You know the feeling? At 8 in the morning, your
day looks clean, calm and perfectly arranged.
By noon, it looks like someone picked up your
calendar, shook it like a snow globe and put
the pieces back down wherever they landed. You
promised yourself that you would protect a long
focus block. You were sure that you would send
those six important emails. You were even going
to squeeze in a quick workout. Then what teams
happened? Microsoft Teams. Then slack happened.
A meeting got moved. An urgent email arrived
with six question marks in the subject line.
By lunch, your beautiful plan had become a museum
piece from a timeline that never even existed.
Well, today I want to fix that tiny AI agents
that make daily planning simple enough to do
and sturdy enough to survive contact with reality.
We're not going to build a grand system or even
a perfect template that takes an hour to maintain.
We're going to build a few small helpers that
capture what is on your mind, help you choose
what actually matters, place those tasks onto
your calendar with sensible buffers, and then
close the loop with a two -minute evening reflection
so that the tomorrow that you have Benefits from
what you learned today. Welcome to Data and AI
with Mukundan, where you learn AI by building.
I'm Mukundan. Each week, we build a real -life
problem and ship a practical workflow that you
can copy tonight. This episode is a build -along.
By the end of it, you will have a notion -based
OS that uses three simple, small agents for capture,
prioritization, and timeboxing. You can add an
optional micro agent for evening reflection Now
if you want more power, I will also walk you
through cross device capture on iOS or Android
and With a calendar orchestration that respects
your deep work time a weekly review agent That
clears open loops and a tiny metrics dashboard
That keeps you honest without turning your life
into a spreadsheet to start We should agree on
what an AI agent really is. An agent is not a
chatbot that simply answers questions. An agent
plans steps, remembers context, and adapts when
you give it feedback. If a tool only does one
of those things, it is just a script. Scripts
are useful, but they are brittle. The moment
your day changes, the script breaks, and you
have to manually fix the mess. We are going to
build agents that propose sensible actions, ask
for your approval before they write anything
to your system, and then learn over time which
choices you prefer. This is what makes a routine
stick when life gets loud. Let me describe the
stack. We will use Notion for lists and Google
Calendar for time. We will create three agents.
The first agent captures anything you throw at
it. within 30 seconds and routes it to the right
place. The second agent looks at the pool of
things that you could do today and helps you
choose a small realistic set that you can finish
today. The third agent places those chosen tasks
on your calendar in three clear blocks with buffers
and it gives you a 60 second kickoff ritual that
helps you start instead of thinking about starting.
At the end of the day, a tiny reflection agent
Ask you about your wins, your misses and one
improvement for tomorrow. That is the entire
system. It is light, it is quick and it is sturdy.
Let's build the capture agent first. Your brain
is not supposed to store everything. It is supposed
to decide. The capture agent gives you one simple
input on any device. You open the input, type
what you want to remember and press send. The
agent examines what you wrote and decides whether
it is a task, an event or just an idea. If there
is a date in the text, it extracts it. If there
is a link, it fetches the title so that you can
recognize it later. It then proposes a destination.
You get a preview of what will be saved and you
approve the move. The agent then logs the time.
the source and the original text so that you
can always trace what happened if the agent is
unsure it keeps them in your inbox with a small
needs review tag so that you can decide later
the important thing is that you can get something
out of your head and into the system in under
half a minute that speed is what makes you actually
use it when your day is messy well now that you
have a place to put everything you need a weight
to decide what deserves your attention today
this is where the prioritizer agent helps the
agent looks at the tasks that are due soon the
goals you already care about and anything that
you're marked as important it gives each task
a simple urgency score and a simple effort estimate
then it proposes a today list that only includes
three tasks The list is short on purpose because
when you try to do 8 or 9 things, you usually
finish none of them and go to bed feeling like
you failed. But when you choose 3, you finish
most days with a clean slate and a quiet mind.
If you try to add a fourth task, the agent asks
which one you want to remove. It records the
trade so that your future self does not wonder.
why half your day disappeared the result is a
today list that fits into the day you actually
have not the day you wish you had now once you
have your three tasks the time box agent turns
them into a schedule that you can follow the
agent proposes three blocks the first is a morning
block which is a morning deep work block that
lasts 90 to 120 minutes so an hour and a half
to two hours The second block is an afternoon
administrator block that lasts 45 minutes to
90 minutes. The final block is a small buffer
near the end of your day for spillovers and cleanup.
