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Capture action points from Gmail

Free

Claude reads your Gmail and turns every action point into one clean task list with deadlines and owners.

Time to complete: ~50 minutes

You'll need a desktop or laptop to actually do this use case. Browse now, do it there.

The problem

Your tasks don't live in your task list. They live in a Gmail thread from Tuesday, a chat you scrolled past, and a note you wrote at 23:40. On a busy day:

  • What did I promise, and to whom?
  • Is there a deadline hiding in some thread?
  • Who is silently waiting on me right now?
  • Did I already forget something today?

Collecting them by hand is the first thing that dies on a busy day, and the buried ones are exactly the ones you drop. There's a faster way.

What you get

  • A working Gmail connection (MCP): Claude Code reads the messages you allow, right from the chat
  • Your capture rules saved in CLAUDE.md: which emails, from whom, and what counts as a task for you
  • A working task-capture skill that turns your messages into a clean task list, with replies already drafted for you
  • One file where your tasks actually live, in your format, on your machine
  • My pro ai-store-task-capture system from the library, adding the weekly review, waiting-for tracking, and today focus

Who this is for

  • People whose work arrives through email and chat, not through a ticket system
  • Project managers and analysts juggling a dozen threads where every third message hides a task
  • Anyone with the low-grade anxiety of "I'm sure I promised someone something this week"
  • The ones writing notes to themselves at 23:40 and losing them by morning

You need: the free Start Here card completed, your Gmail login, and about 50 minutes. Also works on any text you paste: chats, meeting notes.

FAQ
  • Do I need Claude Code for this? Yes, this skill runs on it. The free Start Here card sets it up in about 45 minutes.
  • Is this only for Gmail? No. It works on any text you paste: chats, meeting notes, a photo caption you sent yourself. Gmail is just the case study.
  • Does it connect to my inbox? Yes, through a connection YOU switch on in the first lesson (MCP, a standard plug). It reads only when you ask, only what you allow, and you can switch it off anytime. Prefer not to connect? Pasting works too.
  • Can I change how the list looks? Yes, in plain words. Tell it once "group by project, not by day" and the skill remembers.
  • What format are the files? All markdown (.md). Your task list is a checklist file you can open, edit, and search anywhere.

About the creator

I'm Anastasia, a business analyst who builds with AI every day. I run this capture on my own inbox: the weekly review in this card is from my launch week, and the stalled flag with its pre-written nudge is why nothing depended on my memory.

What's inside

  1. 1Welcome, here's what's ahead
  2. 2Turn your real inbox into a task list
  3. 3Make it a skill and run it on your real messages
  4. 4How did it go?

The same email restores your access and progress anytime, on any device.