Claude Cowork 7-Day Challenge: Find Practical AI Use Cases That Deliver

Learn how to use Claude Cowork safely and confidently with instructor Justin Shaifer. This beginner-friendly course shows nontechnical users how to automate everyday tasks while protecting their files. Across seven practical lessons, you’ll set up a safe practice environment, organize files in seconds, create real-world documents, speed up presentations, and more.

Learning objectives
Set up a low‑risk practice folder: Create a “Claude Sandbox” with copies of low‑value files so you can experiment freely and safely.
Share a folder with Claude: Grant access to a specific folder and understand permission prompts, approval moments, and file‑level actions—especially deletions.
Standardize file names: Use Claude to clean up messy filenames (for example, converting IMG_1234.jpg to 2024-11-25_Thanksgiving.jpg) and apply consistent naming conventions across files.
Convert receipt photos into an expense report: Upload receipt images and generate a structured Excel report with dates, vendors, amounts, categories, and totals.
Turn rough meeting notes into a clean summary: Transform unstructured notes or transcripts into a polished Word document with key decisions, action items, and next steps.
Build a presentation from research materials: Provide articles, PDFs, and notes to receive a draft PowerPoint deck with organized slides and speaker notes.
Pull insights from multiple documents at once: Review large sets of contracts, proposals, or reports and generate a comparison Excel file summarizing terms, dates, pricing, or obligations.
Share a Folder with Claude: Practice giving Claude access to a specific folder. Pay attention to the permission prompts, when approval is required, and what actions Claude asks before taking (especially around deleting files).
Standardize File Names: Use Claude to clean up messy filenames like IMG_1234.jpg and turn them into clear, consistent names (for example, 2024-11-25_Thanksgiving.jpg). This is also useful for adding dates, normalizing report titles, or fixing inconsistent naming styles.
Convert Receipt Photos into an Expense Report: Drop a folder of receipt images into Cowork and have Claude generate a structured Excel expense report with dates, vendors, amounts, categories, and totals, ready for reimbursement.
Turn Rough Meeting Notes into a Clean Summary: Upload unstructured notes or a meeting transcript and ask Claude to produce a polished Word document highlighting key decisions, action items, and next steps.
Build a Presentation from Research Materials: Give Claude a folder of articles, PDFs, and notes on a topic and get back a draft PowerPoint deck with organized slides and speaker notes that you can refine and present.
Pull Insights from Multiple Documents at Once: Ask Claude to review a large set of contracts, proposals, or reports and generate a comparison Excel doc summarizing details like terms, dates, pricing, or obligations.