Personal leadership · Every phase
A project with your own documents
You set up a project in Claude or ChatGPT that knows who you are and how you work, so you don't have to explain it every time.
Worth reading first: Asking AI a good question
Does this sound familiar?
- I start every chat with the same paragraph about who we are and who we work for.
- My colleague gets different answers than I do, because he explains it differently.
- I've got a quote we won that I use as an example, but I have to dig it out every time.
- The model writes 'we offer total peace of mind', when we'd never say that.
Who it's for, and when
For anyone who uses AI again and again for the same kind of work: quotes, job adverts, the newsletter, preparing for a meeting. In Searching and Proving your story still changes a lot. In that case, keep the documents small and update them as soon as you learn something: a project with last quarter's strategy gives answers that fit last quarter.
The model
A project is a separate workspace in Claude or ChatGPT, with fixed instructions and your own files. Every chat in that project starts with those instructions and can use those files. In the lesson Asking AI a good question you typed it out every time: who you are, who it's for, what it should look like. Here you write it down once.
Instructions are a short text about how the model should work: who you are, who you're writing for, what tone, what it never does. The documents are the files it draws on: your ways of working, your strategy on one page, examples of good work. Keep the instructions short and put the content in the documents.
Make one project for each kind of work. A project for quotes needs different examples from one for job adverts, and a project for everything turns into a drawer where nobody knows what's in it any more. And a project is only as good as its documents: with an old price list you get a quote with old prices, and the model won't tell you the list is out of date.
A project reads a copy: what you put in, at the moment you put it in. If you want your AI to read what's in Boldcaster right now, that's the lesson A company brain. And if you notice you keep explaining the same steps and checks in a project, turn that into a skill (the lesson Skills for recurring work). The project holds the documents, the skill holds the steps.
Anthropic, What are projects? and How can I create and manage projects? (Claude help centre), and OpenAI, Projects in ChatGPT (ChatGPT help centre). Checked on 7 November 2026.
Instructions
Half a page to a page. Who you are and who you work for, what the project does, how it writes, which document it uses for what, and what it never does. Also say what it should do when it doesn't know something: ask rather than fill in the gap.
Documents that belong in it
What you've already written down and what matters for this work. Your strategy on one page (who you work for and how you're different), the way of working that goes with this work, a price list that's current, and two or three examples of work that was good. Three to five documents is enough to start with.
Documents that don't belong in it
Details of clients and colleagues (client lists, salaries, performance reviews, HR files), contracts with confidentiality clauses, passwords and keys. And drafts and old versions: the model can't tell which one applies. Take the client's name and amounts out of any example. Anyone who can open a shared project can use what's in it.
Keeping it up to date
Every document has a date and an owner. When the strategy, the price list or a way of working changes, you replace the document in the project. Check every quarter that it's all still right, for example after the quarterly session.
Pitfalls
Assuming it reads everything
With lots of documents, the model searches your files for what fits, and then it can miss a detail. On a paid account Claude does this by itself once the documents get too big. Name the document when it matters: 'use the prices from Price list 2026'.
Instructions that contradict the documents
If the instructions say 'write formally' and every example is chatty and informal, the model picks one this time and the other next time. Make the instructions and the examples say the same thing, or say which one wins.
Watch and read
Anthropic shows how to create a project in Claude, add instructions and files, and work with it.
Watch on YouTubeThe launch of projects in ChatGPT by the people who built them, with instructions and files. The screen has changed since then; the idea hasn't.
Watch on YouTubeWhat a project in ChatGPT is for and what it isn't, with examples from real work.
Watch on YouTubeRead
Co-intelligentie 2026: Slimmer werken met AI
Ethan Mollick, met Alexander Klöpping · 2025 · ISBN 9789493434271
The Dutch edition of Co-Intelligence, 280 pages. Mollick shows that a model works better when you tell it who it should be and who it's working for. Project instructions do that once for every chat.
View the bookApply it
- 1
Pick one kind of work
The work you use AI for most often, or the work you most often type the same explanation for. Start with one project.
- 2
Create the project
In Claude, go to Projects in the sidebar (or claude.ai/projects) and choose New Project. On a free account you can create five projects, and sharing with colleagues only works on Team and Enterprise. In ChatGPT, open Projects in the sidebar and create a new project with a name; that works on a free account too, with fewer files per project. You can share there from a personal account as well, with the people you invite.
- 3
Write the instructions
Use the example alongside. In Claude they go under Set project instructions, in ChatGPT under the project's instructions. In ChatGPT they take priority over your general instructions within that project.
Asking AI a good question - 4
Add three to five documents
In Claude you add them to the project knowledge, in ChatGPT to the files. If your ways of working are in Boldcaster, you can print a way of working and save it as a PDF. Take the client's details out of every example.
- 5
Try it with a real question
Ask a question you'd have asked this week anyway. If the same thing keeps going wrong, put it in the instructions. If it goes wrong once, correct it in the chat.
- 6
Set a date to check it
Every quarter, or as soon as the strategy, the prices or a way of working changes. Replace the document; don't leave the old version next to it.
Examples
Project instructions for quotes
Who we are: an installer of heating, ventilation and cooling systems for offices and schools. We work for facilities managers and school boards in our region. What you do: you help me write a quote and the email that goes with it. How: - Use the prices from 'Price list 2026'. If a price isn't in it, put [PRICE] and ask me. - Follow the structure of 'Sample quote: school'. - Write formally, briefly and to the point, without phrases like 'peace of mind' or 'innovative'. - Mention the guarantee from 'Way of working: handover' in every quote. - How we're different is in 'Strategy on one page'. Use that, don't make anything else up. What you never do: - Make up a discount, delivery time or guarantee. - Use client details I haven't put in the chat myself. If you're unsure, ask before you start.
The documents in this project
Price list 2026 (current since 1 January, owner: sales) Sample quote: school (a quote we won, client name removed) Sample quote: office (likewise) Way of working: handover Strategy on one page: who we work for and how we're different Not in it: the client list, quotes with other clients' names and amounts, the draft of the new price list.
A second project: job adverts
Instructions: who we are, which people we're recruiting, how we sound, what we never promise (no 'competitive salary' without a figure). Documents: the role scorecard, our core values, two job adverts that brought in good candidates. Not in it: application letters, CVs and candidate assessments.
Do this in your own business
Everything up to here is free. What you fill in for your own business, you keep in Boldcaster.
- You look back on a situation from your own work. Only you can read what you write.
- You set a date with yourself, and on that day the app asks how it went.
- You assign the lesson to your team and see who has done it.
- The quiz counts towards your progress, and you see which lesson comes next.
Four weeks free. You'll land straight in this lesson.
Quiz
6 situations. You need 5 of 6 right. You can try again at any time.
1.You want your quotes project to use the right prices and write in your tone. Where do you put what?
2.You use AI for quotes, job adverts and the newsletter. How do you set that up?
3.After the quarterly session, your strategy on one page has changed. Your project still has the old one. What do you do?
4.A colleague wants to share the sales project with the whole team. It contains a client list with contacts and revenue. What do you do?
5.Your project has thirty documents. A quote is missing the guarantee from 'Way of working: handover'. What helps most?
6.The instructions say 'write formally', but the three sample quotes are informal and chatty. What's likely to happen?
Nothing is saved here. In the app, the quiz counts towards your progress.
Read next
- A company brain · Your own AI fetches the state of your business from one source, with your permissions, so you stop hunting for it or pasting it in.
- Skills for recurring work · You set up one job you do often as a skill, so your AI does it the same way every time without you explaining it again.
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