3 Automations to Set Up in Claude Cowork

3 Automations to Set Up in Claude Cowork Today

A step-by-step guide for busy professionals. No coding. No tech background. Just results.

What is Claude Cowork?

Claude Cowork is the automation layer inside Claude Desktop. Instead of opening Claude every morning and typing the same requests, you describe a task once, set a schedule, and Claude runs it automatically — on your calendar, in your inbox, and across your files — while you focus on everything else.

This guide walks you through three automations worth setting up today, plus everything you need to get connected first.

Before You Start — Connect Your Tools

These automations pull from your real Gmail and Google Calendar. To make that work, you need to connect those tools inside Claude first. Here is how:

Step 1 Download Claude Desktop

Go to claude.ai and download the desktop app for Mac or Windows. The Scheduled Tasks feature lives inside the desktop app — it is not available in the browser version.

Step 2 Open Settings and Connect Google

1. Open Claude Desktop
2. Click your profile icon in the bottom left corner
3. Click "Settings"
4. Click the "Integrations" tab
5. Find "Gmail" and click "Connect"
6. Sign in with your Google account and grant access
7. Repeat for "Google Calendar"

Note: Claude only reads your data to complete tasks you assign. It does not store or share your emails or calendar events.

Automation 1 — The Morning Briefing

☀ The Morning Briefing Every morning, Claude reads your inbox and calendar and hands you a ready-made game plan before you touch a single app.

Most mornings start the same way — you open your email, scan your calendar, try to remember what needs to happen today, and spend 20 minutes just getting oriented. This automation does that for you automatically.

Inside Claude Desktop, click the "Cowork" tab in the top navigation bar.

Step 2 Find the Scheduled Tab

In the left sidebar, you will see a section called "Scheduled." Click it. This is where all your recurring automations live.

Step 3 Create a New Task

Click "+ New task" in the upper right corner. A setup panel will appear.

Step 4 Fill In the Details

1. Name your task: "Morning Briefing"
2. Copy and paste the prompt below into the prompt field
3. Set the cadence to "Daily" and select weekdays only
4. Set the time to whatever works best — 7:00 AM or 8:00 AM is a common choice
5. Click "Save"

Prompt to copy: Check my Gmail and Google Calendar for the past 24 hours. Give me: my top 3 priorities for today based on what is overdue or upcoming, any emails that need a reply from me with the sender name and subject, and anything on my calendar today that I need to prepare for. Format it as a clean daily briefing.

Important: Claude Desktop needs to be open and your computer needs to be awake for this to run at the scheduled time. If your laptop is closed, it will run automatically the next time you open the app.

Automation 2 — The Weekly Wrap-Up

📋 The Weekly Wrap-Up Every Friday, Claude reviews your week and hands you a summary of what you accomplished, what is still open, and what to prioritize next week.

Most people end the week not knowing where their time actually went. This automation generates a clean report every Friday so you always have a record of what got done — and what to carry forward.

Step 1 Open the Scheduled Tab

In Claude Desktop, click "Cowork" then "Scheduled" in the left sidebar.

Step 2 Create a New Task

Click "+ New task" in the upper right corner.

Step 3 Fill In the Details

1. Name your task: "Weekly Wrap-Up"
2. Copy and paste the prompt below
3. Set the cadence to "Weekly"
4. Select "Friday" as the day
5. Set the time to around 4:00 PM or 5:00 PM
6. Click "Save"

Prompt to copy: Look through my Gmail and Google Calendar from the past 7 days. Write a summary of: what I accomplished this week based on completed meetings and email threads, what is still open or unresolved, and what I should prioritize in the first half of next week. Format it as a clean weekly report with three labeled sections.

Pro tip: After a few weeks, you will have a running record of every week. Ask Claude to compare two wrap-ups and it will tell you where your time is going.

Automation 3 — Inbox Autopilot

Inbox Autopilot Every morning, Claude scans your inbox for any thread where you sent the last message and never heard back — and flags everything overdue.

Every professional has a graveyard of unanswered emails. A proposal you sent. A follow-up that slipped through. A deal that went cold because you forgot to nudge. This automation finds all of them before your day starts.

Step 1 Open the Scheduled Tab

In Claude Desktop, click "Cowork" then "Scheduled" in the left sidebar.

Step 2 Create a New Task

Click "+ New task" in the upper right corner.

Step 3 Fill In the Details

1. Name your task: "Inbox Autopilot"
2. Copy and paste the prompt below
3. Set the cadence to "Daily" on weekdays
4. Set the time to early morning — 7:30 AM works well
5. Click "Save"

Prompt to copy: Search my Gmail for any email thread where I sent the last message and have not received a reply in 48 hours or more. List each one with: the person's name, the subject line, and how many days it has been since my last message. Flag anything over 5 days as high priority. If there are none, let me know.

This works best after a few days of use. Claude will get better at identifying patterns in your inbox the more it runs.

Three automations. Set up once. Running every day without you thinking about it.

The Morning Briefing gives you a game plan before you open a single app. The Weekly Wrap-Up closes out your week with a record of where your time went. The Ghost Detector makes sure nothing important goes unanswered.

These are just three of the hundreds of tasks you can schedule inside Claude Cowork. In the next guide, we go deeper — showing you how to connect Notion, Slack, and your file system so Claude can run multi-step workflows across your entire stack.

Want to take the next step? DM me “automate” on instagram @the.agi.guide