Cowork + Dispatch20 min setupGmail · Slack · DriveOptional: Jira

The Monday Briefing

Every Monday at 7:30am, before your first meeting, an agent reads what shifted in your inbox, Slack, and shared docs over the weekend — and surfaces the three things you actually need to know. Key developments. Open decisions. Risks that emerged while you were off.

Make this yours

When you do this, is there something really important to you?

Optional

Your answer shapes how the prompt is personalised. A few examples of what someone might write:

“I always want bullet points, never prose.”
“Push back if I'm being vague.”
“Keep updates under 5 lines.”
“Lead with the decision, not the analysis.”

Your input is sent to the model once and never stored.

0/500

Every Monday at 7:30 AM, do the following:

1. Read my Gmail inbox for emails received since Friday at 5:00 PM. Surface anything that requires my decision, contains a question directed at me, or mentions a deadline this week.

2. Read my Slack DMs and channels I'm a member of for messages since Friday at 5:00 PM. Focus on @-mentions, threads I participated in, and messages from my direct reports.

3. Read any shared Google Docs that were edited over the weekend in folders relevant to my work.

4. Synthesise everything into a single briefing email with three sections:
   - KEY DEVELOPMENTS: what changed
   - OPEN DECISIONS: what's waiting on me, with deadlines
   - RISKS: anything that emerged before my first meeting

Subject line: "Monday Briefing — [Date]". Send by 8:00 AM. Keep it concise. Bullet points. No fluff.

Setup — 4 steps

Confirm your MCPs are connected.

You need `Gmail`, `Slack`, and `Google Drive` enabled in Claude. Optional: `Jira` for ticket context. Settings → Connectors.

Open Cowork and create a new task.

Start a new task and paste the personalised prompt above. Run it once manually to make sure the output is in the format you want. Refine if needed.

Move it to Dispatch on a schedule.

Once the manual run produces what you want, set a Dispatch trigger: `Every Monday at 7:30`. Same prompt, running on its own.

Iterate after week one.

After the first Monday, you'll know what's missing. Add a section ("metrics moved"). Cut one that doesn't help. The prompt is a living document.

Make it yours — 4 variations

The Friday Wrap

Same shape, opposite direction. Run Friday at 4pm to produce a what-shipped-this-week summary you can paste into your weekly update.

For Direct Reports Only

Scope the scan to only your reports. Surfaces what your team is doing and where they're stuck — without you having to ask.

V2MOM-Aligned

Add a fourth section: "Movement against my V2MOM measures." Forces the briefing to connect to what you actually committed to.

Slack-Native Delivery

Instead of email, have Dispatch post the briefing as a DM to yourself in Slack. Closer to where you start your day.