Workflow
The open loopsyour brain dropped.
Every morning, AIVA reviews your Gmail and Calendar and hands you the loops your working memory can’t hold — who’s waiting on you, the promises you made, the meetings that need prep, the threads you forgot — and the one place to start.
Say it once“Run my morning external brain.”
The problem
The loops don’t live anywhere.
Who’s waiting on a reply, the promise you made on Tuesday, the meeting with no agenda, the thread you opened and lost — none of it is on a list anywhere. It lives in your head until it doesn’t, and the morning you’re most overwhelmed is the morning the most slips.
How it works
Set it up once. It just keeps happening.
Connect Gmail and Calendar
Link Gmail and Google Calendar once. AIVA reads them on demand with revocable OAuth tokens stored encrypted on your Mac.
Tell AIVA when
Say it once in plain language — “Every weekday at 8, run my morning external brain.” AIVA assembles it on that schedule, or any time you just ask.
AIVA catches the loops
It reviews overnight mail and today’s calendar, finds the follow-ups, promises, and meetings that need you, and sorts them so the picture is calm, not a wall of overdue.
You start with one thing
A short, sorted reset is waiting when you sit down — ending in one suggested next action. Approve a draft, snooze a loop, or just read the headlines.
What AIVA does
The work, handled.
Show people waiting on you
Threads where someone needs a reply, ranked by who’s blocked — so nobody’s left hanging because you forgot.
Track people you’re waiting on
What you’re owed, separated out, so the things you’re blocked on don’t quietly disappear.
Catch the promises you made
“I’ll send the deck,” “let me get back to you” — pulled from your own sent mail and held until you’ve actually done them.
Flag meetings that need prep
Today’s events with no agenda or open questions, so you walk in ready instead of cold.
Surface what you forgot
Stalled threads and dropped loops you should know about — and one suggested next action to start with.
What changes
What it’s like once AIVA runs this.
Set it once, it just happens
Describe the reset in plain language and AIVA turns it into a recurring loop with the right timing — no app to check, no reminder to set, nothing reset when you fall behind.
- Recurring and timezone-aware
- Safe if a run is missed
- Quiet until it has something
Loop
Every weekday · 8:00 AM
Morning external brain — next run in 14h
The loops, already caught
AIVA reviews your Gmail and Calendar, finds the follow-ups, promises, and meetings that need you, and sorts them into one calm picture — not a wall of overdue.
- Follow-ups, promises, and meetings merged
- Sorted by what needs you
- One suggested next action
Morning External Brain
- Caught 3 follow-ups
- 1 promise still open
- Start here: reply to advisor
It remembers what you said you’d do
AIVA reads your own sent mail for the commitments you made and holds them until they’re done — so “I’ll send it over” doesn’t become a dropped ball a week later.
- Promises pulled from your sent mail
- Held until you’ve actually done them
- No more “did I ever reply?”
Remembered
Set it up by saying
Just say it in plain language.
Run my morning external brain.
Every weekday at 8 AM, catch the loops I dropped across Gmail and Calendar.
Who’s waiting on me, and what did I promise that I haven’t done?
Just tell me the one next thing I should start with.
The apps it uses
Built on the tools you already have.
Google Workspace
AIVA for Gmail
AIVA reads the threads that matter, drafts replies in your voice, tracks the promises buried in your email, and follows up so nothing quietly dies in your inbox. It only sends after you say so.
Google Workspace
AIVA for Google Calendar
AIVA reads your calendar, finds the gaps, preps you for what’s next, and books the things you ask for — checking with you before it changes anything and always confirming before it deletes.
Permission model
You stay in control of every consequential action.
Read-only work happens silently. Anything that changes the world waits for your approval — and destructive actions always ask prominently.
Without your approval, AIVA won’t
No surprises.
These never happen on their own. AIVA drafts and asks; you decide.
- Send any reply or message
- Change, accept, or decline a calendar event
- Mark large swaths of mail read or archived
Local-first notes
Your data, on your machine.
AIVA never sees your passwords — Gmail and Calendar connect with revocable OAuth tokens, stored encrypted on your Mac.
In Local mode, your mail and calendar are read on-device and queried on demand, never bulk-uploaded.
Disconnect either source from Settings → Apps and that part of the reset stops immediately.
FAQ
Good questions to ask.
When does the reset arrive?
Whenever you tell it to. Most people pick a weekday time before they start work — “8 AM on weekdays” — but you can run it on demand by just asking, or change the cadence conversationally any time.
Which sources does it review?
Gmail and Google Calendar — the two places your open loops actually live. AIVA reads both to find follow-ups, promises, and meetings, and never acts without your approval.
Will it act on anything without asking?
No. The reset is read-only. Anything that changes the world — sending a reply, moving a meeting — is drafted and waits for your approval.
Can I make it shorter or change what’s in it?
Yes. Say “just the promises I made,” “skip meetings today,” or “three lines max” and AIVA adjusts the recipe and keeps it that way.
Related workflows
AIVA works better together.
Workflow
Quiet Inbox Triage
Say the word and AIVA reads your unread mail, tells you who it’s from and what it’s about in a line each, flags what genuinely needs you, and drafts the replies that can be handled — holding every one for your approval.
Workflow
Follow-Up Sweep
AIVA watches the threads you care about, notices when one goes quiet, and drafts the nudge before the deal, the intro, or the answer slips through the cracks. You approve; it sends.
Workflow
Meeting Prep
Before any meeting, AIVA assembles a brief — who’s attending, your recent history with each of them, the notes and files that matter, and a few talking points — so you’re never reconstructing context in the first five minutes.
Get started
Let AIVA run Morning External Brain for you.
Create your account on the web — it carries straight into the Mac app.