Step by step
Every morning you open the same tabs and check the same things. An AI can do that before you wake up. You set it up once, and the answer is waiting.
You told me what goes wrong. You don't know what job to give it. It ran once and then stopped. It needs the laptop on. The time came out wrong. This page fixes each one, one step at a time.
Open ChatGPT, Claude or Grok in a new tab now, and do it while you read.
The hardest part is picking the job. So this prompt asks you 5 questions first, and then the AI builds the task for you. The questions only run while you set it up. The task itself gets the finished prompt with no questions in it, because you won't be there at 8 am to answer.
Paste it here:
Claude: click the "+" next to Scheduled, then Create with Claude.
ChatGPT: open a new chat.
Grok: open a new chat.
Check the time it saved. I asked Grok for 8:15 AM. It said "Automation created", but it saved 8:15 in UTC, so my card said 1:45 PM. Always say your time zone, then check the time on the task.
Here's the demo prompt I used in all 3 setup guides. It checks 3 companies and writes a short note for a Monday standup. The job is made up. I used it to show you how the 3 apps work, so swap in your own job.
When the AI has made your task, open it and check it against the guide for your app. Each guide shows every click with a screenshot: the time, how often, permissions, notifications and connectors. Want to click everything yourself instead of using the prompt? The guides show that too.
I tested all 3 apps on my own accounts on 23 Oct. If free is enough for you, stay on free. Only Claude needs a paid plan to start. On ChatGPT, pay for Plus only if your job really needs your Gmail or Calendar.
The complaint I saw most on X was a task that ran once and then stopped, and the person didn't notice. So check it the first time. Set a phone reminder for 5 minutes after your task's time. When it goes off, open the task and look for a new line:
Claude: History
Grok: the Runs tab
ChatGPT: the chat where you scheduled the task. It jumps to the top of your chat list. On Free the time is "around", so give it a bit longer.
No new line, or no new chat in ChatGPT, means it didn't run. Check the time and the time zone on the task. Then check that you haven't used up your plan's limit. I saw people on X say an empty limit stopped all their tasks for days.
About your laptop: I saw posts on X say Claude tasks only run when your Mac is awake and the app is open. Since 6 Oct, new tasks on Pro and Max run in Anthropic's cloud, so your computer can be off. A task made before 6 Oct may still need your computer on, and so does any task that reads files on your computer.
It's different in each app. In Claude, the Notifications tab lets you tick Push, Email or Slack. In Grok, the Notifications part of the window has 2 switches, App and Email. In ChatGPT, the answer comes in the same chat where you scheduled the task.
Your turn: turn on the one you'll really see in the morning. For example, if you never open your email before 10, Email is the wrong choice.
I built a website for a client once, and the phone number on it said +91 instead of +1. The client found it before I did. Now I check the small things every time: emails, phone numbers, names, links and numbers.
The same thing happened in my demo. The Calendly item in Grok's answer linked to hypepotamus.com, an interview on another website. My prompt asked for things the company published. I only saw it because I clicked.
Your turn: click one link in every answer, and check that the page says what the AI says. It takes 10 seconds.
Some jobs need your apps, like Gmail, Calendar, Slack, Google Drive or Notion. The task can't read them until you connect them. So connect only the app your job needs, and nothing else. AI can't touch your Gmail unless you connect it, and you can disconnect it any time.
Claude: in the task form, click Advanced settings, then the Connectors tab. If you picked Auto, Claude uses them without asking.
Grok: click the Connectors button at the bottom of the form. They work on Free: I tried Gmail and Calendar.
ChatGPT: email and calendar connections are a Plus feature.
Do it in this order: connect the app, run the job once by hand, check the answer, then schedule it. I saw people on X say connectors are where scheduled tasks break. One said their jobs "fail every day", and only work when they go into the chat and type "retry". So I'd start with a job that only needs the web. Add your apps after it has run for a week.
Someone on X wrote, "the ones that stick each own one boring job, like answering mentions or prepping a daily brief. If a bot doesn't save you real time every week, kill it." I think that's right. So give your first task one boring job, and nothing else.
Set a phone reminder for 7 days from now. When it goes off, ask yourself if the task saved you time. If it did, keep it. If it didn't, delete it.
Pause and Delete are in the 3 dots menu in all 3 apps. Claude: on your task's card in the Scheduled list. ChatGPT: top right of your task's panel. Grok: on the right of your automation.
Send them this page. Does a teammate use a different app? Send them the right guide from Step 2.
Reply to the email and tell me which job you gave your AI, and which app you used. I read every one, and your job might end up in a future issue.
Dan Rice · AI Signal
