How to Use Claude Efficiently (Hint: It's All About Context)

How to use Claude efficiently

Claude is smart. Scary smart, sometimes.

But I kept getting mediocre answers. Long-winded explanations when I needed something concise. Generic advice when I needed specifics. It felt like talking to someone who technically understood the words but missed the point entirely.

Turns out, the problem wasn't Claude. It was me.

The One Thing That Actually Matters

Context.

That's it. That's the whole secret.

Claude doesn't know who you are. It doesn't know your background, your goals, or what you've already tried. Every conversation starts from zero—unless you tell it otherwise.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Bad: "How do I improve my landing page?"

Better: "I'm a solo founder building a Chrome extension for AI power users. My landing page converts at 2%. I've tried changing the headline and adding social proof. What else should I test?"

See the difference? Same question. Wildly different answers.

The more context you give, the less Claude has to guess. And when Claude guesses, it defaults to generic.

Give Claude a Role

Want even better results? Tell Claude who to be.

• "You're a senior copywriter reviewing my landing page."
• "You're a developer who's skeptical of new tools."
• "You're my target customer—be brutally honest."

Different perspectives, different insights. Claude adapts fast when you give it a clear frame.

The Problem Nobody Talks About

Here's the catch: great conversations disappear.

You spend 20 minutes building up context. Claude finally gets it. You get the perfect answer. Then you close the tab.

A week later, you need something similar. But Claude has no memory. You start from scratch. Again.

Context is everything—but only if you can find it later.

I got tired of losing good conversations. So I built something to fix that. A way to search through all my Claude chats (and ChatGPT, and Gemini) instantly.

Because the best context is the one you've already created.

Bottom Line

Claude is as good as the context you give it.

Be specific. Assign roles. And find a way to hold onto the good conversations—you'll need them again.