Using Apple Shortcuts to create efficient and intelligent actions for task management
Table of Contents
What You'll Learn
- Project and task management tips
- Task automation workflows
- Calendar integration tricks
- Smart to-do management
- Custom AI Actions setup
Tools Covered
- Apple Shortcuts
- Notion
- ChatGPT
- Apple Calendar and/or Google Calendar
Jump to the Shortcut Install:
iOS Task Management ShortcutsMeet your new time management strategy
Time Blocking Revisited
Introducing the Time Wrangler Tool Belt
From now on, we’re not managers of time, we’re wranglers. Think of yourself as the wrangler of a safari or a ranger in a national park. Time, like nature, is an unstoppable force, but you can bend and shape the path it will try to take.
Shortcuts
Shortcuts will tie together all the data and intelligence and enact the updates to your agenda automatically.
If you have an iPhone with an Action Button, we will also set up a multi-function Shortcut to let you quickly choose any of your Smart Actions.
Calendar
This is your home base. You should begin to treat your calendar, if you don’t already, as the ground truth for how your time has been spent, should be spent, and must be spent.
In this guide, I’ll be using a combination of Google Calendar and Apple Calendar. You can use just Apple Calendar if you’d like, but the key is to ensure whichever calendar tool you choose can handle the following:
- Must be able to access Calendar events via Shortcuts on iOS
- Should allow for adding, editing, and removing events via Shortcuts on iOS
- Cloud sync and push updates
Apple Calendar by default checks all these boxes. If you already use or rely on some of the additional features of Google Calendar, you can sync your Google Calendar to your Apple Calendar and manage the calendar events and data in Shortcuts via Apple Shortcuts, but using the Google Calendar synced to Apple Calendar method will require you to use ONE calendar for all events.
ChatGPT
Using a large language model as provided by a resource like ChatGPT, we are able to make Shortcuts (and Siri, by proxy) capable of much more open-ended requests and organization or large amounts of metadata related to your tasks.
ChatGPT is essentially the “mind” connecting all the data and requests you make together and providing an output that the Shortcuts app will understand and use to update your agenda and calendar events.
You will not have to directly interact with ChatGPT if you do not want to, but you will need to have it installed and signed into any account, free or paid. You will likely run into limits on a free account somewhat quickly.
You can create customizations to the Shortcuts that allow you to continue a chat with ChatGPT after you have provided it an initial request based on your Calendar data. This is useful for having a “chat” with an “assistant” who is aware of your schedule and can help you make decisions or optimizations using natural language and thought.
Pretty neat!
Notion
Optionally, you can use Notion and a third party tool called 2sync, or similar, to sync your calendar data directly with a database in Notion. While I highly recommend this, it can quickly add complexity to your Shortcuts, so I advise you to consider if it would really benefit you first.
Why would I do that?
The benefit here is that Notion allows us to turn your calendar into a rich database; searchable, editable, shareable, and beyond. Each calendar event becomes an entry in an automatically organized database that allows you to store additional data, text, research, anything you can imagine, directly alongside your to-do items and calendar events.
Notion also enables us to bring back the true satisfaction of checking off a to-do list — a scientifically validated effective motivator that can help regulate a feedback loop between your todo list, and your actual productivity.
The last benefit of using Notion is that you can have a very modifiable and powerful user interface to interact with, view, edit, and marvel at your task list and your productivity history.
What’s measured is managed, so by adding a tool like Notion to your time management system, you create an ideal environment for measuring and later analyzing past performance and also will benefit from a task tracking interface that is more powerful than your calendar alone.
Instant Install
These Shortcuts are ready for installation and require minimal setup for you to begin using.
Smart Task
Trigger from anywhere on your phone, using the Share button, Action Button, Siri, or simply by highlighting and copying text, or writing a message.
This shortcut will process the information provided and automatically name, add an estimated duration or actual duration if provided, and add it to your calendar at an optimal time or the time mentioned in the request.
This shortcut will only ever add one task at a time, and if it cannot determine how process the data, it will inform you.
Install:
Smart Request
This Shortcut does not change any data on your calendar or elsewhere. It simply looks to your agenda and processes your request or question to help you have a “conversation” with your schedule, much like if you were to have chat with an assistant. It is aware of your schedule and optimized to provide concise, helpful answers.
