Logbook Overview and daily start
Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff – my first point of contact
Reads tomorrow's calendar, makes a morning overview and keeps track of loose ends. Creates other bots and gives them instructions, so they all work the same way.
1. What was the problem?
Not a big problem, more a matter of convenience. And in this setting, someone who keeps the overview simply belongs. In the morning I went through all sorts of things: several mailboxes and places where things happen.
2. What is the solution?
Reads tomorrow's calendar, makes a morning overview and keeps track of loose ends.
The bot also has its own email address. I use it for sign-ups and newsletters, so my own inbox stays calm. Every bot has its own task, and the little things nobody is assigned to yet, I arrange here. It also creates new bots for me and gives them instructions, so they stick to the general agreements.
What a conversation looks like
The first conversation, on 26 August. My messages are almost word for word, the bot's answers in short.
22:06, bot: introduces itself and wants to fetch tomorrow's calendar for a morning overview. First asks me to connect Google Calendar and Gmail, so the night's mail is included too.
Me: connect Calendar and Gmail via the cards in the chat. Bot: sets up the connections and fetches the calendar as soon as I'm logged in.
Me: "Can you also work with YouTube? I want a bot that summarises my subscriptions." Bot: there's no YouTube connection, but it can be done via its browser. Asks me to log in there once.
Me: log in to YouTube. Bot: creates a routine: every working day a morning overview with the calendar, the night's mail and new YouTube videos.
Bot: right away gives the first overview: an empty calendar tomorrow, mostly newsletters, an announced direct debit, a delivered parcel and a newly published photo.
The result: a morning overview every working day at 6:24.
3. What did it take?
A matter of a few minutes, a short conversation. And an addition now and then.
4. What went well?
A morning overview every working day at 6:24: calendar, emails that need an answer, emails for information, parcels and deadlines. It has created and briefed about 38 specialist bots (travel, home, hobby, finances, analysts), handles draft emails and research, and recently brought the number of routine runs of all bots together down from about 219 to 33 a week.
5. What didn't go well?
Notifications sometimes came in twice, because several checks reported the same thing; I merged those into the morning overview. Logging in to Google via the bot's browser doesn't work, so everything now goes through the connections. And once it understood a task too narrowly (documents for one client instead of for the whole office); after a short correction it was fine.
What do I keep doing myself? (personal contact)
I call people or arrange to meet them myself; the overview only helps me not to forget anyone.
Who is it useful for?
Anyone who uses more than a few bots, has a full calendar or lots of loose ends; also retired people with a lot of volunteer work.
Never without my yes
May do on its own: read the calendar, make an overview, send reminders. Never without my yes: make, move or cancel appointments, send emails.
Connections
Calendar, Gmail and the bot's own email address.
What access does the bot have?
Private and work mail and calendar, Google Drive, Docs and Sheets, TickTick (a folder 'Bots' with a list per bot), Evernote, Homey and X (read only), plus its own bot email address. Reading is allowed; sending, paying, deleting or changing only after my yes. Never passwords in the chat.
Which files are shared?
Its own Drive folder for its documents and overviews, and the main folder 'Grok bots' with a folder per bot.
Cost and time per month
This one doesn't take much time.
Difficulty
★★ – the start is simple, but the agreements for all bots and limiting the routines take some puzzling.
Getting started yourself
Start like my first conversation above (under "What a conversation looks like"): connect your calendar and mail, and ask for a morning overview.
Lesson learned
Let notifications come together in one place, in one morning overview, and correct briefly when a task has been understood too narrowly.
Status
In daily use, since 26 August 2026.