AI Guides › Workbench
By Nigel Guy · 8 min read
Most people open ChatGPT Work, ask it to write a long email, and conclude it is the same chatbot with a longer progress bar. The part that changes your week is not the writing. It is the Scheduled page, where Work can watch your inbox or a web page and run a job at a fixed time without you opening the app. The catch is that "runs on its own" has firm edges: anything that sends, buys or changes something will usually stop and wait for you.
The rule: let Work watch and draft on its own, and keep every send, purchase and claim behind your own tap.
| Task | Type | What it does | Needs | Catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price watcher | Monitoring (watches) | Checks a product page and tells you when the price drops below your target | Web browsing only | Shops that block bots, or show a different price after you log in, will give unreliable readings |
| Refund spotter | Gmail event trigger (watches) | Reads new order, delay and cancellation emails and flags any that might qualify for a refund | Gmail, paid plan | Drafts the claim, but won't submit it for you |
| Trip assembler | Gmail event trigger (watches) | Turns booking confirmations from chosen senders into one running itinerary | Gmail, paid plan | Only sees what reaches that inbox |
| Meeting brief | Schedule (runs without asking) | Every weekday morning, summarises today's meetings and the email threads behind them | Gmail, plus a calendar app if your account offers one | If you can't connect a calendar, it can only guess your meetings from invites in your inbox |
| Friday report | Schedule (runs without asking) | Every Friday, drafts a weekly summary from your inbox or Slack | Gmail or Slack | It's a draft. You still check the numbers |
Active task limits, from OpenAI's help centre at time of writing: 5 for Plus, 15 for Pro, 10 for Business. All five above fit on Plus with no spare slots, so pause one if you want to try something else.
This uses an ordinary monitoring task. OpenAI describes these as tasks that check for changes, remember earlier runs and stop when an end condition is met. Paid plans can run them as often as once an hour. Once a day is plenty for most purchases.
You are my price watcher. Check this product page once a day: [PRODUCT_URL].
Goal: tell me only when the price for [EXACT_VARIANT, e.g. size/colour] falls below £[TARGET_PRICE], including delivery to a UK address.
Steps:
1. Read the current price and stock status for that exact variant.
2. Compare it with the last price you recorded.
3. Notify me only if it is below target or the item has gone out of stock. Otherwise stay silent.
Output when you notify: one line with the price, the date checked and the link.
Rules: never add to basket or buy. If the page needs a login, shows no price, or the variant is ambiguous, tell me once and pause rather than guessing.
Stop the task after [END_DATE] or once I confirm I've bought it.
Before you notify, re-read the price on the page to confirm it.
Fill in: the link, the exact variant, your target price in pounds, and an end date.
This is an event-triggered task. It starts when a new Gmail message arrives that matches your filter. In Work, describe the event and what you want done, then check the Trigger, Condition and Prompt fields before saving.
Trigger: new Gmail message whose subject contains [KEYWORDS, e.g. "delayed", "cancelled", "order", "refund"].
You are my refund spotter. For each matching email:
1. Decide whether it describes a late, cancelled, missing or faulty order or journey.
2. If it does, extract the company, order or booking reference, date and amount paid.
3. Check the company's own published refund or compensation terms, and say whether this case looks eligible. Quote the clause and give the link.
4. Draft a short, polite claim I can send myself. Do not send it.
Output: a three-row summary (what happened, likely eligibility, deadline to claim), then the draft.
If the email lacks a reference number or amount, say what's missing. Don't invent one.
Check before replying: every figure you give appears in the email or on the company's page.
Fill in: subject keywords that match the companies you buy from.
This is also a Gmail trigger. Filter it by sender so it doesn't wake for every newsletter.
Trigger: new Gmail message from [SENDER_ADDRESSES, e.g. your airline, rail operator, hotel site].
You are my travel organiser for [TRIP_NAME, DATES].
For each confirmation: pull out times (in local time, with the time zone named), references, addresses, check-in rules and baggage allowance.
Add it to one running itinerary in date order. Flag clashes, gaps under [MINIMUM_CONNECTION_TIME], and anything I still need to book.
Output: the updated itinerary as a table, then a short "still to do" list.
Never change, cancel or pay for a booking. If a detail is unclear, mark it "check" rather than filling it in.
Fill in: sender addresses, trip name and dates, and the shortest connection you're comfortable with.
"Without asking" means the job starts on time and reads what it is allowed to read. It does not mean it will send anything for you. OpenAI's help centre says an action that sends a message or changes external data may need approval, and that the task pauses until you review it.
Set it for weekdays at a fixed time, for example 07:30. Paid plans support exact times. Free accounts get loose windows such as "morning".
Every weekday at [TIME], prepare my meeting brief for today.
For each meeting: title, time, attendees, the purpose in one line, the last email thread with these people (summarised in two sentences), and any open question I owe them an answer on.
Order by start time. Keep the whole brief under [WORD_LIMIT] words.
If you can't see my calendar, say so at the top and list only meetings you found as invites in Gmail.
Don't email anyone. Don't accept or decline invites.
Before you finish, confirm every attendee name appears in the source email or invite.
Fill in: the time and a word limit (300 is a sensible start).
Every Friday at [TIME], draft my weekly report for [AUDIENCE, e.g. my manager].
Sources: Gmail threads labelled [LABEL] and Slack channel [CHANNEL] from the past seven days.
Sections: done this week, in progress, blocked (with who can unblock it), next week.
Use only what the sources show. Mark any figure you can't trace to a message with [CHECK].
Output a draft in plain text. Do not send or post it.
If a source is unavailable, say which one and continue with the rest.
Fill in: who the report is for, the Gmail label, the Slack channel and the time. For Slack, OpenAI says you must add @ChatGPT to every channel the task watches.
Start with the price watcher: it needs no connected app, so nothing is at risk. Then run the meeting brief for a week and fix its prompt. Only then connect Gmail on Allow read actions and add the refund spotter, trip assembler and, last, the Friday report.
If you only set up one, choose the task that replaces a check you already do by hand every week. If you are on Free or Go, event triggers aren't available at all. The help centre says Free can run simpler tasks no more than once a day, but the pricing page shows scheduled tasks as not included on Free. These two sources disagree, so check what your own account shows under Scheduled.