If you're just starting in Claude Code, the most impactful habit is adopting a "Plan First, Implement Second" workflow by using Plan Mode for any task more complex than a one-line fix. This forces Claude to research your architecture and draft a plan for your approval before it touches your source code, preventing expensive hallucinations and "vibe-coding" errors.
To sustain this efficiency long-term, you must maintain a CLAUDE.md file in your project root; treat it as your project’s "brain" where you store non-obvious context like build commands (npm run dev), testing patterns, and specific style guides (e.g., "Always use functional components").
Since Claude’s performance degrades as the context window fills, practice context hygiene by using the /compact command during long sessions or starting fresh conversations for unrelated tasks.
Finally, lean into the tool's agentic nature by letting it handle the "boring" parts of the lifecycle—like writing descriptive Git commits with claude commit or running hooks to ensure that specific shell commands or Claude Code evaluations run every single time a certain event occurs.
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