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A Tom's Guide writer juggling work deadlines, a book festival reading and her children's schedules swapped her paper planner for a spoken morning brain dump to Gemini Live. It talked her through a sensible order for the week, coped when she interrupted to change plans, and, with access to her calendar and email, reminded her of an invitation she'd forgotten.
Here's everything on my plate this week: [LIST WORK DEADLINES, FAMILY COMMITMENTS, PERSONAL PROJECTS]. Help me put it in a sensible order: what's most urgent, what can wait and where I can fit [THING I KEEP PUTTING OFF]. Suggest time blocks for each day and flag any clashes. I'll interrupt if something changes.
Replace the [PLACEHOLDERS] with your own details before you send it.
How to try it
- Open the Gemini app, tap Live and just talk through your week while you make breakfast or walk.
- Interrupt whenever something changes (‘scratch that, I’m busy on Saturday’) and let it rework the plan.
- Copy the final plan into your calendar and check any reminders it adds.
More productivity use cases
Turn paper tally sheets into a spreadsheet and summary with Gemini
As a volunteer chair of her child's preschool parent committee, Jessica McKellar photographed two weeks of paper classroom surveys about a new food programme and had Gemini turn them into spreadsheets of raw data, a summary report for the school's administrators and a draft email to parents explaining the results.
Here are photos of paper tally sheets from [WHAT THE SURVEY WAS ABOUT]. First, turn them into a table with one row per [CLASS / DAY / RESPONSE] and the counts in columns, and flag any numbers you can't read. Then write a short summary of the main findings for [AUDIENCE], and a friendly draft email explaining the results to [WHO NEEDS TO KNOW].
Build a searchable ‘family wiki’ of household documents with NotebookLM
A mum of three uses NotebookLM as a family wiki, uploading photos and scans of manuals, warranties, recipes, report cards and school notes. She can then ask things like when the fridge warranty runs out or what last autumn's school report said, with answers based only on her own documents, even mid-call with the school or phone company.
Using only the documents in this notebook, answer: [QUESTION, E.G. 'When does the fridge warranty expire?' or 'Summarise the school report from autumn term']. Quote the relevant line and say which document it came from. If the answer isn't in the documents, say so rather than guessing.
Triage a pile of unread email with Claude
Facing 47 unread emails and a stack of bills, a dad uses Claude's Gmail connection to sort his inbox into what needs action, what can wait and what's noise, asks follow-ups such as whether an insurance email needs doing, and had it help word a polite 'not this time' to a school fundraiser.
Look through my unread emails from [TIME PERIOD]. Sort them into three groups: needs action from me (with the deadline if there is one), can wait, and just noise. For anything that needs action, tell me in one line what I have to do. Don't reply to or delete anything.
Reference: Tom's Guide