My actual daily workflow

I use Claude for almost every post I write on this site. Not to write the posts — to work through them.

Here’s what that looks like in practice.

Starting a post

I don’t open Claude with a blank prompt. I open it with what I already know. Something like:

“I want to write a post about using AI tools for blogging. My angle is that people are using them wrong — they’re asking it to write for them instead of think with them. Help me outline this.”

That framing — giving it my angle — is the whole game. The output sounds like me because I told it what I actually think.

When I’m stuck mid-draft

Paste the last paragraph I wrote and say: “I’m stuck. Where does this go next?” It usually gives me 3 options. I pick one or combine two of them. Takes 30 seconds.

Editing

This is where AI saves me the most time. I paste a section and say “this is too wordy, tighten it.” Or “this sounds stiff, make it more conversational.” Or just “what’s wrong with this paragraph?”

It’s like having a fast editor who’s never tired and never precious about your sentences.

What I’ve stopped using it for

Writing the first draft wholesale. Every time I’ve done that, I spend more time editing out the AI voice than I would have spent just writing it myself. The telling detail, the specific example, the weird aside — those are yours. Don’t outsource them.

My actual prompt patterns

• Outline from angle: “I think [X]. Help me outline a post arguing this.”
• Unstick: “I wrote this paragraph. Where does it go next?”
• Tighten: “Make this shorter without losing the point.”
• Title options: “Give me 5 title options. Tone: direct and a bit dry.”
• Reality check: “Does this conclusion actually follow from what I wrote above?”

The setup

I keep Claude open in a browser tab while I write in Obsidian. No integrations, no plugins. Just Alt-Tab between them. Simple works.