Ask Claude what needs you today and it reads your inbox and calendar to tell you. Connect three Google apps once, then use the seven prompts below, written around your name, your hours and your most important clients.
What you’ll need.
Get these set up first. Everything below uses them.
Claude
The AI assistant I use for writing, building and thinking things through.Free planGmail
Email that Claude can search, sort and draft replies in once connected.Google Calendar
Your calendar, which Claude can read to prep calls and find free time.Google Drive
Files and docs that Claude can search and read once connected.
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Tell this page about your week
Your answers write all seven prompts. They stay in your browser and nobody else sees them.
Connect Gmail, Calendar and Drive
You do this once. After that Claude can look things up for you whenever you ask.
- Go to claude.ai and sign in.
- Open Customize, then Connectors.
- Click the + button next to Connectors to see the list.
- Find Gmail and click Connect.
- Google opens and asks you to sign in. Use the Google account your business email is on, then allow access.
- Do the same for Google Calendar and Google Drive.
Switch them on in a chat
You choose which apps Claude can use in each chat.
- Start a new chat.
- Click the + button below the message box (or type /).
- Hover over Connectors and toggle on Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Drive.
What's on my Google Calendar tomorrow, and what's the most recent email in my Gmail inbox?
Sort your inbox and your day
Run these first thing. Five minutes with Claude replaces twenty minutes of scrolling.
Check my Gmail for emails from the last 24 hours. Sort them into three lists: 1. Needs me today 2. Can wait 3. Just for info (newsletters, receipts, notifications) Put anything from these people at the top, whatever it's about: [YOUR MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE]. Give each email one line: who it's from and what they want. Don't reply to, archive or delete anything.
Find emails from these people in the last 7 days that I haven't replied to: [YOUR MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE]. For each one, write a short draft reply I can send. Keep it warm and to the point, and sign off as [HOW YOU SIGN YOUR EMAILS]. If you need a fact from me to answer properly, write [CHECK: what you need] instead of guessing. Show me the drafts here. Don't send anything.
Look at my Google Calendar for tomorrow. My working hours are [YOUR WORKING HOURS] ([YOUR TIME ZONE]). For each client call with someone outside my business: - Who it's with and what time - The last email between us, in two lines - Any Google Drive file that mentions them or their business - One thing I should ask or follow up on Keep each call to five lines.
Find files and plan your week
The jobs you do every week that eat ten minutes each time.
Find a file in my Google Drive. Here's what I remember about it: [what it's about, who it's for, roughly when I made it]. Give me the three best matches with their links and when each was last changed.
Look at my Google Calendar for the next 7 days. My working hours are [YOUR WORKING HOURS] ([YOUR TIME ZONE]). Tell me: - Any clashes or back-to-back calls with no break - Anything booked outside my working hours - Which day has the longest free block for focused work - Any meeting with no agenda or link in the invite Keep it short.
Find three 30-minute slots next week when I'm free, inside my working hours: [YOUR WORKING HOURS] ([YOUR TIME ZONE]). Then write a short email to [name] offering those three times, signed [HOW YOU SIGN YOUR EMAILS]. Show me the email here. Don't send it.
Search my sent emails from the last 14 days for anything where I asked a question or sent a proposal and haven't had a reply. List them with the person's name, what I asked, and the date I sent it. Put anyone from this list first: [YOUR MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE]. Then write a two-line friendly nudge for each one, signed [HOW YOU SIGN YOUR EMAILS]. Don't send anything.
Stay in control
Claude works with your real inbox and calendar, so it checks with you before it changes anything.
- Claude asks for your approval before it sends, replies to or forwards an email.
- It asks before it shares, moves or bins a file in Drive.
- It can only see what your Google account can already see.
- Anthropic says it doesn’t train its models on your Gmail, Drive or Calendar connector data.
To disconnect, go to Customize, then Connectors, click the Google connector and click Disconnect.
Take your downloads
Tick what you want. Each file is written from your answers in step 1.
Your tools, one more time.
Claude
The AI assistant I use for writing, building and thinking things through.Free planGmail
Email that Claude can search, sort and draft replies in once connected.Google Calendar
Your calendar, which Claude can read to prep calls and find free time.Google Drive
Files and docs that Claude can search and read once connected.
If something goes wrong.
It says "You may need to reconnect with your Google Drive account"
Go to Customize, then Connectors. Click the Google connector, click Disconnect and confirm. Next time you ask about Gmail, Calendar or Drive, Claude sends you to Google to sign in again.
Google says "Access blocked: your institution’s admin needs to review Claude"
Your Google Workspace admin has to mark Claude as a trusted app. If that’s you, Anthropic’s Google Workspace connectors help page has the exact steps in admin.google.com.
Claude didn’t look in my email
Check the connectors are toggled on in that chat: click +, hover over Connectors. Then say it plainly: "Search my Gmail for…"
It found the wrong emails
Give it more to go on: a name, an email address, a date range or a word from the subject line. Big inboxes need tighter searches.
I connected the wrong Google account
Disconnect it in Customize, then Connectors, and connect again with the right one.