Overview
Repetitive work such as chasing updates, writing the same summaries, copying notes into task lists and preparing weekly reports can often be handed to Claude. This course is process-led: you choose real workflows from your own team, decide what is worth automating, and build the routines, scheduled tasks and tool connections that do the work.
Day 1 covers personal and email-centred workflows: finding candidates, setting Claude up, planning, summaries, meeting follow-ups and report generation. Day 2 moves to team collaboration and connected tools, including Zapier, CRM, HR and support platforms, and Trello, Asana and Notion, and closes with accuracy, trends and an adoption plan.
Who it's for
Anyone who coordinates work and wants to spend less time on routine administration. It is especially suited to:
- Project and programme managers
- Team leaders and department heads
- Operations and business-support staff
- Business professionals who want to streamline their own routines
Prerequisites
- No prior experience of AI tools is needed
- Basic familiarity with productivity tools and, ideally, a project or task-management tool
By the end of this course you will be able to
- Identify workflows worth automating and describe them as clear, repeatable steps
- Use Claude for planning, summaries, meeting notes, follow-ups and report generation
- Set up routines and scheduled tasks so recurring work runs with less effort
- Connect Claude to email, documents and project tools, and judge the privacy and access trade-offs
- Choose between connectors, Zapier and developer integrations for CRM, HR, support and task-management platforms
- Plan a staged, measurable adoption of AI-driven automation in your team
Course outline
Times show the standard running order and can be adjusted when we tailor the course to your team. The trainer stays available during breaks to help anyone finish an exercise.
Welcome & orientation 10 min
How the two days run, and the workflow each person will bring to automate.
Claude's capabilities and AI-driven automation 35 min
What Claude can do for workflows today, and what AI-driven automation actually means: assisted, repeated, scheduled or delegated. Where each level fits and where judgement must stay with a person.
Try it: Sort eight tasks from your week along the range from 'assist me' to 'run on its own', and mark the ones that need review.
Spotting workflows worth automating 35 min
Key business and productivity use cases, and a quick test for candidates: frequency, clear steps, consistent format and low risk. Describing a workflow as input, steps and output.
Try it: Map one workflow in five steps, mark the step Claude should take, and score it for value and risk.
Setting up Claude for productivity 35 min
Accessing and configuring Claude for everyday work: choosing the app that suits you, setting profile preferences, and using a Project as a standing workspace for a recurring job. The GCES prompt method (Goal, Context, Expectations, Source) that every routine in this course is built on.
Try it: Set your preferences, create a Project for your chosen workflow, and write its first GCES instruction.
Task management and scheduling 40 min
Turning a messy list of emails, notes and requests into a prioritised plan, sequencing the work, and producing time-blocked schedules ready to paste into your calendar or task tool.
Try it: Give Claude a week of tasks and constraints, ask for a plan, and challenge two of its priorities.
Summaries and organising information 40 min
Summarising documents, threads and notes for different readers, extracting decisions and actions into tables, and sorting information into a consistent structure, with a quick check against the source each time.
Try it: Turn a long document into a one-page summary and an action table, then verify three entries against the source.
Email and document workflows 40 min
Triaging a busy inbox, drafting replies, and working with attachments and documents. Using the Microsoft 365 or Gmail connector, or Claude in Outlook (a beta add-in), with read-only access and drafts that you send yourself.
Try it: Sort five sample emails by urgency, draft replies to two, and keep every draft unsent until you have reviewed it.
Meeting notes and follow-ups 40 min
Turning transcripts and rough notes into minutes, decisions, owners and dates, then drafting the follow-up message. A reusable template so every meeting is handled the same way.
Try it: Convert a sample transcript into minutes, an action list and a follow-up email, and save your prompt as a template.
Content creation and report generation 30 min
Producing recurring reports, status updates and short content pieces from your source material, and using Artifacts or file creation to hand over a finished document or table.
Try it: Generate a weekly status report from sample inputs as an editable document.
