Lesson 1.3 of the Free Claude Cowork Course · 25 minutes
Overview
Every team has one: the shared folder nobody wants to open. Inconsistent names, seven versions of the same document, files from three years ago mixed with last week’s. This lesson is where Cowork starts earning its keep — you’ll take a deliberately messy practice folder and turn it into something organized, and learn the safety habits that make file operations low-risk.
What You’ll Do
- Have Cowork map and describe a messy folder before touching anything
- Rename, reorganize, and summarize files against a naming convention
- Learn the “plan first, then execute” habit for file operations
The Lesson
Say “start lesson 1.3”. The course folder includes a practice directory that mimics real-world mess. You’ll first ask Cowork to survey it — what’s here, what’s duplicated, what looks stale — without changing anything. Then you’ll give it a target structure and naming convention and ask for a plan: what it intends to rename and move, listed out before it acts. You approve the plan, it executes, and you review the result.
That plan-approve-execute rhythm matters more than the specific task. It’s how you’ll safely run bigger file operations later — on folders that aren’t practice folders.
Try It Now
After the practice folder, point Cowork at a small, low-stakes real folder of your own (a downloads folder works well) and ask for a survey and a cleanup plan. Execute it only if the plan looks right — declining a plan is a legitimate outcome of this exercise.
What’s Next
← Previous: 1.2 Your First Task
Next: 1.4 Documents and Decks →
New here? Download the full course free on GitHub.
Rolling this out for a whole team? See our live team training.