Use case: plan your week with a personal AI assistant

Introduction

Weekly planning is a strong personal AI assistant use case: the input is messy, but the output is simple to inspect. You bring the fixed commitments, unfinished tasks, errands, and worries. Hermes sorts them, finds conflicts, and proposes a week you can change before anything happens.

This workflow does not require calendar automation. Paste only the details needed for the coming week, or send a voice note through Telegram. Hermes first extracts what you said, then builds the plan after you correct it. That separation catches mistakes before they become a schedule.

Examples

A useful weekly reset can turn this:

Dentist Tuesday 15:00. Finish the insurance form. Call Sam. Need groceries before guests arrive Friday. Presentation is important but I keep putting it off. Wednesday looks packed. I would like one evening with no plans.

into this:

• three outcomes that would make the week successful;
• a table of fixed commitments and deadlines;
• suggested focus blocks around those commitments;
• errands grouped into one batch;
• a short “waiting for” list;
• tasks to defer, delegate, or drop;
• conflicts and missing information for you to resolve.

Composite customer scenario: the overbooked freelancer

This scenario illustrates the workflow; it is not presented as a real customer testimonial.

Jonas, a freelance photographer, starts with two client deadlines, an insurance form, a family visit, and a promise to keep Thursday evening free. He sends a voice note instead of preparing a perfect task list. Hermes first extracts the commitments and asks how long Tuesday’s appointment lasts. Only after Jonas answers does it build the week.

The first draft shows that every task cannot fit without removing all buffer. Jonas defers a portfolio refresh, batches two errands after the appointment, and protects one morning for the harder client edit. When a delivery moves on Wednesday, Hermes changes only the affected day rather than rewriting the whole week.

The useful outcome is a visible trade-off: one task deliberately moves, instead of five tasks quietly slipping.

The same method works for a busy parent coordinating household tasks, a freelancer balancing clients and admin, a job seeker tracking applications, or anyone who feels their task list is larger than their week.

In-depth guide

1. Gather only this week’s inputs

Bring five small lists:

1. Fixed: appointments, events, and real deadlines.
2. Important: up to three outcomes that matter most.
3. Loose: errands, calls, chores, and ideas.
4. Waiting: people or information you cannot proceed without.
5. Capacity: unavailable times, travel, health constraints, and how much unscheduled space you want.

Hermes does not automatically know your calendar, inbox, or family commitments unless you explicitly provide or configure access. Paste a compact list instead of an entire inbox or calendar export. Redact addresses, booking references, account numbers, and details unrelated to planning.

If typing the list feels like work, send yourself a two-minute voice note through your private Telegram bot. Hermes can transcribe incoming voice messages. Read the transcript before using it as planning input, especially for names, dates, and times.

2. Sort before planning

Start a fresh conversation and paste or dictate the lists with this prompt:

This is raw input for my weekly reset. Do not build a schedule yet. Extract only what I explicitly said into a table with Item, Type, Date or deadline, Estimated effort, and Missing information. Use unknown instead of guessing. Then list possible conflicts and ask no more than five questions that would materially change the plan. Do not contact anyone or change any external system.

Correct transcription errors and assumptions. Add only missing information that affects the week. This step is deliberately boring: clean inputs make the next step useful.

3. Define a realistic week

Tell Hermes your normal limits in plain language. For example:

Plan at most two demanding tasks per day. Leave 30 minutes between appointments. Keep Wednesday evening and at least one other evening free. Treat estimates as ranges, not promises.

These are good candidates for memory if they stay true most weeks. Ask Hermes to show the exact memory entry first, then approve it. Keep temporary appointments and sensitive details out of persistent memory.

4. Build the plan

Once the extracted list is correct, use this prompt:

Build a realistic plan for [date] through [date]. Preserve every fixed commitment. Choose at most three weekly outcomes and explain why. Place demanding work in my available focus periods, batch compatible errands, and keep the requested free time. Do not fill every open hour. Put anything that does not fit under Defer, delegate, or drop. Finish with Monday’s first 15 minutes and a short checklist. This is a proposal only; do not change a calendar, send messages, make bookings, or purchase anything.

Ask for a table if you scan schedules visually, or a daily checklist if tables feel heavy. One format is enough; extra versions consume time and model credit without improving the decision.

5. Make Hermes challenge the plan

Before accepting it, ask:

Stress-test this plan. Find double-booking, hidden travel or preparation time, vague tasks, unrealistic effort, and days with no buffer. Name the two tasks most likely to slip. Suggest the smallest change that makes the week more robust.

Then make the final decisions yourself. A plan should show trade-offs instead of quietly squeezing everything in.

6. Save one working artifact

Ask Hermes to write the approved version to a clearly named file such as weekly-plan-2026-07-20.md. Keep these sections:

• Top three outcomes
• Fixed commitments
• Daily plan
• Waiting for
• Defer, delegate, or drop
• First action Monday

Do not use the weekly plan as a second password vault, medical record, or identity folder. Keep only what helps execute the week.

7. Use a two-minute daily check-in

Each morning, reply in the same conversation or open the plan and say:

Today changed: [new fact]. Show only what this affects. Keep fixed commitments and free-time boundaries. Give me the next physical action, not a new full-week plan.

Each evening, mark completed, moved, and blocked items. Avoid rebuilding the entire schedule for every interruption.

8. Close the loop

At week’s end, ask three questions:

1. What was completed?
2. What repeatedly slipped, and why?
3. Which one stable preference or workflow lesson is worth remembering?

Approve memory updates individually. A useful lesson is “morning focus blocks work better than evening blocks”; a poor memory entry is a complete diary of the week.

After several successful manual resets, schedule a plain reminder such as “Send me my weekly-reset checklist every Sunday at 18:00 Europe/Berlin.” Automate source gathering only when each source is reliable and the output remains reviewable. Follow the scheduled briefings guide before turning the planning prompt into a recurring task.

For current platform behavior, see the official Hermes documentation for memory, scheduled tasks, and Telegram voice and file messages.