A morning brief from Gmail and Calendar

My mornings used to start with two tabs. Gmail to see what came in, Calendar to see who I was talking to, and then the part that actually mattered: working out that the client with the angry email is the one I have a call with at five. That joining-up is the slow part, and it happens every morning.

With Gmail and Google Calendar both connected to Claude, the joining-up is one prompt. On a demo inbox of ten emails and a demo calendar with three meetings left in the day, Claude produced a one-page brief in 108 seconds: the meetings in order with the email to read before each, what needs a reply today, and a call someone asked to move, checked against the calendar, where the first new time they offered clashed with a focus block.

This finding is free, and it builds on two others: F-003 connects Gmail, and F-004 connects Google Calendar. If both are already on, you need nothing else; this is one prompt.

What a morning brief from Claude actually is

It is one answer, written for today, from two sources you already have: today’s events from your calendar and the unread mail from the last few days. Claude reads both, links a message to a meeting when the same person or company is in each, and ranks what is left. On the demo it came back as a page of its own, next to the chat, with a short summary underneath.

It is not a new app, a schedule or an automation. It runs when you ask, it reads, and it writes. Nothing is sent, drafted, accepted or moved unless you ask for that afterwards, and claude.ai asks you to approve each change.

Why two separate summaries miss the point

The obvious approach is two prompts: “summarise my unread mail” and “what is on my calendar today”. Both answers can be correct and still leave the connection to you: the urgent email about a broken contact form and the 5:00 call with the same client arrive as two unrelated facts.

The fix is to ask for the join itself: for each meeting, the mail from the same person. The prompt in this finding does that, and adds the list most people never think to ask for: mail that should change the calendar, checked against it.

It reads the clock, so write the prompt for today

The brief is about today, and Claude knows what time it is. My first run was in the afternoon, and it said so: “the stand-up with Leo and the Becker check-in have passed”. That is right, and useful. It also means the prompt should say “today” rather than “this morning”, so the same words work whenever you run them.

Quick start

For when both connectors are on and you want the brief to take one paste.

1. Connect Gmail. F-003 shows it on video. Once, and under a minute.
2. Connect Google Calendar. F-004 shows it on video. The same steps.
3. Pick the mail to read. A label, or a search such as is:unread newer_than:3d. Start narrow.
4. Pick the calendar to read. Name it; otherwise Claude reads your primary calendar.
5. Paste the brief prompt below, with your label and calendar in it.
6. Give it two minutes. It reads every meeting and every message before it writes anything.
7. Read the meetings list first. It is in time order, with the mail to read before each one.
8. Ask follow-ups in the same chat. “Draft a reply to Tom, do not send” uses what Claude already read.

The brief prompt

The demo ran on the F-003 demo label, demo-f003, and the F-004 demo calendar, demo-f004, so nothing private is in the video. Replace both with your own.

Make my brief for today. Read today's events in my calendar demo-f004, and my
unread mail in label:demo-f003 from the last 7 days. Then give me one page:
1. Today's meetings in time order. Under each, any email from the same person
   or company that I should read first, in one line.
2. Mail that needs a reply from me today, most urgent first.
3. Anything in my mail that should change my calendar, checked against
   demo-f004.
4. Everything else, in one line.
Do not send, draft, accept or create anything.

1. Read section 1 against your day. On the demo, Tom’s email about a broken contact form sat under the 5:00 check-in with Tom, and Priya’s reminder about missing receipts under the 6:30 with Priya.
2. Look at the meeting with no mail. Leo’s copy review had nothing from Leo unread, and Claude said so, then pointed at a new bakery lead as “may be the pitch this copy is for”. A guess, labelled as one.
3. Read section 3 carefully. Jonas had asked to move Thursday’s call to Friday at the same time or Monday afternoon. Claude checked both against the calendar: Friday at 10:00 “falls inside your 9–12 Focus: client work block”, and Monday afternoon was free.
4. Check one link against the source. Open one email yourself the first time, to see that nothing was invented.

In the recorded run this took 108 seconds for eight unread emails and three meetings. It also tied a hosting invoice in the mail to a migration window in next week’s calendar, which nobody asked for.

Acting on the brief, one step at a time

The brief reads. Everything after it is a separate, explicit request, and every change waits for you to press Allow once.

Step 1: Draft the urgent reply

Draft a reply to Tom's contact form email: I will look at it before our 5:00
and bring what I find to the call. Short. Do not send.

