The Robot Assistant Field Guide is Here

I spent the better part of a year experimenting with AI and coming away unimpressed.

The chatbots were fine for generating a quick summary or answering a trivia question. But every time I tried to use them for real work, the same problem showed up. They had no memory. No connection to my actual files. No way to do anything except talk. I’d describe a task, get a wall of text back, and then do all the work myself anyway.

Then Claude Code arrived. Suddenly the AI could read and write files on my computer. That changed things. I could point it at a folder full of notes and say “find every open task and organize them by project.” It would actually do it. But Claude Code ran in the terminal, which meant I had to think like a programmer to get anything done.

When Claude Cowork showed up, the programming barrier disappeared. Same power, but now I could just talk to it. Describe what I needed in plain English and watch it work. That’s when things got interesting.

Add MCPs (connectors that let the AI talk to your calendar, email, Slack, and other apps) and the whole picture comes together. Memory, because it reads your files. Skills, because you can teach it how you work. Reach, because it connects to the tools you already use. That’s the formula.

Once I had all three pieces, I started building. Email processing first. Then daily planning. Then task management. Then customer support, content publication, journaling, sponsor tracking, podcast production, weekly reviews, and a shutdown routine that wraps up my day in fifteen minutes instead of an hour.

At some point I looked up and realized I’d built something. Not a chatbot I ask questions. A system. A persistent assistant that knows my projects, remembers what I told it three weeks ago about that contractor invoice, and handles the tedious stuff I used to spend hours on every day.

I call it my robot assistant.

The biggest difference isn’t even the time saved. It’s that I stay in the zone. I used to break focus a dozen times a day to deal with admin. Email, invoicing, task shuffling, calendar juggling. Every interruption costs more than the minutes it takes. It costs the momentum. The robot handles the donkey work now, and I keep working on the stuff that actually matters.

Today I’m releasing the Robot Assistant Field Guide. It teaches the method behind everything I just described. How to use Claude Cowork and Obsidian to build your own personal AI assistant from scratch.

I want to be clear about what this is and what it isn’t. This is not “let AI write your stuff.” If you want a tool that does your thinking for you, this isn’t it. The Robot Assistant Field Guide teaches you to build an assistant for the donkey work. The email triage, the task management, the scheduling, the data entry, the repetitive admin. So you have more time for your real work.

You get ten foundation videos, about three hours total, that take you from zero to a working robot assistant. Each video builds on the last. By the end you have a functioning system ready for real work.

Then the 10-week live workshop series starts April 2. These aren’t webinars. They’re hands-on working sessions where we build real workflows together. Email processing. Calendar and daily planning. Task management. Personal CRM. Review cadences. All recorded if you can’t make it live.

You also get a Starter Kit with a vault template, sample workflows, and an AI-powered assembler that personalizes everything to your work. You don’t need to be a programmer. You need a Mac and a willingness to try something new.

The price is $199, one-time purchase, no subscription. Use code ROBOTLAUNCH for 10% off through March 30.

Get the Robot Assistant Field Guide

I’ve made a lot of Field Guides over the years. This one feels different. It’s the first time I’ve taught you to build the actual tool. The robot assistant isn’t a demo. It’s how I work now. And I think it can be how you work too.

Here’s the first Foundation Video:

Thanks, and a Field Guide Discount

I’m now approaching two years since I threw my law practice shingle into the wood chipper. I could not be happier. David Foster Wallace once started a speech talking about some goldfish.

“Two young fish are asked by an older fish, “How’s the water?” and one young fish turns to the other and says, “what the hell is water?”

In my case, I didn’t realize how stressful the legal practice was until I got out of the water. Your support made that possible. Thank you.

Also, I’m running a short-time discount on all Field Guides. 20% off everything with the code “TURKEY1983”. Newsletter subscribers learned about this a few days ago.

