A gorgeous Sunday afternoon in early May. Out for a walk to clear my head.

Instead, afterward I felt unsettled and maybe a little anxious. Not optimal.

I have multiple projects moving. Deliverables pending. And always too little time to get it all done.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everyone is busy.

But building a new business carries some special stressors. I needed help.

So a couple months ago I turned my ability to use technology to make helpful tools into an always-on feature in Claude which references my current context.

Now I know that, no matter how unsettled I may be, I’m far less likely to lose sight of deadlines or deliverables.

Simply, my Current Context Skill has changed how I work and helped restore my peace of mind.

Customizing Claude with Skills

Skills are one of the killer features of Claude, the generative AI tool from Anthropic. Think of a skill as a small instruction set that teaches Claude how to handle a specific task.

My Current Context skill does one job: it loads information from Notion about all my spinning plates. Projects. Deadlines. What I’m waiting on. What’s stalled. Energy levels. The actual state of all my things.

When I begin working in Claude—whether I’m prioritizing my week, figuring out if a new idea has value or if it’s another shiny object, or plugging away on a project—Claude has the real picture. Not a guess. Not a fragment. Claude has the actual landscape of what I’m dealing with at the moment.

This is vital. Without context, I used to always feel like I was starting from zero.

But this skill grounds me in reality because I’m the one who updates the context every day or two. Five minutes to do a full 360-degree scan of everything going on, and then I’m on to the rest of the day.

It’s a small task but key for me because of one of the too often ignored AI truisms; context matters.

Quality In, Quality Out

We’re in a moment when people are asking AI to do more and more. Generate content. Make decisions. Run projects.

We’re at risk of missing something, though. The real leverage isn’t in AI doing more for you. It’s in AI understanding you more accurately.

When Claude checks my updated context about what I’m working on, where my energy level is, and what I’m waiting on, something meaningful shifts. Claude stops being a generic tool and becomes a work partner.

This matters because we’re all drowning in information and drowning in choices. The thing that rescues you isn’t more tools. It’s better context.

Without this Current Context Skill, I could lose sight of something important. What does that look like?

I’m prone to jumping into Claude when I get excited about a new idea. That chat can quickly expand into exploring a concept about a new initiative.

Without this skill, I’d be apt to run into a forest of ideas with my eyes closed. The Current Context Skill helps me see the trees. It reminds me what is pressing right now so I can properly prioritize my precious free time.

Providing Claude with that same context is within your grasp.

How You Can Do This

Building this skill took maybe 20 minutes. Honest.

Don’t just take my word for it. I used Claude to summarize a free, step-by-step instruction document available now on my website.

If you prefer to try this yourself, open Claude. In the new chat window which opens, type something like, “Help me build a skill to do X.”

Claude comes with a skill-building skill whether you use the free version or pay for a subscription. It will reference its skill, then take you through the entire process.

Of course, if you prefer a trusted guide to work with you and help you take your AI skills to the next level, sign up for my AI Trainer service. After an initial, free 30-minute orientation session, I’ll craft a bespoke four-week course tailored to ensure you build your confidence in this transformational technology.

Schedule a call today. Invest in yourself and start capturing the same type of clarity I get from my Current Context Skill.