Learning Timeline
Key Insights
The Advantage of Cross-Referencing
The true power of AI isn't just searching for files, but its ability to combine data from different sources (like emails and calendars) to produce complex outputs in under 2 minutes.
Security & Control Tips
Always use the command 'save as drafts' instead of 'send' when asking AI to reply to emails. This gives you the opportunity to tweak or perform a final review before the email is officially sent.
How MCP Protocol Works
The MCP (Model Context Protocol) acts as a bridge, ensuring Claude isn't just limited to static data, but can access 'live' data from your daily productivity apps in real-time.
Prompts
Cross-App Meeting Prep
Target:
Claude / Co-work
Go into Gmail, find the relevant emails for my upcoming meetings today, cross-reference my Google Calendar, and build a one-page prep document. Save the final document in my outputs folder.
Automated Email Drafting
Target:
Claude / Co-work
Go through all of my emails from today and draft a response for each one based on the context of the conversation. Use my writing style from the brand voice file. Do not send anything; just save them as drafts in Gmail.
Step by Step
How to Connect Gmail & Google Calendar via MCP
- Open the Co-work app and click on the 'Settings' menu, typically located in the sidebar or the corner of your screen.
- Select the 'Connectors' tab from the settings list.
- Click the 'Browse Connectors' button to view all available integrations.
- Find 'Gmail' in the list and click the button to add it.
- Click the 'Authenticate' button and log in to your Google account when prompted.
- Grant the necessary permissions to allow the MCP bridge to access your data securely.
- Repeat the same process for 'Google Calendar' until the status for both applications shows as 'Connected'.
- Once connected, you can start typing prompts in the chat area to ask the AI to pull data from both apps.