Responsible use, data security and privacy 30 min
Using Claude responsibly in a work setting: which data may be shared and in which account, connector permissions, human review of anything customer-facing, and hidden instructions in emails and documents (prompt injection).
Try it: Classify example data as safe or not safe to share, and write three rules for your workflows.
Close 10 min
Recap of Day 1 and a look at what Day 2 will connect.
Welcome back 10 min
Questions from Day 1 and today's plan.
Internal communication and team alignment 35 min
Using a shared Project, with instructions and reference files, to produce consistent updates, announcements and briefings, and to keep a team working from the same facts.
Try it: Write a team update from three inputs, then adjust it for a different audience.
Project management with AI-driven insights 35 min
Summarising status from task exports and updates, building risk and dependency lists, and spotting where plans and reality drift apart, always checking the conclusions against the data.
Try it: Upload a sample task export and ask for status, risks and a recommended next step, then test one claim.
Shared documents and task lists 35 min
Collaborating on shared documents and task lists: sharing Projects and Artifacts within the organisation, using Claude in Word and Excel, and agreeing who reviews what.
Try it: Draft a shared task list in an Artifact, share it with a partner and agree two changes.
Scheduled tasks and Cowork for recurring work 40 min
Having Claude do recurring work on a timetable: scheduled tasks in Cowork, what they can use, and what they need (your computer awake and the desktop app open). Choosing routines that suit this approach.
Try it: Set up a scheduled task that prepares a weekly summary from a folder, and run it once to check the result.
Connecting Claude with workflow automation tools 40 min
How Zapier connects Claude to thousands of apps through its MCP connection, what a workflow owner or administrator needs to enable, and the cost and permission trade-offs of letting Claude trigger actions.
Try it: Design a three-step automation on paper, marking which steps read, which write and which need approval.
CRM, HR and customer support platforms 30 min
The routes by which Claude can work with business platforms: directory connectors, automation services and developer integrations. Choosing the safest route, keeping HR and customer data protected, and starting read-only.
Try it: Write a short integration brief for one platform: purpose, data touched, route and approvals.
Trello, Asana and Notion 35 min
Using Claude with task and knowledge tools: connectors where they exist, Zapier or exports where they do not. Typical routines such as turning notes into cards, summarising boards and keeping documentation current.
Try it: Choose one tool, define a routine, and test it with sample content.
Accuracy and efficiency in automated work 25 min
Checking automated output: sampling, side-by-side comparison with a manual result, and tracking time saved against errors found. Deciding when a routine is reliable enough to run unattended.
Try it: Design a simple test and a measure for one of your routines.
Emerging trends and advanced tools 20 min
The direction of AI-driven productivity: agents that carry out multi-step work, tighter links between tools and what advanced tools mean for team routines.
Try it: Pick one trend and note what it would change for your team in the next year.
Planning long-term adoption 30 min
Turning your routines into a staged plan: pilots, owners, review points, training, and how you will measure benefit.
Try it: Complete a one-page adoption plan with three routines, a first review date and the safeguards for each.
Close: summary & next steps 10 min
Recap of the two days and your plan.
What you'll need
Claude
- A Claude account on a paid plan. Cowork and scheduled tasks need a paid plan, file creation and Skills depend on your plan and settings, and sharing Projects needs Team or Enterprise.
- Connectors are enabled by your organisation's owner where your organisation allows them. If they are unavailable, the connector exercises run as demonstrations.
- The Claude desktop app, for the scheduled-task session.
Other tools
- Access to the email, calendar and task tools you want to work with, for example Outlook or Gmail, and optionally Trello, Asana or Notion.
- For the Zapier session, a Zapier account is helpful but not required; the exercise is designed on paper.
- Claude for Outlook is a beta add-in for paid plans, installed from Microsoft AppSource and approved by your administrator. If it is unavailable, the email exercise uses the connector or a copy-and-paste approach.
Practice files are provided for every exercise. You are welcome to use your own everyday documents where your organisation's policy allows.