I built an executive assistant inside Claude, Anthropic's AI assistant, and I talk to it every morning. It reviews the places where my work is scattered, identifies the most urgent items, and handles many of the small actions that would otherwise consume my day.
The assistant connects to Granola, which records and writes up my meetings, along with Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack, Asana, and Google Drive. Slack is where my team talks. Asana is where we track projects and tasks.
Each morning, it reads across those systems and builds a current picture of my work. It looks for commitments from meetings, unanswered emails, approaching deadlines, calendar conflicts, and open projects. It then gives me a short list of what needs attention first and asks for updates where the record is incomplete.
The useful part is its ability to act. It can mark an Asana task complete, add or remove a calendar block, send an email, and find and share a file. That turns the morning review into a working session instead of another summary I have to process.
The Ten-Minute Task That Took Seconds
I saw the value clearly when someone asked in Asana for a document tied to our go-to-market strategy. My assistant searched Google Drive, found the file, and asked whether I wanted it shared in Slack and in the Asana thread.
Normally, I would have to locate the document, confirm that it was the right version, switch between applications, and share it twice. That takes about ten minutes. The assistant handled the entire sequence in seconds.
Ten minutes may not sound significant. The same kind of request appears several times throughout my day. A document needs to be found. A task needs to be updated. A calendar block needs to move. A follow-up email needs to go out. Those minutes add up surprisingly quickly over the course of a year.
The assistant also helps keep the day moving. Around midday, it asks what progressed, what stalled, and whether my priorities have changed. It updates the record as I respond and logs my active work in a spreadsheet. I can see where the week stands without stopping to create another report.
I didn't need a technical background to set it up. I connected the tools I already use and explained how I wanted my day to run. Any leader working across email, team chat, meetings, and a task tracker can create a similar system.
Start with a morning review, a midday check-in, and a few clear actions the assistant can handle safely. Let it prove itself before giving it more responsibility.
That simple setup has changed how I move through the day. I begin with a clear view of what matters, open projects get attention before they drift, and routine tasks are handled while they are still small. The hours I recover go back into decisions, conversations, and work that requires my judgment.