Install:
Optimize Calendar (beta)
This is Shortcut is given the ability to manage events on your Calendar directly, and to update their times, durations, and order of events based on a request or information you provide, and your current agenda as planned.
It’s capable of editing existing events, adding new events, and moving all the events. It will NEVER delete any events on your Calendar, and it should not move any appointment or events with rigid start times (Doctors appointments, staff meetings, etc.) but I encourage you to check the output frequently as mistakes can happen.
This is why I’ve labelled this Shortcut as a beta. This Shortcut can change your calendar events in unintended ways if the request is misinterpreted by the Language model. It remains to be seen if mistakes like this are something AI Language models will be able to fully overcome.
Be detailed and specific with your Optimization request, and you will have better results. Example: Instead of:
“Move all my laundry-related tasks to tonight”
Say:
“Move all laundry-related tasks to begin starting at 7pm tonight. Optimize my agenda for the rest of the evening and tomorrow morning without changing the length of any events.”
Install:
Multitool Shortcut (requires Action Button)
This lets you configure your Action Button to display a neat list of your Smart Actions from anywhere on your iPhone. Install:
Instant Install: Setup Guide
Install and login to: ChatGPT app, Calendar / Google Calendar. If using Google Calendar, ensure it syncs to Apple Calendar in Settings.
- Install the Shortcut.
- Follow the instructions for setting up the parameters for each Shortcut as you install them.
- Ensure ChatGPT is open in the background.
- Trigger your Shortcut, and enjoy!
Instant Install: User Guide
Updating Task Durations
The key to making this system more intelligent over time is maintaining accurate duration data. After completing each task, take a moment to update your calendar with how long you actually spent on it. This creates a valuable dataset that helps the system make better predictions.
The process is simple:
- Record actual duration: Update completed calendar events with their true duration.
- Run optimization: Use the Optimize Calendar shortcut to adjust remaining tasks based on your current timing.
- Review suggestions: Confirm the proposed schedule changes make sense for your workflow.
Putting it all together
When combining these tools with time blocking, you create a dynamic system that adapts to your needs while maintaining structure. Here's how the components work together:
Smart Task Creation
Instead of manually creating calendar events, you can speak or type natural language requests. You can also create tasks by using the “Share” button anywhere on your phone. The Smart Task shortcut will receive whatever input (webpage, PDF, images, clipboard text, etc.) and process that into your task!
- Analyzes your current schedule to find optimal time slots
- Estimates appropriate durations based on task type
- Maintains buffer times between tasks
- Respects your existing commitments and meetings
Adaptive Scheduling
When plans change or tasks take longer than expected, the Optimize Calendar Shortcut can:
- Automatically adjust subsequent tasks
- Preserve ordering
- Maintain realistic buffer times
- Suggest task deferrals when necessary
Feedback Loop
The system creates a natural productivity feedback loop through:
- Easy task creation with low friction via Smart Task
- Automatically modifying task times and durations via Optimize Calendar
- Chat with your calendar via Make a smart request
- Task completion tracking and dopamine! (if using Notion)
Practical Benefits
This integrated approach delivers several key advantages:
- Reduced Cognitive Load: Less mental energy spent on calendar management
- Improved Accuracy: Better time estimates through AI and pattern learning
- Enhanced Flexibility: Easy adaptation to schedule changes
- Stronger Motivation: Clear progress tracking and completion feedback
The result is a time management system that's both more powerful and less demanding than traditional time blocking, while maintaining the core benefits of structured time management.
The Process Explained
From input to task creation, and follow through to task completion.
1) Input
Your process begins with an input. The input can be nearly anything on your phone.
Some things that work best:
- Text (highlight, then click Share, then use the Smart Task shortcut)
- Images (Hit the Share button, and run the shortcut)
- Webpages / URLs (Hit the Share button, and run the shortcut)
You also can input text directly into the text field after running the shortcut directly from the Action Button, or by saying “Smart Task” to Siri.
The input will be analyzed for information that is relevant to building a calendar event for your task to be time blocked into your agenda:
- Title for event
- Duration for event
- Either based on a duration inside the input, or estimated automatically in context.
