A free guide by Mariah Brunner ↗ INSTAGRAM ↗ TIKTOK
Free Guide

5 Signs You’re Still
Using AI Like It’s 2024

If number 3 is you, we need to talk. Here are the 5 habits keeping you stuck — and the exact fix for each one, with 5 free Claude skills to bring your AI game into 2026.

AI in 2024 was a chatbot you typed questions into. AI in 2026 is a system that knows your job and does your work. If you’re still doing any of these 5 things, you’re leaving the best parts on the table.

The Guide 5 Signs + 5 Fixes

Sign 01

You Open a Blank Chat Every Time

You type your question, get an answer, close the window, and start from scratch next time. Every conversation begins at zero. Claude has no idea who you are, what you do, or what you’ve already talked about.

The 2026 fix: Set up a Claude Project. Go to Projects → Create Project. Add custom instructions with your role, your team, your goals, and how you like things done. Every conversation inside that project starts with full context. You never explain yourself twice again.

Sign 02

You Type “Write Me a...” With Nothing Else

“Write me an email.” “Write me a report.” That’s a 2024 prompt. You get generic output, spend 20 minutes fixing it, and wonder why AI “doesn’t work that well.”

The 2026 fix: Give context. Who is this for? What’s the backstory? What tone do you want? What does “good” look like? Paste an example of your best work and say “write the next one like this.” The more you give, the less you fix after.

Sign 03

You’ve Never Connected AI to Your Work Tools

If you’re still copying and pasting from Gmail into Claude, you’re doing extra work for no reason. Claude connects directly to Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar, and Slack. It reads your real emails and files. You just ask questions about your own work.

The 2026 fix: Go to Settings → Customize → Connectors. Connect Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, and Slack. Takes 2 minutes. After that, say “summarize my emails from this morning” or “what meetings do I have tomorrow” and Claude pulls from your actual accounts. No copy-pasting. Ever again.

Sign 04

You Use AI for One Thing

If the only thing you use AI for is rewriting emails, you’re using maybe 2% of what it can do. It builds presentations, analyzes spreadsheets, creates visuals, plans projects, preps you for meetings, writes code, and manages entire workflows. One thing is not a strategy.

The 2026 fix: This week, try 3 things you’ve never used AI for. Upload a spreadsheet and ask for trends. Ask Claude to prep you for your next meeting. Have it build a project plan from a description. Push past email rewrites. That’s when it clicks.

Sign 05

You’ve Never Set Up Memory or Preferences

AI can remember your writing style, your formatting preferences, your role, and the way you like things done. If you haven’t set that up, every response you get is generic — because it doesn’t know you yet.

The 2026 fix: Go to Settings → Customize → Preferences. Tell Claude your role, your preferred writing style, and your formatting rules. Then create a Project and paste examples of your best work as reference files. 10 minutes of setup. Everything after that sounds like you wrote it.
Free Skills 5 Claude Skills to Bring You Into 2026

Copy any of these into a new Claude conversation. Each one fixes one of the signs above.

Skill 1 — Role Brief Builder (Fixes Sign 01)
I need you to help me build my Role Brief — a set of custom instructions I can paste into a Claude Project so you always know who I am and what I do. Ask me these questions one at a time: 1. What's your job title and what do you actually do day to day? 2. Who do you report to and who reports to you? 3. What are your top 3 priorities right now? 4. What kind of work do you usually ask AI to help with? 5. How do you like things formatted? (Bullets vs. paragraphs, formal vs. casual, short vs. detailed) 6. Any tools, platforms, or systems you use daily? After I answer all 6, write me a polished Role Brief I can paste directly into my Claude Project custom instructions. Make it concise — no fluff.
Skill 2 — Prompt Upgrader (Fixes Sign 02)
I'm going to give you a basic prompt I normally use. Your job is to upgrade it into a professional-grade prompt that gets dramatically better output. For every prompt I give you, rewrite it to include: - My role and context (ask me if you need this) - Who the output is for - The specific format and structure I want - The tone and style - What "good" looks like (ask me for an example if needed) - Any constraints (word count, things to avoid, etc.) Show me the before and after side by side so I can see the difference and learn the pattern. Here's my first prompt to upgrade: [PASTE YOUR BASIC PROMPT HERE]
Skill 3 — Email Summarizer (Fixes Sign 03)
Check my Gmail for emails from today. For each email that actually needs my attention, give me: - Who it's from - One-line summary - Whether I need to reply, just read it, or can skip it - If I need to reply: draft a short response for me Skip newsletters, notifications, and marketing emails completely. Only show me what matters. Start with the most urgent and work down.
Skill 4 — Spreadsheet Analyzer (Fixes Sign 04)
[Upload your spreadsheet] Analyze this data and give me: 1. The 3 most important trends you see 2. Anything that looks unusual or concerning 3. What's improving and what's declining 4. 3 specific recommendations based on the data 5. A 2-sentence summary I could paste into a Slack message to my team Be specific. Use actual numbers from the data. Don't give me generic advice — give me insights tied to what's actually in this spreadsheet.
Skill 5 — Voice Calibrator (Fixes Sign 05)
I'm going to paste 3 examples of my best writing below. Analyze my voice and writing style, then create a "Voice Profile" I can save and reuse. Your Voice Profile should capture: - My typical sentence length and structure - Words and phrases I use often - My level of formality - How I open and close communications - My default tone (direct? warm? casual? authoritative?) - Things I never do (jargon I avoid, patterns I don't use) After the profile, write me a short paragraph about any topic in my exact voice so I can verify it sounds like me. Here are my 3 writing samples: [PASTE SAMPLE 1] [PASTE SAMPLE 2] [PASTE SAMPLE 3]

These 5 skills fix the basics. The Weekend Bootcamp builds the whole system — Projects, connectors, Skills, automations, and workflows designed for your specific job.

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