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Introduction
Welcome to the second practice episode of Session 5. With the inbox sorted, we move on to something just as time-consuming: scheduling. In this episode Dewi asks AI to read Google Calendar, find free slots, build an agenda, and set reminders. There's one rule we stick to: the AI asks for confirmation before inviting anyone.
Step 1: A busy week and a hard-to-find meeting slot
This is Dewi's calendar this week, in a simulated Google Calendar view. On Monday morning there's the weekly team meeting, from nine to ten. On Monday afternoon, Dewi visits Pelita Bookstore, the customer who complained in the previous episode. That visit takes two hours. Tuesday at ten, a meeting with Sinar Paper Ltd. about the paper price increase. Wednesday morning, a two-hour review with Mr. Arif, her director. And Thursday afternoon, three hours of stock system training. At first glance there's still lots of free space. But Dewi isn't alone: the meeting she needs involves two more people, each with their own calendar. Here's what she needs. Dewi wants a sixty-minute coordination meeting with Rudi from the warehouse and Fajar from the sales team, before Friday. The topic is this week's stock and delivery problems. The meeting has to be during work hours, eight to five, and must not take up the lunch break. The agenda must be clear before the meeting, taken from this week's emails that we summarized in Episode 23. And it needs reminders and prep time. Usually, finding a single slot for three people takes several rounds of back-and-forth in chat. Let's see how AI helps. How much hassle is finding one slot for three people? It usually takes about six messages back and forth in the office chat: when are you free, I can't, how about Thursday. And because everyone replies between other tasks, the process can take about a day just in waiting. If office calendars are already shared, AI can read everyone's availability in about two minutes. The numbers are an illustration, but the biggest saving is clear: not in typing, but in waiting for replies. The flow we'll practice has five steps. First, the AI reads the schedule and summarizes this week. Second, the AI finds free slots with clear rules: length, work hours, and who's attending. Third, the AI prepares an event draft: title, time, location, and agenda. Fourth, confirmation. The AI shows the guest list and the time, then waits for your answer. Fifth, only then is the invitation sent. The AI may do the first three steps on its own. Step five only happens after you answer yes at step four.
Step 2: Reading the schedule and finding free slots
Dewi starts with a simple question: summarize my schedule this week, which day is busiest, and where is the longest free stretch? The Calendar connector reads Dewi's calendar from Monday to Friday, and finds five events. The summary: five events, nine hours of meetings in total. Monday and Thursday are the busiest. Friday is almost completely free. A summary like this is useful every Monday morning to plan the week. Then the main request, with complete rules: three sixty-minute slots before Friday, for a meeting with Rudi and Fajar, during work hours, avoiding lunch. The last sentence matters: don't create an event yet. The AI checks Rudi's and Fajar's availability. This is only possible because their office calendars are shared with Dewi, usually showing just busy or free, with no event details. If a colleague's calendar isn't shared, the AI can only see your own calendar. The result is three options: Tuesday at two in the afternoon, Wednesday at two in the afternoon, and Thursday at ten in the morning. The AI also confirms it hasn't created any event, and waits for Dewi to choose. Let's see those options on the calendar. The gray boxes are suggested slots, not real events. Option one, Tuesday at two in the afternoon, after the Sinar Paper meeting. Option two, Wednesday at two in the afternoon, after the review with Mr. Arif and the lunch break. Option three, Thursday at ten in the morning, before the stock system training. All the options avoid the lunch break and don't clash with existing events. But the AI doesn't know things that aren't on the calendar. That's why the final choice stays with Dewi. One tip: ask the AI to always give a reason for each option, for example after lunch or before the training. Those reasons help you judge the options quickly.
