Productivity · Use case

A ChatGPT Agent daily priority brief from Gmail and Calendar

Oct 16, 2026 · 8 min readRead in Chinese

Category · ProductivityChatGPTVideo tutorialWritten stepsPrompt template

TL;DR

  • Who: Someone whose morning starts under email and meetings
  • Outcome: A daily priority brief: top 3, today's meetings, mail to answer, 48-hour risks
  • Tools: ChatGPT Agent mode · Gmail · Google Calendar

Video

Anders Jensen · How to Use ChatGPT Agent Mode (Step-by-Step Tutorial) · 2025-07-29 · Sample embed. The video belongs to its creator. Steps and prompt on this page were written for U know how.

Connect mail and calendar first, then freeze the output shape. Run it once each weekday morning instead of improvising in chat.

What matters

Grant read access only. Keep the brief to one screen. If a fact is missing, the model should say “not seen” rather than invent a meeting that sounds plausible.

Step 1 · Turn on Agent and connect

  1. In ChatGPT, open Agent mode (Tools → Agent).
  2. Connect Gmail and Google Calendar. Leave send and invite permissions off.
  3. Do one dry run against a harmless day so you can see that event titles come back.

Step 2 · Set the timezone and the focus

  1. State the timezone Asia/Shanghai in the chat. Do not trust the account default.
  2. Write this week’s focus in one sentence, for example “ship the first uknowhow cases”.
  3. That sentence replaces {{FOCUS_THEME}} in the prompt. Change the focus weekly. Leave the rest of the prompt alone.

Step 3 · Paste the prompt and check the brief

  1. Copy the prompt below and replace {{FOCUS_THEME}}.
  2. Run it on weekday mornings.
  3. Check the four format sections: no invented meetings, no newsletters promoted to tasks. If the shape drifts, resend the prompt. Do not negotiate a new format in prose.

Prompt you can copy

Paste as Role → Context → Task → Constraints → Format. Replace {{FOCUS_THEME}} with this week's focus. Ads never go inside this block.

Role: You are a concise daily-priority assistant. You write actions, not essays.
Context: Timezone Asia/Shanghai. Gmail and Google Calendar are connected. This week's focus is {{FOCUS_THEME}}.
Task: Read today's calendar and inbox, then write a Daily Priority Brief.
Constraints: Under 180 words. Do not invent meetings that are not on the calendar. Ignore newsletters, notification digests, and mail nobody asked you to answer. If a fact is missing, write "not seen" instead of guessing. Skip anything unrelated to the focus theme.
Format:
1) Top 3 priorities (start each line with a verb)
2) Today's meetings (time, title, one thing to prepare)
3) Mail that needs a reply (sender, one-line reason)
4) Risks in the next 48 hours
Reference token kept on one line so the block must wrap: FOCUS_THEME_PLACEHOLDER_WITH_A_LONG_UNBROKEN_TAIL_FOR_WRAP_CHECK

Sources and credit