Turn your repeated work into reusable AI skills

Build from past habits. You have already taught AI how to do parts of your job through the corrections you make in chat (Matt Paige from AI for the Rest of Us). Matt Paige suggests asking your assistant to identify five recurring workflows, such as weekly status updates or meeting recaps, by searching your prior conversations. Jenni Majumdar uses this method to interview her AI about research ideas one question at a time before drafting, ensuring the output matches her actual interest rather than a generic outline (Art of Anesthesia, Art of Anesthesia). Claudia Quintela saves thirty hours a week by treating Claude as a partner that drafts, edits, and breaks long pieces into social media posts, which she then approves (Claudia Quintela from Midlife Mavericks).

Connect your tools. A skill becomes an automated asset when you give it access to the software you already use, such as Google Drive, Slack, or your meeting notes app (Matt Paige from AI for the Rest of Us). Jenni Majumdar connects her Granola notes and project emails to ChatGPT to generate one-page briefs that flag conflicting information and list open items. Matt Paige demonstrates that you can record yourself performing a report download and filing process to teach the assistant a reusable skill that handles the task in the future. Claudia Quintela replaced her manual calendar entries by setting up automations that send school emails directly into her family calendar.

Refine through feedback. A new skill acts like a new colleague that requires specific guidance to match your standards. Matt Paige suggests reviewing the first few outputs to provide corrections, such as asking for unresolved blockers to appear first or including the owner of each next step. Ikram Rana turns messy meeting notes into four specific outputs including decisions, action items, open questions, and a follow-up email by using a structured prompt (Ikram Rana from Real Life How to AI). Aisha uses a weekly Monday ritual where she asks her AI to spot items on her 'Now' note she has avoided or to draft follow-ups to the oldest pending requests (How to Vibe Code With AI).

• Claudia Quintela uses Wispr Flow to dictate text anywhere, forcing her away from her computer while she works (Claudia Quintela from Midlife Mavericks).
• Manus can summarize documents between 1,000 and 50,000 words, pulling out methods and findings with citations kept (Sifu Yik's Substack).