1. Read the draft in the chat. It stays there until you ask for more.
2. Move it to Gmail when you like it. “Save that as a draft in Gmail, in the same thread.” Approve it, and you press Send in Gmail.

Step 2: Answer the meeting someone asked to move

Jonas asked to move Thursday's 10:00 call. Friday at 10:00 clashes with my
focus block, so propose Monday at 16:00. Check demo-f004 is free then, and do
not change anything yet.

1. Read the answer. If it is free, say “move it” and approve the update.
2. Tell the other person yourself. Moving an event with guests emails them; an event without guests changes only your calendar, and they still expect a reply.

Making it a daily habit

A Claude project keeps the prompt so you do not have to. I have not tested this shortcut in the recorded runs, so check the first answer against the full prompt’s.

1. Open Projects in claude.ai and create one called “Daily brief”.
2. Paste the brief prompt into the project instructions, with your label and calendar in it, and add: “When I write brief, run this for today.”
3. Each morning, open a chat in that project and write brief.
4. Change the scope in the instructions, not in the chat. When the brief is reliable, widen label: to in:inbox.

Ready-made prompts

Download brief-prompts.md Download brief-prompts.txt

# Morning brief prompts for Claude with Gmail and Google Calendar

Change the parts in CAPITALS. Every prompt names the mail and the calendar to
read, and ends by saying nothing is sent, drafted or created.

## The brief

1. The full brief

   Make my brief for today. Read today's events in my calendar CALENDAR, and
   my unread mail in SEARCH from the last 7 days. Then give me one page:
   1. Today's meetings in time order. Under each, any email from the same
      person or company that I should read first, in one line.
   2. Mail that needs a reply from me today, most urgent first.
   3. Anything in my mail that should change my calendar, checked against
      CALENDAR.
   4. Everything else, in one line.
   Do not send, draft, accept or create anything.

2. The short brief

   Three lines only: the one email I must answer first, the meeting I must
   prepare for, and anything that clashes today. Read CALENDAR and SEARCH.

3. The Monday brief

   Brief me for the week, not the day: this week's meetings in CALENDAR, and
   unread mail in SEARCH since Friday. Group by day. Create nothing.

4. The end-of-day brief

   What did I not get to today? Unanswered mail in SEARCH from today, and
   tomorrow's first two meetings in CALENDAR with what to read before each.

## Before one meeting

5. Prepare for a call

   My next meeting in CALENDAR is with PERSON. Summarise our last three email
   threads and list the open questions I should be ready for.

6. Who is this

   Who is in "EVENT TITLE" today, and when did I last email each of them?

## Acting on it, one step at a time

7. Draft, do not send

   Draft a reply to PERSON's email about TOPIC: MY ANSWER. Short. Do not send.

8. Check a move before making it

   PERSON asked to move "EVENT TITLE" to DAY at TIME. In CALENDAR, is that
   free? Do not change anything yet.

9. Make the move

   Move it. No new guests, and tell me whether the existing guests will be
   emailed.

10. Park it for tomorrow

    List the emails from the brief I chose not to answer today, so I can paste
    them into tomorrow's brief.

## For a Claude project

Put prompt 1 in the project instructions, with your calendar and search in it,
and add: "When I write brief, run this for today." Then each morning, open a
chat in the project and write `brief`. Untested in the recorded runs: compare
the first answer with the full prompt's.

When it breaks

It says your meetings have already passed. It knows the time. Run it earlier, or read it as a brief for the rest of the day.

A mail about “Thursday” is matched to the wrong Thursday. Relative days in mail are relative to when the mail was sent. On the demo, a two-day-old “move Thursday’s call” was read as yesterday’s call. Say the date in your follow-up.

The brief lists meetings but links no email. The names differ: the calendar says “Becker Shop check-in”, the mail is from Tom. Put the person’s name in the event title or description, or tell Claude “Tom Becker is Becker Shop”.

It reads your whole inbox. The prompt had no label or search. Add one, even is:unread newer_than:3d.

Today’s meetings are missing. Claude read the primary calendar, not the one you keep meetings in. Name it.

It takes a couple of minutes. That is normal: on the demo it was 108 and 117 seconds in two runs, most of it reading. A shorter mail window is faster.

One connector answers and the other does not. Its token has expired. Open Customize, Connectors, and press Connect again on the one that is missing.

Turning it off

Nothing to switch off for the brief itself: it runs only when you ask. To stop Claude reading mail or calendar at all, disconnect the connector, as described at the end of F-003 (Gmail) and F-004 (Google Calendar).