--- title: "How I learn with AI while working full time" description: "6 steps and 6 copy-ready prompts: collect what you saved, turn each lecture into a study pack in Claude Code, save it to Google Drive, get quizzed on your phone, and turn what you do not need to remember into a skill." url: https://theclosedgap.com/guides/how-i-learn-with-ai/ author: Madina Umbetova --- [Guides](https://theclosedgap.com/guides) Guide · Learning # How I learn with AI while working full time From a pile of saved links to a quiz on my phone 4 October 2026 7 min read [Read on Substack](https://theclosedgap.substack.com/p/how-i-learn-with-ai-while-working) Between 18 September and 2 October I sent myself 41 links, notes and prompts on WhatsApp: webinars, guides, an essay by Dario Amodei, 2 online classrooms. I saved every one of them with the hope that one day I would watch it. I work full time, train twice per day and raise the kids. No one has 3 hours for a webinar. And when I do find the time, I watch, but then I don’t keep it in my memory. So I built a system around the few minutes I do have. Claude reads the pile, turns each lecture into a short study pack, quizzes me on my phone, and turns what I do not need to remember into a skill it uses for me. Each of the 6 steps below comes with one prompt you can copy. ## 1\. Collect everything you saved into one pile I message myself on WhatsApp: every link I want to keep goes there. That chat is my one pile. To hand the pile to Claude, use one of 2 routes. 1. On a Mac with WhatsApp installed and the Claude desktop app (Pro or Max), turn on computer use under Settings (it is still a beta), allow WhatsApp when Claude asks, and Claude reads the chat itself. Or, on your phone, open the chat, choose Export chat, Without media, and upload the text file to Claude. 2. If you also press Save on LinkedIn, Substack or YouTube, Claude can read those lists too. With the Claude in Chrome extension (paid Claude plans), Claude opens your saved posts on LinkedIn, your saved items on Substack and your YouTube “Watch later” list in your own browser and scrolls through them. One caution: the terms of LinkedIn and YouTube forbid automated access by extensions and bots, and I found no exception for your own list. **Prompt:** ``` Read my WhatsApp chat with myself from the last 2 weeks, my saved posts on LinkedIn, my saved items on Substack and my “Watch later” list on YouTube. List every item with its title, author and link, and one line on what it is about. Group everything by topic, and mark the 5 most useful for my work with one sentence each on why. ``` If you use both routes, run this prompt once with computer use for WhatsApp and once in Claude in Chrome for the saved lists. ## 2\. Turn each lecture into one study pack in Claude Code When I watch a webinar, Granola (an AI note-taking app) writes down what is said, and I take screenshots of the slides. When I have no time to watch, I use only the YouTube link. For a 62-minute episode, the summary was ready in about 4 minutes, and the flashcards and the mind map 3 minutes later. In Claude Code, give Claude the transcript, your screenshots and the link. If Claude cannot get the transcript from YouTube, open “Show transcript” under the video, copy it and paste it in. A summary built only from the transcript misses what was shown on the slides, so add screenshots when the slides matter. **Prompt:** ``` Here is a lecture: the transcript, my screenshots of the slides and the YouTube link. Build a study pack from these sources only. 1. A PDF summary: one paragraph and up to 7 takeaways on page 1, then sections in the lecture’s order, tables for steps and numbers, the speaker’s figures marked as their claims, and a note wherever the transcript is unclear. 2. 20 to 40 flashcards with a question on the front and the answer on the back, and 10 quiz questions. 3. A mind map with the topic in the centre and 4 to 6 branches in the lecture’s order. ``` The flashcards matter most. In a classic experiment, students who reread a text did better after 5 minutes, but students who tested themselves remembered more after 2 days and after a week (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006). ![A study pack built in Claude Code: the PDF summary, page 1, and the mind map of the same video.](https://theclosedgap.com/writing-assets/how-i-learn-with-ai/study-pack.jpg) ## 3\. Let Claude Code save every study pack to Google Drive Claude Code works with the files on your computer, so it can write straight into Google Drive once Google Drive for desktop is installed and your Drive shows up as a folder. Tell it once, at the start, to create a study folder in your Drive and to save a copy of every study pack there: the PDF, the flashcards and the mind map. Claude Code forgets instructions