Step 3: Drafting the event and meeting agenda
Dewi picks option two, Wednesday at two in the afternoon. She asks for an event draft called Stock and delivery coordination, with a four-point agenda from this week's emails. The guests are Rudi and Fajar, but they shouldn't be invited yet. To build the agenda, the AI uses the Gmail connector and finds three emails from this week about stock and deliveries. Here two connectors work together: Calendar for the time, Gmail for the content. The result is a complete event draft: the time, the meeting room, a one-sentence purpose, and four agenda points with estimated minutes. The short shipment to Pelita Bookstore, the plastic folder stock, the impact of the new paper price, and follow-ups. It adds up to exactly sixty minutes. And the first line makes it clear: no invitations have been sent. Dewi can review it calmly. Here's the event draft in Google Calendar, as a simulation. First, a clear title: Stock and delivery coordination. A specific title helps guests know what will be discussed before they even open the invitation. Second, the time and location: Wednesday from two to three in the afternoon, in the second-floor meeting room. For online meetings, the AI can add a meeting link if the connector supports it. Third, the guests. Look at the label: not invited yet. Rudi and Fajar are listed, but the invitations haven't been sent. Fourth, the four-point agenda in the event description. This draft is saved first, without sending anything to anyone. If your connector can only read the calendar, that's fine. Ask the AI to write this draft in the chat, then create the event yourself in Google Calendar. The hardest parts, finding the slot and building the agenda, are still done by the AI. Why did that agenda feel so tidy? Because it has four qualities. First, the purpose in one sentence. If you can't write a meeting's purpose in one sentence, maybe the meeting isn't needed yet. Second, every topic has an estimated time, so the meeting ends on time and the last topic isn't rushed. Third, materials to read before the meeting. The AI can link related emails or files. But be careful: make sure the guests are actually allowed to see those files, especially if any guests are from outside the office. Fourth, the expected decisions: who does what, and by when. Add this sentence to your prompt, and the AI will build agendas with all four qualities.
Step 4: Confirming before inviting people
Dewi is happy with the draft and asks the AI to get the invitations ready. Notice the words she uses: get them ready, not send them. The AI doesn't send right away. It shows a confirmation summary: the event name, the time, both guests' email addresses, and a note that the invitation will send email to them. Then it asks: proceed? This is what confirmation is for. Dewi suddenly remembers that Fajar is on a business trip to Cirebon on Wednesday, and it's not in his calendar yet. The AI couldn't possibly know. Dewi asks to move to option three, Thursday at ten. The AI rechecks the Thursday ten o'clock slot for all three. It's still free. The draft is moved, and the AI asks again before sending. Every change that affects other people is confirmed again. Dewi answers yes, send them. Only now is the event created and the invitations sent to the two guests. If the AI had sent right at the start, Fajar would have received an invitation for a day he's traveling, then had to decline, and everyone would have had to reschedule. Fajar's case is a reminder that a calendar is never complete. First, business trips, leave, or time off that people often forget to record. Second, travel time. If the previous meeting was off-site, a slot that looks free is actually spent traveling. Third, energy and focus. Three back-to-back meetings may fit on the calendar, but they make the last one ineffective. Fourth, team habits, for example no meetings after four in the afternoon. You can write things like this into your assistant's standing instructions, so the next slot suggestions are more accurate. Whatever's left gets caught at confirmation. From that example, we can set a rule for each calendar action. Viewing the schedule and finding slots: low risk, fine right away. Creating a personal event for yourself, like a block of work time: low risk. The AI can do it, then report it. Inviting office colleagues: the invitation sends email to other people in your name. Confirmation required. Changing or deleting shared events: many people's schedules can be disrupted. Confirmation required, and for important meetings, it's better to make the change yourself. And inviting outside parties, like suppliers or clients: besides confirming, check the email addresses and attachments. Don't let internal files get shared through an invitation.
