Working Notes · Claude
Helpful Claude prompts that make $20 a month feel like a steal.
In this economy?! I’m one person juggling a full time job, a side practice, a toddler and a husband with a pretty heavy golf schedule. A handful of scheduled tasks in Claude carry the busywork so I can spend my attention on the people.
Start Here
How Claude scheduled tasks work
A scheduled task is a prompt you save with a time attached. Sunday night, every weekday morning, every Monday at seven. When the time comes, Claude runs the prompt on its own, checks whatever you connected it to, and leaves the finished answer waiting for you. My calendar, Gmail and Outlook are all connected, so most of my tasks read from those.
The prompts below are versions of the ones I run, with my personal details swapped for brackets. Copy one, fill in your own, and adjust until the output sounds like what you need.
How to write a scheduled task prompt that holds up
- 01
Write it for a new assistant who has never met you. Every run starts fresh with no memory of last week.
- 02
Name the exact places to look: which calendar, which inbox, which website.
- 03
Spell out what it may never do on its own. Mine draft and suggest. They never send, buy or delete without me.
- 04
Describe the answer you want back, down to length and format, so you can read it in thirty seconds.
Prompt One
The Winfrey Weekly: a family newsletter prompt
Runs Sundays at 7:00 PM
Sunday night used to mean scrolling three calendars and my inbox while trying to remember whether a bill was due. Now a family newsletter lands before bedtime. It lays out every day of the coming week with the weather, flags anything that crashes into nap or bedtime, and lists the bills, packages and appointments I would have missed.
The bedtime rule does the most work. Anything that runs into dinner or the bedtime routine gets a red flag, because a toddler’s 7:00 bedtime has no room for negotiation.
Every Sunday at 7 PM, write our family newsletter for the coming week, Monday through Sunday. Check our shared [Family] and [Home] calendars for every event this week and next week. Search my Gmail for bills with a due date that lands this week, packages arriving this week, and appointment confirmations. Only list a bill if an email states the due date. Pull the 10 day forecast for [your city] and put the high, low and conditions on every day. Flag anything that runs into my toddler's schedule. Nap falls somewhere between [11:30 and 3:30] and can move, so call those out as worth shifting. Dinner and bedtime run [5:00 to 7:00 PM] and cannot move, so flag anything in that window as a hard conflict. Assume [Jake] golfs Thursday night and our sitter is coming unless a calendar event or email says otherwise. Check the [Husker football] schedule and note home or away, the kickoff time and game day weather. Title it [The Winfrey Weekly] and lay it out as: a day by day breakdown, money alerts, packages, open to dos, and a look ahead to next week. Keep the tone warm and short. Save it as a styled HTML page with the conflicts in colored callouts, bedtime conflicts in a different color from nap conflicts.
Prompt Two
Inbox triage: a daily Gmail cleanup prompt
Runs every morning
My personal inbox gets order confirmations, daycare notes, bank alerts, country club news and an endless supply of sales. Every morning Claude files what belongs in a folder, trashes the promotions, and starts a reply draft for anyone who wrote me personally. I open Gmail to a short list of things that need me.
The house rules at the bottom are where it gets good. Over time I added one each time I caught myself making the same decision twice, like keeping my daily news digest until I’ve read it, or forwarding account notices for our son straight to Jake.
Every morning, clean up my Gmail inbox. Check my existing labels first so you use the folders I already have. For each new thread, choose one: Label it and archive it out of the inbox. Trash it if it's a promotion or newsletter with nothing for me to act on. Start a reply draft if a real person is waiting to hear from me. Never send anything. Drafts only. Leave it in the inbox only if it needs my personal decision. Never leave a thread labeled and still sitting in the inbox, unless a house rule below says to. House rules: [Keep my daily news digest in the inbox until I've opened it, then trash it.] [Forward anything about our son's accounts to my husband at his email, then file it under Family.] [Leave country club emails in the inbox until I've read them. Never trash them.] When you finish, give me a short rundown: what you filed, what you trashed and why, any drafts you started, what's still waiting on me, and any bills, renewals or dates I should add to the calendar.
Prompt Three
Is Jake golfing this week? A weather and schedule prompt
Runs Mondays before work
Thursday night is golf night in our house. When the forecast turns, the round slides to another night, and that night is usually one I already had plans for. This one checks the weather with Thursday in mind and makes the call before I get blindsided.
It also checks the things that steer a backup night in our house: football games he’ll want to watch, and the stags and tournaments our country club sends out by email.
Every Monday morning, tell me whether [Jake] will be golfing this Thursday. Pull the forecast for [your city] for the whole week, with extra attention on Thursday from [4 PM] until dark: temperature, wind and the chance of rain. Decide whether Thursday works for golf. If Thursday looks bad, flag the other nights this week he'll most likely try instead. Before you pick one, check: The NFL schedule for games he'll want to watch that week. My inbox for emails from [our country club] about stags, tournaments, leagues or member events. Our [Family] calendar for anything already booked on those nights. Give me a short answer in plain sentences: yes or no on Thursday and why, the most likely backup night, and anything on that night I'll need to move or find a sitter for.
Swap the golf for whatever your household’s version is. Softball, bowling league, a standing poker night. The structure stays the same.
Also Running
More scheduled task ideas for work
A few more run in the background for my day job. A morning brief sorts what needs my attention before I open my laptop. A Monday task drafts LinkedIn post ideas from the week’s healthcare news, and a Friday task pulls my key items into a draft email for leadership that I review before sending. A weekly job scan reads my recommended listings and drafts cover letters against my style rules, and a check in at the end of each workday tells me what to finish before I sign off.
They handle the gathering and the first draft, the part that used to eat my evenings. The decisions stay with me.
Questions I Get
What are scheduled tasks in Claude?
A scheduled task is a prompt saved with a time attached. When the time comes, Claude runs the prompt on its own, checks the calendars, inboxes or sites you connected, and leaves the finished answer waiting for you.
Will a scheduled task send emails for me?
It follows your prompt. Mine tell Claude to write drafts only and never send, buy or delete anything, so every message waits for my review. Start there and loosen the rules once you trust the output.
If you like this and feel obliged, buy me a coffee.
Stuck on Your Own?
Send me the chore and I’ll send back a prompt.
That’s what the Footnote is for. One question, one answer, $5.
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