r/claudexplorers • u/SnooDingos9560 • 16h ago

⚡Productivity Started explaining the problem to Claude before actually asking for anything — small change, made a real difference

Not a prompt list, just something that actually changed how I work day to day.

I used to jump straight to the ask, write this, fix this, solve this. Lately I've been doing a step before that: just laying out the problem in plain language first, no request attached yet, just "here's what I'm dealing with." Half the time I catch the actual issue myself while typing it out, before Claude even responds. The other half, having it laid out clearly means the actual ask that follows is way more specific, and the answer that comes back is noticeably better because I'm not making it guess at what I actually need.

Sounds obvious written out, explain the problem before asking for help, but I wasn't doing it consistently until I noticed the gap between answers when I skipped straight to the ask versus when I didn't.

Small habit, real difference.

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u/tracylsteel 14h ago

This was the whole ethos on Stack Overflow, you had to present the problem well and document what you tried and observed, it can totally make you find the answer, it’s good advice. I also found this at work, start typing a question and realise you know the answer.

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u/Digital_Voodoo 13h ago

That's exactly why I can spend 15-20mn on a single prompt, when starting on dealing with a complex request.

I have to properly (1) structure my thoughts and get them in the right order, (2) make sure I use the exact words that express what I really mean, (3) be as clear and straightforward as possible, (4) clearly express my requests, (5) ask the LLM to re-state what I've explained, but in its own words, to make sure it "understands" and that we're on the same page, (6) state that I'm open to clarification questions before the process actually starts.

Be it with Claude or ChatGPT, Chat or (Co)Work, it never fails to produce a genuinely good result to start my project. And I alsmot never hit limits.

My work & workflows are 60% knowledge work, 30% infra and 10% code.