I Built My Own Executive Assistant in 5 Minutes (Here's How You Can Too)

No coding. No complicated setup. Just a tool that reads your day for you.

The problem

Here's what my mornings used to look like.

I'd sit down with coffee, open my email, then Slack, then my calendar, then my notes. Thirty minutes later, I still wasn't sure what was actually important that day. By the time my first meeting started, I was already behind.

Maybe you know the feeling. Too many apps. Too many tabs. Not enough clarity.

What I built

I built an assistant that reads all of that for me — my email, my calendar, my messages, my notes — and sends me one short summary every morning.

It tells me:

• What I got done yesterday
• The three things that matter most today
• What to bring to each meeting on my schedule
• Anything urgent I shouldn't miss

It shows up in my Slack at 7 AM. I read it in about a minute. Then I'm ready for the day.

It's not a fancy app. It's not a subscription service. It's just a tool I built inside Claude (the AI assistant from Anthropic) — and it took five minutes to set up.

"But I'm not a tech person"

You don't need to be.

If you can open an email and follow a recipe, you can do this. There's no code. No complicated wiring between apps. No monthly fee beyond whatever AI tool you're already paying for.

And here's the best part — you don't even have to fill anything out. Claude will interview you. It'll ask you a few quick questions about your life and your work, and then it'll build the whole thing for you.

How it works (the simple version)

Think of it like hiring a really smart new assistant on their first day.

You tell them three things:

1. Who you are — your name, your job, what's important to you right now, the people you work with most
2. Where your stuff lives — your email inbox, your calendar, your chat apps
3. What you want from them each morning — a short summary, in a format you like

Then you set them loose.

Except this assistant never takes a day off, never misses a detail, and doesn't ask for a salary. It just shows up every morning with your brief.

The five-minute setup

Here's exactly what to do.

1. Open Claude and start a new Project

Claude's desktop app is what lets your assistant run automatically every morning instead of waiting for you to open it.

Once it's installed, create something called a Project and name it "Executive Assistant."

A Project is just a workspace where Claude remembers the instructions you've given it. You set it up once, and then every time you come back, it already knows what to do.

2. Paste in the instructions

I've written the instructions for you. You can download them at the bottom of this post.

Copy and paste them into your Project. That's it — no filling in the blanks.

3. Connect your apps

In Claude's settings, there's a section called Connectors. These are the pre-built bridges that let Claude read your email, calendar, and chat apps.

Click to connect:

• Gmail (or whichever email you use)
• Google Calendar
• Slack
• Notion (if that's where your notes live)

Each one takes about 30 seconds. You'll approve Claude's access, the same way you'd approve any new app — like when you sign up for something using "Log in with Google."

4. Run it for the first time

Type this into your Project:

"Run my morning brief."

Here's what happens next:

1. Claude interviews you. It'll ask a few conversational questions — your name, your job, what you're working on right now, the people you work with most. Answer honestly and in detail. The more real you get here, the more the brief will feel like it was written just for you.
2. Claude confirms what it heard. It reads it back to you in a short paragraph so you can make sure it got you right.
3. Claude sets up the schedule. It'll ask if it's okay to run the brief automatically every weekday morning at 7 AM and deliver it to your Slack.
4. Claude runs your first brief.

From tomorrow on, you don't have to do anything. The brief shows up in your Slack. You open it with your coffee. You're ready for the day.

What the result actually looks like

Here's a rough example of what mine looks like on a typical morning:

☀️ Good morning, Nate.

🏆 Yesterday You wrapped the Week 10 teaching materials and sent them to Jay. Closed out three support tickets. Shared the donor summary with leadership.

🎯 Today's focus

• Finalize the slide deck for Sunday's lesson
• Reply to Sarah's email about the Q2 numbers (it's been two days)
• Protect 2–4 PM for deep work on the new client proposal

🤝 Meeting prep

• 10 AM with Jay — he's teaching this Sunday. Ask if he wants the timeline handout you made last week.
• 2 PM with Grant — he flagged a networking issue yesterday in Slack. Come prepared with the logs.

⚠️ Watch-outs Don't forget — the team offsite RSVP is due today.

It's the same briefing a good chief of staff would give you. Except it takes a minute instead of a meeting.

Why this actually changes something

For me, the shift was surprising. I expected the AI to save me time. What I didn't expect was what it would do to how my days feel.

Instead of starting the morning behind, I start ahead. Instead of reacting all day, I'm responding to a plan I actually saw at 7 AM. Instead of worrying I'm forgetting something, I trust that if it mattered, it was in the brief.

That's worth more than the thirty minutes I save. It's worth the whole morning.

Quick questions you might be thinking

"What if my priorities change next month?" Just tell Claude. Open the Project and say something like "My priorities have shifted — I'm now focused on X." Claude updates its memory of you. You don't have to redo the whole setup.

"What if I don't use all those apps?" That's fine. Only connect the ones you actually use. Claude works with whatever you give it — if you don't use Slack, it just skips that section. The brief will still be useful with just your email and calendar.

"Is my data safe?" You're granting Claude the same kind of read access that any other app would ask for (like when Calendly reads your Google Calendar). Claude uses it to generate your brief and doesn't do anything else with it. You can revoke access anytime from your Google or Slack settings.

"I'm not on the desktop app. Can I still do this?" Yes — you can still use this on Claude's web version. You just won't get the auto-schedule. Instead of it running at 7 AM on its own, you'll open Claude each morning and type "run my morning brief." Same result, one extra click.

Want to build one for yourself?

Everything you need is right here — grab the files below. Follow the steps. You'll have this running before your first meeting tomorrow.

And if you get stuck — or you'd rather someone set it up for you — book 15 minutes with me using the link on the homepage. I help people build tools like this all the time.