00:23 Block 5 · 3 minutes

Put it on a schedule

A task that works once can run every week. Each run is its own Cowork session. Cloud schedules run with your laptop closed; tasks that need local files run only when the desktop app is open.

Two ways to schedule

  1. From a task: type /schedule in a session that already worked, and say how often.
  2. From the sidebar: Scheduled → New task, then Create with Claude or Set up manually: name, prompt, approval mode, frequency (hourly, daily, weekdays, weekly, or manual), optional model and folder.
A Cowork session that has just created two scheduled tasks, with the Progress, Outputs and Context panel on the right
A session that set up two recurring tasks. · Source: Anthropic
/schedule
Run this weekly, on Sunday morning:
Read any new minutes added to my practice folder this week.
Update actions.xlsx: add new action items, mark items past their due date as "Overdue".
Write a five-line digest of what changed to digest-YYYY-MM-DD.md.
Do not send anything to anyone.

Manage schedules from the Scheduled page: pause, resume, edit, run now, delete, and read past runs.

Good first schedules
  • Weekly digest of new files in a folder
  • Monday summary of the week's committee calendar
  • Monthly refresh of a tracker spreadsheet
Not on a schedule
  • Anything that sends email or messages for you
  • Anything that deletes or overwrites files
  • Anything that touches sensitive files

Why a schedule works well: one worked example

Jeff Su runs an inbox triage every morning at 6:00. It works because three earlier pieces are already in place:

  1. Rules in a file. His triage rules sit in a Markdown file in the folder (Block 1).
  2. A connector. Gmail is connected, so Cowork can read new mail (Block 3).
  3. Memory. For the first week he corrected the drafts; memory.md kept every correction, so later drafts sound like him (Block 1).

KHCC version: a weekly digest of new committee minutes, with action items checked against the tracker and draft reminders to owners that you read and send yourself. No patient email, no automatic sending.

▶ See it in Jeff Su's video (16:44) · scheduled inbox triage

What about Dispatch?

Dispatch lets you text a task from your phone to your desktop. It is closed to new users, so we skip it today. Cowork on the web and the phone app is available; it can start, steer and review tasks.

Schedule only what already worked by hand. Read every run's output, at least for the first month.