Step 5: Reminders and prep time blocks
The meeting is scheduled, but it isn't necessarily ready. Dewi asks for three things: a reminder thirty minutes before Thursday's meeting, a prep block on Wednesday afternoon, and a Tuesday morning reminder to check the five-ream shipment to Pelita Bookstore, a promise from yesterday's email. The AI adds a reminder to the meeting event. Not every connector can set reminders. If yours can't yet, ask the AI for the steps, then set it yourself in a few clicks. Then the AI creates two personal events in Dewi's own calendar, with no guests. As in the table earlier, low-risk actions like this can be done right away, then reported. And the report is clear: three things created, when, and confirmation that they're all only in Dewi's calendar. A report like this keeps you aware of everything the AI changed. This is Dewi's calendar after all those steps. The red box on Thursday at ten is the coordination meeting with Rudi and Fajar, and they've already received the invitations. The teal box on Wednesday afternoon is the prep block, one hour to read the materials and prepare the stock data. And the teal box on Tuesday morning reminds Dewi to check the five-ream shipment to Pelita Bookstore, before the twelve o'clock deadline promised in the email. Notice how email and calendar are now linked. A promise in an email becomes a reminder in the calendar, and the content of emails becomes the meeting agenda. This is what we mean by a workflow assisted by AI. In general, there are four useful kinds of reminders. First, a notification before the event, ten to thirty minutes, depending on the travel time to the meeting. Second, a prep time block, a personal event with no guests before an important meeting. Without this block, prep time usually gets eaten by other meetings. Third, a schedule summary every morning. Just ask the AI: what's on my schedule today, and what needs preparing? This will be the second part of our morning routine in Episode 25. Fourth, deadlines as all-day events, for example a report due date or a supplier invoice due date. A deadline that shows on the calendar is much harder to forget.
Step 6: Templates and examples elsewhere
Save this template in your assistant. The task block holds the variables: length, attendees, range of days, work hours, and times to avoid. The data block names the sources: your calendar, attendees' shared calendars, and emails about the meeting topic for agenda material. The format block asks for a numbered list of slots first, and then after you choose, a complete event draft with the purpose, a timed agenda, and the expected decisions. And the most important limit: don't create events with guests or send invitations before showing the guest list and you answer yes. This pattern works outside the office too. Mr. Hendra at Cerdas Tutoring wants to add extra grade nine math classes before exams. He needs two ninety-minute slots, in the afternoon, not on Friday. The AI reads his calendar and finds seven teaching sessions this week. Two slots are found: Tuesday at half past four and Thursday at three. The AI offers an announcement draft for the parents' group, but makes clear it won't send it. The announcement to parents is still sent by Mr. Hendra himself. Laras at Sunset Coffee uses the same pattern. Ms. Putri's order of thirty hampers, which we saw in the Episode 23 email, must be delivered Friday at ten. Laras asks for a production and delivery schedule that doesn't clash with the morning rush. The AI reads the shop calendar from Wednesday to Friday. It proposes three blocks: Wednesday afternoon for packaging, Thursday afternoon for production, and Friday morning after the rush, when Dimas delivers. Then the AI asks whether to create the events and invite Dimas. Laras chooses to create just the events, without invitations, because she prefers to tell Dimas directly. Confirmation leaves room for small decisions like this, which only the business owner knows. Your homework before the next episode. First, ask the AI to summarize this week's schedule and show the longest free stretch. Second, set up one real meeting: ask for three slot options, pick one, then ask for an event draft with its agenda. Third, approve the invitation only after you've checked the guest list and the time. Watch for anything that isn't on the calendar, like what happened with Fajar. Fourth, add the invitation confirmation rule to your assistant's standing instructions, so you don't have to repeat it every time.
Done!
Let's sum up. The AI reads the calendar, finds slots with clear rules, builds agendas from related emails, and sets reminders. But every invitation that affects other people is only sent after you've seen the guest list and answered yes. In the next episode, we process Sunset Coffee's sales data in Google Sheets: recapping, spotting odd numbers, and building a summary. Then we link email, schedule, and numbers into a fifteen-minute morning routine. See you in Episode 25.
Practice exercises
Try these on your own after watching to lock in what you learned.
Ask AI to summarize this week's schedule and mark the busiest day and the longest free stretch.
Set up one real meeting: ask for three slot options, pick one, ask for an event draft with an agenda, then approve the invitation only after checking the guest list.
Add this to your assistant's standing instructions: 'Always show the guest list and ask for confirmation before sending invitations or changing other people's events.'
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Cerdas Inovasi Digital Team
Software developers, BIM & 3D engineers, and AI practitioners
52 video classes1,276 episodes
We build software, BIM models, games and AI automations for clients every day, and turn that hands-on work into step-by-step classes: every step is shown on screen and comes with a PDF guide you can keep.
