How scheduled tasks work
Recurring tasks in Claude Cowork let you describe the work once and set when Claude has to do it automatically. For example, Claude can prepare a summary of the important email every morning, build a project report once a week, or review the market news every month.
When you schedule a task you state:
- what Claude has to do;
- which sources of information to use;
- how often the task has to run;
- the format the result has to take;
- which actions it must not take.
A scheduled task can use the same Connectors, Skills and other Cowork tools as an ordinary task. So with Gmail and Google Calendar connected, for example, Claude can review the new information at a set time and prepare a summary of it.
How to schedule a task
- Open Claude Cowork.
- Select Scheduled in the left-hand menu.
- Press New task.
- Select Create with Claude to build the task in a conversation, or Set up manually to enter every setting yourself.
- Describe the task and select how often it has to run.
- Check the task instructions, the sources it uses and the approval mode for its actions.
- Press Schedule or Save.
You find the tasks you have made under Scheduled. There you can review earlier results, change the instructions or the frequency, run a task by hand, pause it or delete it.
What can you schedule in practice?
Below are a few simple use cases you can try immediately.
Every working day at 8.30, prepare a short overview of my working day. Use the Gmail and Google Calendar connectors. Review the email received in the last 24 hours and today’s calendar events. Pick out the email I should answer today, the most important meetings, and the matters I have to prepare for. Explain briefly why each item matters. Do not send email and do not change my calendar.
Needs the Gmail and Google Calendar connectors.
Every Friday at 15.00, prepare the weekly status report for the “[project name]” project. Use the connected Google Drive, Slack and project management tools. Summarise what was done this week, what is late, which obstacles came up and what next week’s priorities are. Name the source of the information for each statement. Use only what you find, and change nothing in the connected systems.
Replace the project name and the list of tools with your own team’s.
On the first working day of every month, prepare a review of the previous month’s news about [the market or topic]. Find the most important product launches, company announcements, partnerships, investments and other significant changes. Include only what was published during the previous month. Give a source link and a publication date for each item. At the end, explain briefly which three changes could matter most to our company, and why.
Name your own market or topic in place of the square brackets.
