Claude Cowork: Top 5 Tips for Productivity
About this video
After five months using Claude Cowork daily, Jeff Su gives five setup tips. First, use Obsidian as a free lens to read and edit Cowork’s .md files with proper formatting, with reading mode and show-all-file-types enabled. Second, apply a 300-line rule for the root claw.md (he says cutting his from over 600 to about 250 lines dropped token usage by roughly 25%): keep only bare essentials in six sections, relocate task-specific rules behind one-line pointers, and keep prescriptive ‘always/never’ rules in claw.md versus changeable facts in memory.md. Third, run a memory diet: structure root memory.md into active projects, scheduled tasks and core memory, cap entries at 1-2 sentences, enforce a 150-line ceiling, and archive old material to archive.md, which is not loaded each session; use separate memory files per workstation/project. Fourth, migrate Claude Projects into Cowork workstations. Fifth, distinguish workstations (ongoing areas needing judgment) from skills (repeatable, autopilot processes with consistent output).
Key takeaways
- Use Obsidian pointed at the Cowork workspace folder to read and edit .md instruction/memory files in rendered form, per the creator.
- Keep root claw.md to 200-250 lines, 300 maximum; creator says trimming his cut token usage by roughly 25%.
- Sort content by test: prescriptive always/never behavior belongs in claw.md; facts that could change belong in memory.md.
- Cap root memory.md at 150 lines with 1-2 sentence entries, archive aged material to archive.md, and keep per-project memory files separate.
- Test for skills vs workstations: a place you work with ongoing context is a workstation; a repeatable process done the same way every time is a skill.
Episode details: published May 19, 2026 · 17:50 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Jeff Su’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.
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