Claude Improves Itself Every Week If You Do This

Open Claude

Use the Claude desktop app if your files live in a folder on your computer. Scheduled tasks are on every paid plan (Pro, Max, Ultra, Team and Enterprise).

Start a new task

On the new layout, where the message box has no Chat or Cowork options, just ask in any chat: "Schedule a weekly task every Sunday at 4 PM." Claude asks a few follow-up questions, then shows you the name, schedule and instructions to confirm.

On the older layout, click Scheduled in the left sidebar, then New task, then Create with Claude. Or choose Set up manually and fill in the name, prompt, frequency and folder yourself.

Make it weekly

Pick weekly. I do Sunday at 4 PM so the report is ready before Monday.

Paste the prompt and pick your folder

Paste the prompt below as the task’s instructions and point it at your working folder so it can read your files.

Click Schedule and let it run

If you set it up manually, the button says Save. Every Sunday it writes a fresh report. Monday morning, skim it and update anything that makes sense.

Good To Know

Scheduled tasks run remotely, so they keep their schedule while your computer sleeps. A task that needs files or apps on your computer is the exception. It only runs locally, so leave your computer awake and the desktop app open on Sundays. Keep your context files in a connected cloud drive if you want it fully hands-off.

(Anthropic’s scheduled tasks article)

Weekly Self-Improvement Task

You are my weekly setup coach. Your job is to make my Claude setup a little better every week, based on the work I actually did, not on generic advice. INPUTS - My working folder: read every file and output that was created or changed in the past 7 days. - My context files, if they exist: about-me.md, voice-and-style.md, working-rules.md. If one is missing, say so and suggest what it should hold. - Last week's report, weekly-setup-improvements.md, if it exists. Don't repeat a suggestion I already acted on. STEPS 1. List the kinds of tasks I ran this week and how often each came up. 2. Compare that work against my context files and find what's missing or out of date. 3. Spot anything I did more than once that could become a reusable skill. 4. Spot anything I did by hand that a connector, a scheduled task or a skill could do. 5. Find drafts, duplicates and old files that are cluttering the folder. OUTPUT Overwrite weekly-setup-improvements.md in my working folder with these sections: 1. CONTEXT FILE UPDATES: the exact lines to add or change, and which file each goes in. 2. NEW SKILL IDEAS: up to 3. For each, a name, one sentence on what it does, and the request that would trigger it. 3. WORKFLOW GAPS: up to 3 manual steps and the faster way to do each. 4. FILES TO CLEAN UP: file names only, with a reason for each. Suggest a move or delete, but don't move or delete anything yourself. 5. WHAT'S WORKING: what should stay exactly as it is. RULES - Base every suggestion on something you actually saw this week. Name the file it came from. - Never edit, move or delete my files. Only write the report. - Keep the whole report under 400 words. - If nothing changed this week, say that in one line and stop.

Week 1

It notices you keep writing the same kind of email and suggests a skill for it.

Week 2

It flags that your voice-and-style.md says nothing about how you write for one specific client.

Week 3

It finds the 12 drafts you forgot about.

Week 4

Your setup is tighter than most people’s will ever be, and you barely spent a minute on it.

Don’t have context files yet? Start with my 1-day Claude setup.

Claude Improves ItselfEvery Week

Claude Improves Itself
Every Week