Projects and paperwork

What you’ll do: learn how your butler thinks about projects. Nothing to click.

A project is a goal with steps. Each step has:

• What to do, as a plain instruction: “Book the renewal appointment online”.
• Who does it: a person, “Both”, or someone outside the household, like “the school”.
• When it can happen, if that matters:
  • After another step, such as “after the documents are ready”.
  • Not before a date, such as “the renewal opens on 15 January”.
  • Waiting on someone, such as “waiting on the clinic until the 20th”.
  • Every so many days, for repeating checks like “test the smoke alarms every 90 days”.

An invented example

The Riveras’ residence card project:

1. Gather the renewal documents. Alex.
2. Book the renewal appointment. Alex, after step 1, not before 15 January.
3. Attend the appointment. Alex and Sam, after step 2.

Until step 1 is done, step 2 waits. On 15 January, the brief starts showing “Book the renewal appointment” under Alex’s name.

What you’ll do: describe a real project to Claude in your own words, and let it write the steps.

Steps

1. In Claude Code, in the Butler folder, type:

2. When Claude asks, describe a project the way you’d explain it to a friend. For example:

3. Claude proposes the steps, with who, after and not-before. Read them. Change anything that’s wrong: “Sam gathers the proof of address, not Alex.”
4. Claude saves the project and previews the brief. Look for Next up.

What you’ll do: update a project step by replying to your butler.

Steps

1. Reply to your butler’s email with any of these, using your own project’s words:
   • done: gather documents, which marks the step done and unlocks the next one.
   • waiting on the school until Friday, which parks the step and brings it back on Friday.
   • the appointment is booked for 3 February, which saves a note on the step.
   • pause choosing the tiles, which parks that step out of the brief until you reply to unpause it.
2. Wait for the confirmation. It says exactly what changed.
3. Preview, or wait for tomorrow’s brief, to see the next step appear.

What you’ll do: optionally, set up a private reference file with document expiry dates, so your brief warns you in good time.

What goes where

• Expiry dates feed the “Heads up” section: “Alex’s residence card expires in 54 days.”
• Document numbers, such as passport, residence, tax and health numbers, stay in one private file on your Mac. They appear only on your butler’s private Info page, in Module 11. They are never put in an email and never sent to Claude.

Steps

1. Ask Claude:

2. Tell Claude each document’s owner, type and expiry date. For example: “Mia’s passport expires 4 June 2029.”
3. If you want the numbers on the Info page, Claude opens the file in TextEdit for you. Type the numbers yourself, save, and close. Don’t paste them into the chat.