Shortcuts for iPhone and iPad Field Guide Free Update

I’m happy to announce that all of the iOS 15 updated videos are now in the Shortcuts for iPhone and iPad Field Guide. The update includes 13 new videos and multiple new Shortcuts. If you already own the course, just log in, and you’ll see the new iOS 15 materials in the course – anything with a (15) in the name. I’ve also grouped all the iOS 15 materials together near the bottom of the course. This is the third major free update to the course. Hooray!

You can check out the course right here, and for a short time, I’m offering a $5 discount to celebrate the update.

Shortcuts for Mac Webinar Series

We just wrapped up the Shortcuts for Mac Field Guide initial webinar series. All the recordings and shortcuts are now uploaded and available in the course curriculum. That’s another five-and-a-half hours of content and 31 new shortcuts.

I plan to continue with more Shortcuts for Mac webinars over time. Future topics will include additional features with macOS Ventura updates and third-party app support. I expect we will see a lot of interesting third-party app support for Shortcuts over the next year.

My Mac App Store Feature

Apple recently asked me to share some of my favorite productivity-inspired Shortcuts for Mac. That resulted in today’s feature in the Mac App Store. I thought it came out great. If you dig this, there’s a whole lot more in the Shortcuts for Mac Field Guide.

The Shortcuts for Mac Field Guide Plus Edition Webinar Series

For those of you that purchased the Shortcuts for Mac Field Guide Plus Edition, the second session of the webinar series is this Friday at 4:00 p.m. Pacific. This one was timed to make it easier for customers in Asia.

For a variety of reasons, I’ve changed vendors following the first session. If you already signed up in WebinarJam, you’ll need to sign up again with the new link. I sent the link out via email to all Plus Edition customers. If you didn’t get your email, just log into the course and at the very top you’ll find the new link. I’ve also already posted the recording from the first session there. See your Friday.

Shortcuts for Mac Webinar Series

I’m starting a five-part webinar series this Friday for the Shortcuts for Mac Field Guide, Plus Edition customers. If you signed up for that course you should have received an email with a sign-up link. I’ve also added the sign-up link to the course under the “Shortcuts Webinars” Section. Let me know if you have any problems.

The Webinars will be new materials on Shortcuts for Mac. All of the webinars will be edited and added to the course. So if you can’t make the webinars, you’ll still get all the content as part of the Shortcuts For Mac Field Guide, Plus Edition content.

Announcing the Shortcuts for Mac Field Guide

I’m so happy to announce the release of the Shortcuts for Mac Field Guide. (Standard Edition) (Plus Edition) I first started production on this Field Guide last August, and it is now ready for the world.

There are 132+ lovingly crafted screencasts totaling over 8.5 hours of content. Where appropriate, the tutorials also include downloadable Shortcuts that you can install and run alongside the video.

This Field Guide is releasing with two different versions. The standard version includes all the 132+ videos, 8.5 hours of content, and downloadable shortcuts. There is also a “Plus Edition” that includes everything in the standard version and an extended webinar series on Shortcuts just for Plus Edition customers. The webinars (there will be hours of them) will also get added as downloadable videos to the Plus Edition of the Shortcuts Field Guide.

You can buy it now and, for a short time, there is a launch discount.

The Shortcuts for Mac Field Guide is normally $49, but on sale for $44.

The Shortcuts for Mac Field Guide Plus Edition is normally $99, but on sale for $89.

I believe Apple when they say they view Shortcuts as the future of automation, and the good news is Shortcuts is the most accessible automation platform Apple has ever shipped. I spent a lot of time building this course, and I’m thrilled to now be sharing it with you.

Here are the links:

The Shortcuts for Mac Standard Edition

The Shortcuts for Mac Plus Edition

Keyboard Maestro 10.1

This week we got another nice update from Keyboard Maestro. This update includes a ton of new support for Shortcuts integration on the Mac. I’m so happy to see Keyboard Maestro setting itself up to be a platform where you can use it’s already powerful automation alongside anything Apple adds to Shortcuts.

I’m in the midst of building an update to the Keyboard Shortcuts Field Guide. This new Shortcuts integration just got added to the menu. You can read more about the update at the Keyboard Maestro website.