Tips & tricks
Small habits, much better results.
None of these are clever. They are just the things you figure out after using Cowork for a while, collected so you can skip the figuring-out part.
Describe the finish line, not the route
In a chat you ask questions. In Cowork you describe a finished result and let it work out the steps. "Turn these receipts into a categorized expense sheet" beats "open this file, then read it, then..." every time.
Make a working folder and keep it small
Cowork can only touch the folder you point it at, so that folder is your whole safety model. Put in exactly what the task needs and nothing else. Your other files are safe purely because you did not invite them.
Work on a copy the first few times
Until you trust how it behaves, duplicate the folder and let Cowork loose on the copy. You get all the benefit and none of the "wait, where did that file go" feeling.
Read the plan before you approve it
Cowork shows you what it intends to do before the consequential steps. That preview is not a formality. Skim it. Ten seconds there saves you from undoing twenty minutes of confident wrong work.
Ask for a change log
On any task that touches a lot of files, end your prompt with "give me a short change log of what you did." Now you can see what moved without playing detective afterward.
One job per session
Big unrelated tasks in the same session fill up its memory and muddy its focus. Start a fresh session for a new job. It is the cheapest fix for "why is it suddenly confused."
Feed it fewer, smaller files
A folder of forty giant PDFs is how you meet the context limit. Point Cowork at a subfolder, or ask it to handle the files in batches and build up a summary as it goes.
Name your output format
If you want a spreadsheet, say spreadsheet. "As an .xlsx with one row per invoice and a totals row" gets you something usable instead of a wall of text you then have to reformat.
Connect only the apps a task needs
Connectors are handy but every one widens what Cowork can reach. Hook up the calendar for a scheduling task, then leave the rest unconnected. Treat access like keys, not confetti.
Spot-check the numbers
Cowork is good at extraction, not infallible at it. On anything financial, open the result and check a couple of figures against the source. It is faster than it sounds and it catches the rare miss.
Tell it what not to touch
A one-line "do not edit the files in the /final folder" is a cheap guardrail. Cowork follows constraints well when you actually state them.
Let it ask you questions
Add "ask me anything you are unsure about before proceeding." A short clarifying question up front beats a confident wrong turn you have to walk back later.
Put them to work
Try a ready-made workflow.
The fastest way to make these habits stick is to run a real task. Our workflow templates come with copy-paste prompts that already fold in the folder-safety and review habits above, or build your own with the prompt builder.