How are people using Claude as a personal assistant (Slack + Outlook + To-Do)? ADHD-friendly setup help 🙏

TL;DR Highlight

This post shares various working setups, shared in the comments, in response to a question about a user with ADHD wanting to create a 'second brain' integrating Slack, Outlook, Calendar, and to-do lists centered around Claude.

Who Should Read

Developers or office workers who have ADHD or difficulty concentrating and managing work context. People who want to use AI as a productivity tool in a Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Teams) environment.

Core Mechanics

The original poster's goal is to build a system that integrates Slack messages, Outlook emails, and calendars around Claude, updates to-do lists in natural language, receives daily briefings, and proactively alerts the user to potential follow-up omissions.
Direct integration with Outlook/Calendar is difficult with Claude Pro alone, and a realistic workaround is to build an M365 MCP server (based on Graph API) yourself or connect one found on GitHub. This is possible even without a Claude Teams subscription.
The most frequently mentioned architecture is a combination of 'CLAUDE.md + markdown state files (state.md, current.md, todos.md, etc.).' Claude reads these files at the start of a session to restore previous context and updates them at the end of the session, implementing persistent memory.
Using an MCP server allows Claude Desktop to query external services such as Slack, Google Calendar, Gmail, and Notion in natural language. There is also a case of connecting Outlook by creating an M365 Graph API-based MCP server.
The open-source template called MARVIN was mentioned in several comments. It consists of CLAUDE.md + state files + custom slash commands (/morning-plan, /today, etc.) + MCP server, and even includes a structure to run Claude headless on Cloud Run with a cron job to send notifications via Telegram.
Using Obsidian as a 'second brain' and connecting it to Claude Code is also popular. Using the Tasks plugin, Day Planner, and full-screen notification plugin together can forcibly draw attention when a time block is missed, which is particularly useful for ADHD.

Evidence

A PM user who has used it daily for over 25 days shared 371.6M tokens, a 92% cache hit rate, and actual costs of $259. They stated that in 38 out of 72 sessions, Claude's tool calls were 7 times more frequent than their own messages, emphasizing that 'context beats prompts' as a key insight.
One user with ADHD pointed out that 'trying to design a perfect system from scratch is an ADHD trap,' and that lowering activation energy is key. If you have to open three apps and connect to an MCP server to see your to-do list, you'll never use it.
One user shared that separating Notion as the actual storage for to-dos, Zapier/Make as the connection hub for Slack/Outlook, and Claude as the thought/summary layer was the most stable approach. They argued that trying to entrust everything to Claude can actually make things more complex.
Some people used a method of keeping Claude and Outlook open simultaneously without an MCP server to manage Outlook emails. They created a workflow with Claude to classify emails every morning as 'Respond Now / Can Wait / Awareness / SPAM'.
There were comments that Claude's built-in memory is unstable when implementing persistent memory. One case involved building an MCP server that stores data in SQLite to solve this, allowing natural language queries of past content without copying context between sessions.
A person who has been using the MARVIN template for several months strongly recommends 'start with just CLAUDE.md and one state file instead of trying to build everything from the beginning.' They said that adding features one by one was the only way they had maintained it for a long time.

How to Apply

Open your project folder in the Claude Code terminal and write your role, current work, work style, and key stakeholders in the CLAUDE.md file. Then, create only three files: current.md (this week's priorities), todos.md (to-do list), and state.md (what to focus on today, what's blocked). Start a routine of reading these files and receiving a briefing using your own slash command like '/today' every day.
If you need Outlook integration, register an app in Azure to get Microsoft Graph API access rights and connect an M365 MCP server found on GitHub to Claude Desktop. Once completed, you can query it in natural language, such as 'Show me emails I haven't replied to today.' If direct construction is difficult, you can start by creating an Outlook → Notion automation with Zapier and asking Claude to read the Notion content.
If you need an automatic briefing once a day, configure a structure to run Claude headless (`claude -p`) on Cloud Run or a local cron job and receive the results via Telegram. You can start by cloning the MARVIN template (https://github.com/SterlingChin/marvin-template) to immediately reference the basic structure of this pattern.

Code Example

snippet

# CLAUDE.md example structure

## My Role
- [Company Name]'s [Job Title], main responsibilities: [Content]

## Current Work
- [Project A]: [Status]
- [Project B]: [Status]

## Key Stakeholders
- [Name]: [Relationship and current situation]

## Working Style
- Prefer short answers, present only 2 options when a decision is needed
- Important things in the morning, processing tasks in the afternoon

## Do Not Do
- Get straight to the point without long introductions
- Don't ask about things that have already been decided

---
# /today slash command example (registered in CLAUDE.md)

Command: /today
Action:
1. Read current.md, todos.md, and state.md
2. Select 3 things to do today
3. Check what was not completed yesterday
4. Summarize one line of risks to be aware of

Terminology

MCP 서버Model Context Protocol server. A small server that connects Claude to external APIs (Slack, Outlook, Notion, etc.). Natively supported in Claude Desktop.

헤드리스 실행Running Claude programmatically from the command line without a UI. Used for automation in cron jobs, etc., in the form of `claude -p 'prompt'`.

CLAUDE.mdA context file that Claude Code automatically reads at the start of a session. Writing down your role, current situation, and work style allows Claude to understand the context and start without having to explain it every time.

활성화 에너지The psychological and physical effort required to start an action. In ADHD, the higher this threshold, the less likely it is to be used, so a good system should lower this energy.