AI Tools Academy
Claude 0/20

Phase 3 · Claude · Level 1 · Foundations

Your turn: from messy notes to a checked action list

Hands On · 15 minLast checked against the live product: 13 July 2026

30-second recall from earlier lessons
Every time a form is submitted, you personally ask Copilot to save the attachment and post a note in the team channel. It's identical each time. What should you do instead?
An AI assistant gives you a confident, well-written answer with a specific statistic and a link to a source. You need the figure for a board paper. What's the wisest next step?

By the end, you'll be able to…

  • Turn a long, messy document into a summary and a clear list of actions with owners
  • Verify at least one detail against the source before trusting it
  • Refine an output and produce something you could send

Why it matters

You learn this by doing it, not by reading about it. This exercise walks you through the single most useful thing Claude does at work, turning a messy set of notes into a checked, usable action list, so the skill sticks. Fifteen minutes now saves you hours of chasing later.

What you'll do

You'll give Claude a long, slightly chaotic document, get a summary, pull out the actions with owners and deadlines, catch anything the notes left vague, and finish with a tidy list you could paste into an email. By the end you'll have done the core Claude work task with real-feeling material, which is the point.

Set aside about 15 minutes and work at your own pace. Every step below has a prompt you can copy.

Before you start

Pick your document. The ideal is a genuine set of rough notes or an email thread you need to turn into actions, but keep to the Phase 0 privacy rules: if it contains other people's personal details, names, or anything confidential, remove them first or use the sample instead.

Safe fallback: download the Fernway meeting notes, deliberately messy, with half-finished actions and two jobs nobody picked up. It's built for exactly this exercise. If you'd rather practise on an email chain, the Fernway email thread works too.

The steps

1. Open a new chat and hand over the document

Go to claude.ai, click New chat, and attach the file or paste the text.

2. Ask for a structured summary

Label the document and name the format you want.

Summary plus actions, clearly separatedClaude
Below are rough notes from a weekly operations meeting. Give me: (1) a five-bullet plain-English summary of what was discussed, then (2) a separate list of every action someone agreed to do. Keep them clearly separated.

NOTES:
[paste the meeting notes]

Why this works: Asking for the summary and the actions as two separate blocks (with a delimiter around the notes) gets you both the overview and the to-dos in a shape you can use, rather than one running paragraph.

Open in Claude ↗

3. React to it, don't just accept it

Read the summary against your sense of the notes. If it's too long, too vague, or missing something, say so plainly: "Shorter, three bullets." "You missed the office-lease deadline; add it." The second version is usually better than the first. This nudging is the skill.

4. Build the action list with owners and deadlines

Now ask for the useful part in a shape you can act on, and tell Claude how to handle gaps.

Actions with owners, deadlines and gaps markedClaude
Turn the actions into a list. For each one give me three things: the action, who owns it, and the deadline. If the notes don't name an owner, write "UNASSIGNED". If there's no deadline, write "not stated". Don't leave anything out just because it's vague.

Why this works: Naming three columns and a rule for missing information ('not stated' / 'UNASSIGNED') gets you a complete, honest list instead of one that quietly drops the items nobody owned.

Open in Claude ↗

This will often open as an editable side panel, an artifact, which is ideal for a list you'll tidy.

5. Ask a checking question

Pick one action that matters and make Claude prove it came from the notes.

Verify one item against the sourceClaude
For the action about the office lease, quote the exact line from the notes it's based on, including any date mentioned.

Why this works: Asking for the exact line lets you confirm Claude didn't merge two items or invent a deadline. Do this on the item you'd be most embarrassed to get wrong.

Open in Claude ↗

Then find that line in the original notes yourself. In the Fernway notes, the lease auto-renews unless notice is given by 31 August; check Claude quoted it correctly and didn't drift to a different date.

6. Refine once

Improve the list with one more instruction: "Put the unassigned items at the top; those need an owner." "Add a one-line note at the top: two actions have no owner." Watch the artifact update in place.

7. Take it away

Use the panel's copy or download control to drop the list into an email to your team, a to-do app, or your notes.

Optional: practise a careful message instead

If you'd rather work on writing, swap the exercise. Draft a short, tactful team email from the finished action list, for example, a friendly note asking who can pick up the two unassigned jobs (the August holiday-cover rota and confirming the summer-social venue). Give Claude the situation and the tone you want ("warm, brief, not naggy"), get a draft, then refine it until it reads like something you'd actually send, and check it sounds like you before it goes.

Your checklist

By the end, tick these off:

  • [ ] I gave Claude a long, messy document (attached or pasted).
  • [ ] I got a summary and reacted to it, rather than just accepting it.
  • [ ] I built an action list with owners and deadlines, gaps marked honestly.
  • [ ] I asked a checking question and confirmed the quoted line in the original.
  • [ ] I refined the output at least once instead of taking the first version.

Self-check

Ask yourself:

  • Did I check, or just trust? If you accepted the action list without confirming a single line against the notes, go back and verify one now. That habit is the whole game.
  • Did I keep private details out? If anything sensitive slipped in, note it for next time; once it's sent, it's sent.
  • Did the back-and-forth actually improve it? Most people find version two or three much better than the first. If yours didn't improve, your follow-up instruction probably needs to be more specific.
  • Would I be comfortable sending this? If not, what's missing is usually a checked owner or a confirmed date, the exact things Step 5 catches.

Try it now

Common mistakes

  • Taking the first list as finished. It's a draft. Reorder it, mark the gaps, add what's missing.
  • Letting vague actions disappear. Tell Claude to keep unclear items and mark them "UNASSIGNED"; those are often the ones that matter most.
  • Editing the artifact by copying it in and out of the chat. Edit it in the panel, or just ask Claude to change it.
  • Skipping the checking question because the list looks right. A tidy list is the easiest kind to trust wrongly.
  • Over-trusting a confident deadline or owner Claude assigned. Claude can quietly merge two notes or attach a date to the wrong action, and it looks just as certain when it does. Confirm any owner or date you'll act on against the actual line. The neat formatting is not evidence it's correct.

Keeping current

The read-check-build-refine loop is durable; it works whatever version of Claude you're on. The surface (how artifacts behave, what attaches, how much a chat holds) shifts with releases. If the panel or controls look different, check the Claude release notes. Accurate as of 13 July 2026.