Your First Week

The first week with an agent should feel like adding a new teammate, not learning a new app.

Start with real work. Ask for the summary you do not have time to compile. Ask for background research before a meeting. Ask for a draft reply you can quickly edit. The point is not to "test the model" — it is to build shared context through work that actually matters.

Week one is also the right time to hand over one recurring responsibility. Something small but real: watching a thread that tends to drift, preparing a daily briefing, flagging changes in a project that quietly goes stale. Repetition is where usefulness compounds. One-off requests prove capability; recurring assignments create reliability.

Tell your agent early how you like information shaped. Recommendation first or context first? Concise or exhaustive? Formal or direct? These are not cosmetic preferences. They affect whether the output is immediately usable or needs rework. The sooner you say it, the sooner it sticks.

Expect some friction in the first week. The agent will ask more questions while it learns your priorities. It will occasionally over-explain, or answer what you asked instead of what you needed. That is normal, and it corrects quickly with direct feedback.

Short corrections work best. "Too long." "Lead with the answer." "Right facts, wrong tone." "You focused on urgency, not impact." That kind of signal teaches judgment, not just formatting. Give it the same directness you would with a sharp new hire: immediate and specific.

By the end of the week, you should notice fewer avoidable misses and better alignment with how you think. By week four, if you keep giving it real assignments, it should feel less like a tool you prompt and more like someone who already knows the context.

Everything happens in conversation. You provide direction and feedback. Your agent handles the mechanics and learns from the pattern. That is the whole system.