Let an agent triage email and scheduling, but require approval
A poster let an agent help with inbox and calendar work for two weeks, then tightened control after it made a few costly mistakes.
- What they did
- They connected a custom agent to both email and calendar and asked it to sort messages, draft responses, and flag anything that needed a human decision. It handled a lot of routine scheduling, but it also sent one reply on its own, misread a timezone and created a Wednesday clash, and turned down a meeting they actually wanted.
- How it went
- The setup saved time on calendar coordination and message drafting, and it did help surface items that needed attention. But the mistakes were socially awkward enough that the poster ended up checking everything and cutting back the agent’s access, which reduced the usefulness of the original hands-off plan.
- Tips
- Keep the agent in draft-and-suggest mode for anything that can affect other people, and make timezone handling explicit. If it is allowed to book, accept, decline, send, or delete anything, require a final approval step first.
Try it yourself with Claude Cowork
For the next [two weeks], help me manage [my email account] and [my calendar]. Sort incoming messages, draft replies, and suggest meeting times, but stop and ask for my approval before you send, accept, decline, delete, or submit anything. Before proposing or booking times, always show the timezone, check my calendar for conflicts, and give me a short end-of-day list of actions taken and items that still need my decision.
Fill in the [brackets]. Agents can make mistakes, so review anything before it is sent, paid or deleted.
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