- Start and End Times
- Either based on the times inside the input, or chosen automatically based on your current agenda and context.
- Description
- Automatically adds a description to the event, based on the input or by using the Language model to infer potential helpful details to make your task more actionable.
2) Observation
Your task is added to the agenda. You should probably make sure it was added in a way that looks good.
I typically just quickly open the Calendar and confirm the event landed with details intact. Sometimes if the task is more of a general reminder or something I’d like to do, but not time sensitive, I skip checking the calendar, because just knowing the block and details made it somewhere into my calendar ensures it will get processed into my actual agenda at some point.
3) Task Action
Simply do the things on your Calendar. As you move through your day, rather than constantly checking your agenda and shifting each block as time passes, start with the order you already determined or optimized order suggested by the AI.
4) Task Completion
Once you have completed a task, or a series of shorter tasks/blocks, return to your Calendar and update the end times of the tasks you have completed. The Start Times should also be updated if you did not Start when scheduled.
I typically update my Calendar to reflect what I’ve actually accomplished at natural breaks during the day, when I find myself shifting between larger time blocks/tasks or simply when I have moment to check in with myself. This looks like every 3-4 hours, in practice.
5) Reconciliation
If there are tasks you did not complete yet but their start time has passed, simply scoot them to any time in the future (even overlapping is okay.)
In the next step, you can use the Optimize Calendar shortcut to then automatically optimize your remaining agenda items.
The key here is not to worry about or overanalyze the items on your agenda that are ahead, and the items on your agenda that you not have started yet. Trust the process, and move from one task to the next.
6) Optimization
Once you have reconciled your Calendar for the day so far with what you have done, you can run the Optimize Calendar shortcut, and receive an automatically optimized agenda for the remaining tasks, including deferrals of any tasks to a new day, if necessary.
You can provide input when running the optimization shortcut, and I suggest you do provide any context you want the AI to be aware of in this schedule update.
Maybe you have an emergency dentist appointment tomorrow but still need to make sure your sales reports are done before hand. Just tell the Optimize Shortcut those details, and your schedule is updated accordingly.
7) Action
Return to the act of proceeding through your agenda. The key now, as before, is to proceed as naturally as you can along the ideal course you have laid out for yourself.
Obstacles, slips, and challenges will arise. Your job is not to predict them, but to bend around them, and therefore, allow yourself to bend with the ebb and flow of time and the chaos of our beautiful human experience.
If you find yourself in a natural state of flow on a task and feel it needs extension, just keep working! When you reconcile your Calendar later, you will be able to update your agenda to reflect that, and then easily Optimize your Calendar and continue the loop.
8) Feedback Loop
This is where the system should begin to loop back to help you create an inertial energy of calm and mindful productivity.
By not requiring your mind to hold the weight of remembering what you have and have not yet accomplished versus what you need to and would like to do, and have that data automatically related to your real availability, you will unlock more space or bandwidth in your mind for the work and activities that matter to you.
9) Documentation
If you use a tool like 2sync, you will be able to automatically generate entries in a Notion database for each block/event on your Calendar.
These entries can serve many purposes, from note-taking and record keeping for details related to the task or event on your Calendar, to research, additional action items and sub-todos, and more.
The addition of the ability to add documentation to your events via Notion allows you to create a rich history and living notebook for all your tasks and events that is directly accessible from your Calendar but separate from it so your Calendar remains a high-level overview of your agenda, as it should.
This guide does not cover setting up 2sync and Notion directly, but a future video guide will cover these details and demonstrate how the entire system can be used to build a truly intelligent second home base for your thoughts, plans, and actions.
Perhaps the best benefit of using Notion and 2sync with this system is the added ability to mark tasks or entries as “complete” within Notion. Though this doesn’t have any impact on the Shortcuts or the Calendar data itself, it is proven to have a huge impact on satisfaction with task completion, and therefore, on building and sustaining a healthy feedback loop of productivity.
Custom Install and Construction Guide
This will be updated with details on how each of the above Shortcuts function in detail, as well as how you can use them as starting points to modify or create your own Smart Actions and Time Wrangling tools.
For now, please enjoy the Shortcuts, or dive in on your own! I’d love to hear what you make :)