Between blocks, the agent keeps 10 minute margins
so that you can breathe, stand up and transition.
Before each block begins, the agent gives you
a 60 second kickoff. You read the task out loud.
You define what done means for this block in
one simple sentence. You open the exact file
or link you need. You start a 25 minute timer
and then you type the first sentence. Those five
steps, they may sound small, but they slam the
door shut on delay and drift. They are the difference
between thinking about the work and actually
doing the work. And AI agents specifically are
only helpful when they are trustworthy. So we
give them guardrails. The agents always ask before
they move, edit or schedule anything. They show
you what will change before they make the change.
If something fails to parse, they do not guess
wildly. They show you a small form with their
best attempt and ask you to confirm. They log
what they did. when they did it and why. If you
ever needed to audit, the record is right there.
When privacy matters, they keep sensitive text
out of the log and store it locally or in a safe
field. These small choices, they create a feeling
that you can trust. Because when you trust your
tools, you actually use them. To make sure the
day closes well, we add the evening reflection
microagent. After dinner, you spend two minutes
with the prompt. You list three wins, two misses,
and one improvement. The agent pulls entries
from your calendar and your today list to help
you remember the details. You write short, honest
sentences. You're not making a diary. You're
just building a bridge from today to tomorrow.
And this small loop keeps the system alive because
you adjust it based on what is real, not what
you hoped would happen. Now, let's walk through
a live example so that you can hear how it feels.
Imagine it is a Monday. You plan to finish your
Q3 deck. You want to reply to six emails that
matter. You also want to draft a job application.
Here you open the capture input and dump the
three items. The capture agent classifies them
as tasks, eliminates the... Estimates the effort
and proposes destinations. You approve in seconds.
The prioritizer notices that the deck has a higher
urgency because of a looming review. It notices
that the job application is important but medium
effort. It notices that the emails are a small
chunk of work that helps other people move. It
proposes your today list. Finish the deck, reply
to those emails and draft the application. And
you accept. The Timebox agent creates three blocks.
It places the deck in the morning deep work block.
It places email and the start of the application
in the afternoon admin block. It keeps a small
buffer in the late afternoon in case anything
runs long. Now, when the first block begins,
the kickoff prompt appears. You read the task
out loud. You define done for this block. You
open the deck. and you set a timer type one sentence
that forces you to start that is it the rest
of the day unfolds with fewer decisions and less
friction now that you have the core routine let's
extend it so that it works across every device
you use if capture only works on your laptop
the system will fail the minute you leave your
desk on ios you can create a simple shortcut
called quick inbox When you run it, the phone
asks you for a line of text. If the line includes
a link, the shortcut fetches the page title.
It packs the details into a tiny payload with
a timestamp and the word iOS as the source. Then
it sends the payload to your Notion inbox via
a webhook or to a special email address that
forwards into Notion. The phone buzzes with a
small captured message. and a tap of haptic feedback
so that your brain knows that the item is safe.
On Android, you can use the share sheet and a
lightweight HTTP request app. When you share
any text or link to Quick Inbox, the app sends
the same payload to your webhook. If you're somewhere
without good app support, you can set up a unique
email address like inbox at your domain and forwards
to your Notion worker. The subject becomes the
title. The body becomes the raw text. If you
attach a file, the system stores a link to it.
The system stores a link to it. The capture agent
will classify and route everything the next time
it runs. The entire point is that capture is
always one gesture away, whether you're walking,
commuting, or waiting in line for coffee. Scheduling
deserves a small upgrade too. Time boxing collapses
when meetings collide. The calendar orchestration
piece teaches your agent to negotiate space like
a courteous assistant. You can mark your morning
deep work block as a hard hold. That means it
can only move for an interview, a medical appointment
or a hard deadline. You can leave your admin
block as a soft hold that can flex. is something
important appears now if you commute your agent
adds a short padding before and after off -site
blocks if you have long video meetings the agent
keeps a five minute buffer before and after those
meetings so that you're not sprinting from one
call to the next if the calendar is truly packed
and there is no 90 minute space for deep work
the agent splits that block into two 45 minute
chunks and labels the log with fragmented focus
so you understand why it felt harder to get traction.