between sessions, so ask it to write the rule into its global CLAUDE.md file, the file it reads at the start of every session. From then on each new pack lands in the folder by itself. **Prompt (once, in Claude Code):** ``` Create a folder called “Study packs” in my Google Drive. From now on, every time you build a study pack, save a copy of everything there: the PDF summary, the flashcards and the mind map, each file named with the topic and the date. After saving, check that the files are in the folder and tell me. Write this rule into my global CLAUDE.md file (~/.claude/CLAUDE.md) so you follow it in every future session. ``` ## 4\. Learn from your study packs anywhere, above all on your phone In the Claude app, create a project called “Study” and connect Google Drive to it. A project keeps your study chats together and lets you write once that Claude should use only your study packs. You can now use your study packs in 2 ways: on your computer, or on the go in the Claude app on your phone. The phone matters more, because that is where the free 5 or 10 minutes are. A quiz is only one option. Ask for a mind map of a topic, ask Claude to explain one part again, or just discuss the lecture. **In my test, every question came from my own PDF, the lecture I chose.** To make it a habit, open the Claude desktop app, go to Chat, open your “Study” project, choose Scheduled tasks and set one up, for example weekdays at 06:00 (scheduled tasks need a paid Claude plan). The quiz then arrives as a notification on your phone. **Prompt (for the scheduled task):** ``` Every weekday morning, quiz me with 5 questions taken only from the PDFs in my Google Drive folder “Study packs”. Take at least 2 questions from the newest file. Ask the questions I got wrong last time first. Grade strictly: if an answer is wrong or incomplete, say so and give the correct answer. ``` “Grade strictly” is in there for a reason: in my first test, another chatbot approved my wrong answer as correct. Small, spaced doses are what the research supports. In a trial with 1,470 urologists in 63 countries, 2 questions arrived by email every 2 days, and a question someone got wrong came back after 12 days instead of 24. Their median score rose from 48% to 98% (Kerfoot and Baker, 2012). ![The study quiz in the Claude app on a phone: a question from my own PDF, graded strictly, and a mind map on demand.](https://theclosedgap.com/writing-assets/how-i-learn-with-ai/phone-quiz.jpg) ## 5\. Turn what you do not need to remember into a skill The breakthrough for me: after the PDF, I create a skill out of what has been learned. Then I don’t even need to learn it myself. Claude uses it in my work. A skill is a short instruction file that Claude follows whenever your request matches it. With that you do not need to explain Claude every time the same and can get the consistent quality. **Prompt:** ``` Turn this study PDF into a Claude skill. Write the method as numbered steps Claude should always follow, add the rules and examples from the lecture, and write a description that says what the skill does and when to use it, in the words I would naturally use when I ask for this kind of work. Save it in my Claude Code skills folder (~/.claude/skills) so you can use it in every session. ``` ## 6\. Let Claude suggest the right skill in every chat I no longer have to remember which skills I have. In every chat, Claude Code suggests a skill from my library that fits what I just asked, and runs it only after my yes. This works through a hook, a small script that Claude Code runs automatically every time you send a message. Mine compares each message with the names and descriptions of all my skills and offers the best fits in one line. You do not need to write it yourself: ask Claude Code to set it up. It matches on the skill’s description, so make sure each description says in plain words what the skill does and when to use it. **Prompt (once, in Claude Code):** ``` Set up a hook that runs every time I send you a message. It should compare my message with the names and descriptions of all my installed skills and suggest the best 1 to 3 matches in one line at the end of your reply. Never run a suggested skill without my yes. Then test it with 3 example messages and show me what it suggests. ``` > **If you sign up, you will get the skill free. It builds the study pack from steps 2 and 3 for you in Claude Code: the PDF, the flashcards and the mind map, saved in your own study folder. Your welcome email has the link to my subscriber library page, and the download is there.** The Closed Gap ## One method _every week._ Written by an operator running a $0.8bn global portfolio, for operators. Subscribe free and the next one lands in your inbox. The Closed Gap on Substack. No spam, unsubscribe in one click.