"Thirty minutes to Euston. Here is what Claude can actually do."

The 07:43 from Berkhamsted gets into Euston in about thirty minutes. You have your coffee, your phone, and a seat if you left early enough. Most people spend that window on Instagram or refreshing the news.

You could spend it doing something that makes the rest of your day easier. Not in a vague self-improvement way. Concretely: you step off the train with your biggest decision already thought through, a difficult email drafted and ready to send, or a clear picture of the one thing that actually matters today.

The Claude iOS app can do all of that. Not through magic. Through three specific things that most people never find.

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Set up a Project first. Everything else depends on it.

Every time you open Claude in a new chat, it starts blank. It has no idea who you are, what you work on, or what you were doing yesterday. The first few minutes of every session are wasted re-explaining yourself.

Projects fixes this.

A Project is a persistent workspace inside the Claude app. Create one, give it a name — "Work commute" or anything — and write a short description of who you are and what you need. That description loads automatically every time you open a chat inside that Project.

Here is a working example:

"I am a product manager at a software company. My current focus is a Q3 launch. I work with engineers and a sales team who do not always agree. I am direct. I like bullet points. I want honest answers, not reassurance."

Now every conversation starts with Claude already knowing that. It does not ask. It just helps. And the next morning, and the morning after that, same context, same continuity.

To create one: open the Claude app, tap the icon in the top left, tap Projects, then New Project. Add your description in the instructions field. Takes five minutes. Do it tonight.

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Thing one: the email you have been putting off

There is always one. The email that needs thought. The message to a client where you got something wrong, or the note to your manager about a decision you made without full buy-in. You know what it needs to say. You just have not sat down to say it cleanly.

The train is the right place for it, and Claude is the right tool.

Type the situation in plain terms. Not a polished brief — just what is true. Claude will ask one or two clarifying questions, then produce a draft that reads like a person wrote it. You read it back, change two words, copy it into your email app, and send before you reach Euston.

The thing that makes this work is that Claude asks the question that changes the answer. Whether this is the first time the client is hearing about the delay is a different email from a third-time apology. Claude knows that. It asks. You get the right draft, not a generic one.

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Thing two: work out what actually matters today

You do not always have a specific email to send. Sometimes the train is best used for thinking — figuring out what the day requires before you walk into the office and the day starts deciding for you.

This prompt works every time:

Type this:

"Here is what I am dealing with today: [one or two sentences]. I have three things on my list. Which one should I do first, and why?"

Claude will not just pick one at random. It will ask a follow-up if it needs more information. And writing out your three things — even in shorthand, even badly typed — forces you to actually name them. Half the time you realise while typing that one of the three is not a today problem at all.

Pair this with a Project and Claude already knows your context. You skip the re-explaining and get straight to the thinking.

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What the thirty minutes looks like

Not planned. Sent.

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The apps you already have are not built for this

Siri and Google Assistant are good at commands. Set a timer. Call someone. Check the weather. They fetch.

Claude thinks. You give it a messy problem — the email you have been avoiding, the decision you have not landed yet — and it works through it with you. That is a different job, and it happens to be the job the commute is good for.

Three things to do before your next train:

1. Download the Claude app if you have not already. It is free. 2. Create a Project. Write three sentences about who you are and what you are focused on this month. 3. On your next commute, type one problem you are sitting on and see what comes back.

That is a twenty-minute setup. The returns start immediately.