Give it constraints before tasks
List the hours you are available, fixed appointments, travel time, deadlines and breaks. Then add the tasks you hope to complete, with rough time estimates. Label what must happen today and what can move.
You can do this in plain text before connecting a calendar. That makes it easier to test the assistant while sharing less information. If you later connect an account, check its read and write permissions.
Try this planning prompt
Help me plan tomorrow between 9:00 and 17:00. I have a meeting from 10:00 to 11:00 and lunch from 12:30 to 13:00. My priorities are a 90-minute proposal, 30 minutes of admin and a 45-minute walk. Leave 30 minutes of buffer. Show what fits, what moves, and any assumptions. Suggest a schedule before changing anything.
This is an example, not a record of a completed ELO action. Replace the times and tasks with your own; avoid pasting confidential meeting details that are unnecessary for scheduling.
Check the proposed schedule
A reasonable draft might place the proposal from 11:00 to 12:30, admin from 13:00 to 13:30 and the walk from 13:30 to 14:15. It should preserve the meeting and lunch and leave unscheduled time. Other arrangements can be equally sensible.
- Are fixed events unchanged?
- Does each task have enough time, including setup and travel?
- Are the important tasks placed when you can give them attention?
- Is there room for an interruption?
- Did anything quietly disappear from the list?
Replan when reality changes
If the meeting overruns, update the constraint: “It is 11:30 now. The proposal still needs 90 minutes. Keep lunch fixed and move admin if needed.” Ask the assistant to explain the change. You should not need to reconstruct the whole day to move one task.
At the end of the day, compare estimates with actual time. A repeated two-hour task should not keep getting a 30-minute slot just because that makes the schedule look neat.
Planning in Life OS
Life OS brings tasks, calendar events and routines into its day view. Its ELO features provide a conversational way to work with that information. Read the Life OS day overview and the setup guide before relying on a connected workflow.
Review what was saved after an action, and distinguish an AI suggestion from a changed calendar event. Our agent vs chatbot guide explains that distinction; the privacy checklist covers account access.