AI Guides › Workbench
By Nigel Guy · 6 min read
Most people "work smarter" by collecting tools. They sign up for five, use each twice, and end up with five more logins and the same Friday backlog. It feels like progress because installing is easier than deciding which job you want off your plate.
The rule: pick one tool per job, name the job first, and automate only something you have already done by hand three times.
This is a kit, not a ranking. The tools below are examples that exist, have a free tier at time of writing, and each do one of five jobs. Swap any of them for something you already pay for.
Prices were checked on the vendors' own pages on 2026-10-04. Conversions are rough and exchange rates move, so check the £ price at checkout.
| Job | Tool | What it does | Cost at time of writing | Best for | Catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Think | Claude | Drafting, thinking aloud, restructuring messy notes | Free plan; Pro $20/month billed monthly (about £16 at time of writing) | Turning a rough brain-dump into a plan | It only knows what you paste in; it can sound sure and be wrong |
| Read | NotebookLM | Answers questions from sources you upload | Free (Google's help page lists 100 notebooks and 50 sources per notebook on the free plan); paid tiers sit inside Google's AI plans | Long reports, meeting notes, course material | Google's help pages now also refer to it as Gemini Notebook in places; limits change, so check the current page |
| Create without a camera | ElevenLabs | Turns a script into a spoken voiceover | Free plan with 10,000 credits a month; commercial licence only from the Starter plan up, whose price I could not confirm cleanly, so check the £ price at checkout | Narrated explainers, audio versions of your writing | Free-tier output is not cleared for commercial use; clone only your own voice |
| Automate (simple) | Zapier | "When this happens, do that" between apps | Free plan: 100 tasks a month; Professional from $29.99/month at 750 tasks (about £23 at time of writing) | Beginners who want it working today | Each step run counts against your task allowance |
| Automate (cheaper, fiddlier) | Make | Visual scenario builder for the same job | Free plan: 1,000 credits a month, 2 active scenarios; Core from $12/month (about £9 at time of writing) | Higher volume at lower cost | Free scenarios run at most every 15 minutes; steeper learning curve |
Use it to convert a pile of half-ideas into an ordered list. Paste everything, including the mess.
You are a practical chief of staff. I will paste unsorted notes about [PROJECT_OR_WEEK].
Goal: a plan I can act on today, not a summary.
Steps:
1. List every distinct task you can find in my notes.
2. Group them into: do now, do this week, drop or delegate.
3. For "do now", give the first physical action for each item in under 12 words.
4. Flag anything vague, and ask me up to three questions about it before you finalise.
Constraints: do not invent tasks, deadlines or people that are not in my notes. If my notes lack something you need, ask rather than guess. My time available this week is [HOURS_AVAILABLE].
Output: three headed lists, then your questions. Before you answer, check that every item came from my notes.
Notes:
[PASTE_NOTES]
Fill in the project, your available hours and your notes.
Create a notebook, add the documents as sources, then ask questions that must be answered from them. Ask for the answer plus where in the source it comes from, so you can check it. Use it when the reading is the bottleneck, such as a 60-page report you need to act on by Thursday.
You are helping me prepare for [DECISION_OR_MEETING]. Using only the sources in this notebook:
1. State the five points most relevant to [DECISION_OR_MEETING].
2. For each point, name the source and the section it comes from.
3. List anything the sources contradict each other on.
4. List what I would need to know that the sources do not cover.
If the sources do not answer something, say so plainly instead of filling the gap. Before you reply, check each point has a source named.
Fill in what the reading is for.
Write your script first, in short sentences you would say aloud. Paste it into the text-to-speech tool, pick a voice, listen once all the way through, and fix the lines that sound wrong by rewriting them, not by fiddling with settings. Use your own words or a licensed voice. Check the licence on the plan you are on before using the audio in anything you sell or run adverts around.
Start with one boring chain, for example: a form is submitted, a row is added to a spreadsheet, you get a message. Build it in whichever you open first. Name the trigger, the single action, then run one test record before turning it on.
You are an automation planner. I do the following task by hand: [TASK_DESCRIPTION], about [HOW_OFTEN] times a [DAY_OR_WEEK].
The apps involved are [APP_LIST].
Write:
1. The trigger (what event starts it).
2. Each step in order, naming the app and the exact field it reads or writes.
3. What could go wrong (empty field, duplicate, wrong format) and what the automation should do then.
4. A test I can run with one fake record before switching it on.
5. An estimate of how many task or credit runs a month this uses, showing your arithmetic so I can check it against the plan.
Constraints: do not assume features I have not told you about; if the information is missing, ask first. Before answering, check that every step has an input and an output.
Fill in the task, frequency and apps.