When it proposes a schedule, it shows you two
options and asks you to approve one before anything
is written to the calendar. This keeps you in
charge while the agent does the heavy lifting.
Your day is smoother when your week has a rhythm.
So let's add a weekly review agent that runs
either on Friday afternoon or on Sunday evening.
This agent reads your calendar, your tasks, and
your recent reflections it produces a short summary
of open loops that still need attention such
as tasks that are overdue meetings that happened
without any attached notes and decisions that
you promised to make but did not it proposes
a roll forward plan where unfinished items are
moved to the right place or archived with the
reasons you suggest three themes for the upcoming
week so that your attention is not spread across
eight unrelated goals then it offers a skeleton
calendar with a few deep work blocks a couple
of admin windows and one recovery slot for life
maintenance the agent asks for your approval
first and then writes your choices into next
week's when you start monday you're not just
staring at a blank page You're stepping into
a shape that already fits your goals. Because
we want to stay honest without drowning in numbers.
We add a small metrics dashboard. We only track
three things. First, you measure habit adherence,
which is simply the percentage of days where
you completed the six -minute planning routine.
Second, we measure estimate accuracy by comparing
how long tasks actually took. against how long
you thought they would take now when a task takes
more than twice your estimate we label it as
underscoped so that you can split similar tasks
next time third we measure scope creep by counting
how many tasks were added after you finished
your plan and dividing that by the number of
tasks you completed if scope creep climbs you
will feel it in your stress Now once a week you
glance at these numbers and choose one adjustment.
Once a month, if a metric is not helping you
change your behavior, you retire it. The dashboard
is a mirror, not a judge. Its only job is to
help you tell yourself the truth and make one
better decision. Every system fails in predictable
ways. So let's talk through a troubleshooting
clinic and fix the most common problems. Sometimes...
the today list balloons when you see that happening
keep the rule of three sacred if you try to add
a fourth task the agent pops up and asks which
agent you want to remove when meetings eat your
deep work time mark the debug block as a hard
hold and give the agent permission to automatically
propose a respectful schedule with two choices
now when capture becomes noisy with low value
items teach your agent to tag those items and
every friday let it suggest a small batch archive
so that you can clear the noise without thinking
when the evening reflection turns into a journal
especially a long journal that you can avoid
return to the tiny three two one structure and
capture it at two minutes when you keep skipping
the kickoff ritual put the script on your phone's
home screen and tie it to a single button that
starts your 25 minute timer. These small fixes
take minutes to implement and they restore the
calm quickly. Now let me bring this back to the
feeling that we all want. You do not need more
willpower. You need a system that moves with
you. When tiny agents capture the chaos, it helps
you choose wisely. Place the work onto your day
with buffers and it reminds you to start and
your plans begin to stick. When you close the
loop with an honest reflection, Tomorrow becomes
smarter all this without you trying very hard.
You can build the smallest version of this tonight
Open a blank notion page and create an inbox
table Create a task page with a simple today
checkbox and a due date connect Google Calendar
Add three small prompts for capture prioritization
and time boxing Turn on confirmations before
anything is saved or scheduled put the 60 -second
kickoff on a sticky note by your keyboard. Run
the routine tomorrow morning and again tomorrow
evening. You'll feel the difference in a day.
Before we close, here is how you can keep your
momentum. If you want my starter kit with the
Notion pages and prompts I use, send me a note
on my discussion page on my website. It says
LifeOS and I will send it. If today's episode
helped you, please rate the show on Spotify or
Apple Podcasts. It takes only a moment of your
time and it helps other people who need this
kind of calm find it. I record this show on Riverside,
I host on rss .com and I used cider .ai for research.
Those links are in the show notes and if you
buy through them I may earn a small commission.
I only recommend tools that I actually use. Now
next time we take this daily system and extend
it into a weekly review that you will actually
do. We will build tiny metrics that you can trust
and a simple habit rhythm. that forgives interruptions.
For now, remember this. A plan that takes six
minutes to set is a plan that you will actually
keep. Build the smallest version tonight. Make
it pretty later. Thank you for listening to Data
and AI with Mukundan, where you learn AI by building.
I'll see you next time.