The Claude Cheat Sheet

The one you already know. Ask a question, get an answer. Fine for quick stuff: rewriting a job advert, rewording a tricky email to a candidate who's gone cold. If this is the only thing you're using, you're missing 90% of what Claude can do for your desk.

Where to find it: Claude Desktop app → New Chat

Chat with memory. Upload CVs, contracts, job specs, meeting notes, set custom instructions, and Claude remembers everything inside that Project. Set one up per client you sign: drop in their job specs, hiring history, the candidates they've rejected and why, their tone of voice. Now every email you draft for them sounds like you've been working with them for years.

Where to find it: Claude Desktop app → Projects → Create Project → Set custom instructions

Where Claude stops being a chatbot and starts doing actual work. Reads your files, writes documents, sorts folders, runs tasks step by step. Point it at your Downloads folder full of CVs and tell it to sort every one into sub-folders by sector and seniority. Job done in 90 seconds, not 90 minutes.

Where to find it: Claude Desktop app → Cowork (sidebar)

Connectors plug Claude directly into Gmail, Outlook, Google Calendar, Drive, Slack, Notion. It reads and acts inside your tools, no copy-pasting CVs into chats. Ask "summarise every email I've had with this client in the last 30 days and tell me what they're actually pushing back on" and it will. Plugins are the same idea, community-built.

Where to find it: Settings → Customize → Connectors / Plugins

Skills are saved instructions that fire automatically when relevant. Build one called "Candidate Longlist" and Claude knows the format you want every time: name, current role, fit notes, salary expectation, your read on them. Skill Creator interviews you about how you work and builds the Skill for you.

Where to find it: Settings → Customize → Skills → Browse or Create

Global Instructions is a prompt Claude reads before every single task, every chat, every Project. Set it once and it runs forever. "I'm a recruiter, never invent candidate names or client details, always ask before assuming." About-Me is where you tell Claude what sector you recruit in, who you place, the type of client you work with and how you talk, so the BD email it drafts at 9am sounds like you, not a chatbot.

Where to find it: Settings → Customize → Global Instructions / About Me

A mode where Claude reasons through a task step by step before answering. Slower, but the output is sharper, with fewer mistakes and better edge case handling. Use it when you're prepping a tricky BD pitch, or about to pitch a shortlist on the phone and need Claude to genuinely think through the angle before writing a word.

Where to find it: Toggle in the model selector → Extended Thinking ON → Select Opus

Scheduled Tasks make Claude run things automatically on a recurring schedule. Set one for 7:30am every Monday: "Check my calendar, list every interview I have, every client call I have this week, who they're with and what I last talked about. Save it as Weekly Brief on my Desktop." It's waiting when you sit down. Dispatch lets you fire tasks from your phone while Claude works on your desktop.

Where to find it: Claude Desktop app → Cowork → Schedule a task / Dispatch from mobile

Opus: Claude's newest and smartest model. Better at reading documents, checks its own work, stops fabricating when it doesn't know. Always use it for anything that matters: a candidate longlist for a £30k fee, a pitch email to a target client, contract review. Pair it with Extended Thinking every time.

Sonnet: The everyday workhorse. Faster than Opus, cheaper to run, still seriously capable. Use it for the work you do all day: drafting candidate emails, summarising an interview or client call you just came off, rewriting a job advert, pulling key points out of a long client brief. Quick enough that you'll actually use it without thinking, sharp enough that the output stands up.

Haiku: The fast one. Built for speed and volume. Use it when you're firing through repetitive tasks: tagging a batch of CVs by sector, generating subject lines for a BD sequence, drafting standard interview confirmations. Not the model for nuance, but for sheer throughput on simple jobs it's hard to beat.

Where to find them: Model selector (top of chat) → Opus / Sonnet / Haiku

1. Day 1: Set up a Project for the client you're closest to working with. Drop in their job specs, hiring history, your notes.
2. Day 1: Connect Gmail (or Outlook), Drive, Calendar, Slack.
3. Day 2: Write your Global Instructions and About-Me: your sectors, your tone, your hard rules.
4. Day 3: Build your first Skill. Start with the one you do most: candidate longlists, BD emails, job advert drafts.
5. Week 2: Try Cowork on a real task. Sort your CV folder. Draft a longlist from your database.
6. Ongoing: Always use Opus + Extended Thinking for anything that matters.

This cheat sheet tells you what each feature does. The other guides walk you through using each one for the work you actually do.