
Compare these two. "weekly plan" gets you something generic. This gets you something useful:
Plan my working week. I work Monday to Friday, roughly 9 to 5.
I have fixed meetings Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
My big goal this week is to finish a client proposal.
Give me a day-by-day plan with time for deep work and a buffer for the unexpected.
Same idea, but now Claude knows your hours, your fixed points, and your goal, so the answer fits your week. The context you add is what turns a generic reply into a useful one. That is the whole of Part 3; here, just notice the difference.
Keeping your chats tidy
Every conversation is saved automatically and named for you, so you can close the tab and come back later. You can rename a chat, star the ones you reuse, and search the lot from the box at the top of the sidebar.
One small rule pays off fast: one topic per chat. When you switch to something unrelated, start a new chat. Claude reads the whole current conversation each time, so a tidy chat gets a sharper answer, and a chat that wanders from holidays to tax to lunch gets a muddled one. Think one chat, one job.
A few more habits worth picking up early: reply to Claude in plain words to steer the next answer ("shorter", "more formal", "add an example"), use the Copy button on any code or prompt block, and do not fret about getting it perfect first time. Claude is a conversation, not a vending machine.
Try it
Open Claude and paste the weekly-plan prompt above, but swap in your real hours, meetings, and goal. Read the plan. Then send one follow-up to steer it: "make Wednesday lighter", or "add 30 minutes of email time each morning".
Notice two things. First, the context you gave changed the answer. Second, the follow-up changed it again, without you starting over. That back-and-forth is how nearly all real work with Claude gets done.
(General exercise. Role and industry versions come once accounts are in.)