I built an AI routine that turns my day into content ideas (steal the prompt and the skill)

When I came up with the idea to do my build in public series, I was like, there's so many things that I do in the day to move my business along that I want to share with you guys, but I forget to write them down.

By the evening I've had calls, sent emails, fixed something that broke, made a decision about my offer and changed my mind about a page on my website. Every one of those is a post. By the next morning I can't remember half of them, and the ones I do remember feel too small to talk about.

So I created a job that my chief operating officer does every single night. Her name is Lyra. Every night she goes back through all of our chats on my MacBook Pro and my Mac Mini, and through my ClickUp, so everything that I've completed and everything that I've made progress on. Then she sends me a curated list of everything I achieved that moved Incuv8or forward in the last 24 hours, with a bunch of post ideas underneath it.

I wake up in the morning, read the list, pick the ones I want, and she adds them to my content calendar. Now I don't need to think about it.

It has run every night since 27 September. In its first five nights it gave me 48 post ideas: 15 on the first night (9 of those were catch-up posts for steps I'd already done), then 8, 10, 6 and 9. I approved every single one, added one of my own, and 49 ideas went into my content calendar in five days. I now have more ideas than I can film, which is a good problem to have.

This post gives you your own version. It doesn't copy my setup, because you probably don't have ClickUp or a Mac Mini that never switches off. It copies the rules that make mine work, and it reads from the things you already have.

What you'll get every morning

This is what lands at the end of each day. The ideas are numbered so you can pick them with one reply.

WHAT I DID TODAY
- Sent my new pricing to two warm leads - sent emails
- Rewrote the About page on my website - website-about.md, changed today
- Discovery call with a florist about her booking system - calendar

POST IDEAS
1. I sent my new prices to two people before I'd posted them anywhere
   What I did: emailed the new pricing to two warm leads
   Why my audience cares: testing a price with real people before
   you announce it
   Main points: why I didn't post it first / what I said in the
   email / what I'm waiting to hear
   Format: talking head
   Receipt: sent emails, 14:20

2. ...

Reply with the numbers you want ("1, 3" or "all").

On a quiet day it says "Nothing worth posting today" in one line, and that's it. There will be days you don't work on your business, and a list padded with nothing is worse than no list.

There are two versions, and you can use either or both:

1. The copy-paste prompt. Paste it at the end of the day, add a 60-second note of what you did, and get your ideas. You can try it tonight.
2. The skill. The full nightly version, which runs on its own while you're asleep and remembers every idea it has already given you.

What you need before you start

• Claude on a paid plan, with the Claude desktop app. Scheduled tasks are set up and run from there.
• A folder for your content. Somewhere on your computer, like "Content". Your content brief and your ideas live in it.
• A 60-second "what I did today" note. This is the most important source, and it works for anyone, even with nothing connected. Talk or type for a minute about what you worked on.
• Anything else you want it to read, if you use it: your calendar, your sent emails, your task manager (ClickUp, Notion, Asana or Trello), or the files you changed today. These are the upgrade, not the start. When you get to the routine, Claude will tell you if anything isn't connected yet and help you connect it.

If your business isn't written down anywhere Claude can read it yet, the ideas will be more generic than they should be. That's the foundation: The Co-Founder Setup.

Step 1 - Write your content brief

This is the step most people skip, and it's the one that stops the ideas being generic. Mine tells Lyra what the series is about, where I'm heading (15k a month by the end of March 2027) and every idea she's already given me, so she never suggests the same thing twice.

1. Open the Claude desktop app.
2. Click the Claude Code tab at the top.
3. Start a new chat.
4. Click the + at the bottom of the chat and choose your content folder.

Then paste this.

I want you to write me a one-page "Content brief" & save it in this
folder.

Interview me one question at a time until you know:
- what I post about & who it's for
- where I'm heading (my goal, with a date if I have one)
- what counts as a post-worthy moment in my work, & what doesn't
  (e.g. client names, personal admin)
- the formats I make (talking head, carousel, B-roll, stories)

Then write the brief with these sections: What I post about · Who
it's for · Where I'm heading · What counts · What doesn't count ·
My formats · Ideas I've already had (empty for now).

Don't guess. If you don't know, ask me. Show me before you save it.

Read what comes back and change anything that isn't true. The "What counts" section is the filter that makes the list useful. Mine counts the offer, the build, the brand, marketing, outreach and setbacks, and it leaves out my other clients' work and personal admin. Without a filter, you get a list of everything you did, and most of it isn't content.

Step 2 - Try the prompt tonight

Before you build anything that runs on its own, see if you like what it gives you. At the end of the day, open a chat in Claude, paste this, and add your note where it says.

Here's what I did today: [YOUR 60-SECOND NOTE - talk or type, it
doesn't need to be tidy]

Read my content brief first [ATTACH IT, OR PASTE IT HERE].

Then:
1. List what I did today that counts, using the "What counts" section
   of my brief. Say where each one came from.
2. Turn each real moment worth sharing into one post idea. Several on
   a big day, none on a quiet one. Never pad the list.
3. For each idea give me: a plain title (what happened) · what I did ·
   why my audience cares · 3 main points in my words · the format
   that suits it · where it came from.
4. Number them.

Rules: never invent numbers, results, replies or feelings. Ideas
only, no hooks or scripts, because I'll write those myself. Never
name a client. If nothing counts today, say so in one line.

Read the list. If an idea is something you'd never post, tell it why, and add that to the "What doesn't count" section of your brief.

The "ideas only" rule is there on purpose. Mine doesn't write hooks or scripts, because I write those later from my own brain dump, and that's what keeps them in my voice.

Step 3 - Install the skill

When you've run the prompt a couple of times and you like what comes back, turn it into a skill. A prompt is something you have to remember to paste. A skill is something Claude reaches for on its own. If you want the full picture on skills, it's in how to build a Claude skill.

Go back to the Claude Code chat with your content folder attached and paste this, with the skill underneath it.

Save the skill below as a skill you can use, called
nightly-content-ideas. Then go through it with me & fill in every
part in [BRACKETS] - ask me one question at a time. Delete the
sources I don't use. Show me the finished version before you save it.

This is the skill. Copy all of it.

---
name: nightly-content-ideas
description: Use at the end of the day, or when the nightly scheduled
  task runs, to read what I did today and turn it into numbered post
  ideas about my work. Also use when I say "content ideas from today",
  "what can I post about" or send a "what I did today" note.
---

# Nightly Content Idea Generator

## What this is for
Every night, read what I did today and give me a short, numbered list
of post ideas about my work. Every idea points back to something that
really happened. I pick the ones I want in the morning.

## Before you start
Read my content brief: [WHERE IT IS - e.g. Content/Content brief.md].
It says what I post about, who for, where I'm heading, what counts,
and every idea I've already had.

## Where to look (only these)
[DELETE THE ONES YOU DON'T USE]
- My "what I did today" note: [WHERE IT IS]
- My calendar: today's meetings and calls
- My sent emails from today
- Files I created or changed today in [FOLDER]
- My task manager ([CLICKUP / NOTION / ASANA / TRELLO]): tasks I
  finished or moved today
If a source isn't connected or fails, say so in one line at the top
and carry on with the rest.

## How to do it
1. List what I did today that counts (see my brief), each with where
   you saw it.
2. Turn each real moment worth sharing into one post idea. Several on
   a big day, none on a quiet one.
3. Check every idea against "Ideas I've already had" in my brief.
   Never suggest the same thing twice.
4. Number the ideas and save the list to [WHERE YOUR IDEAS GO - e.g.
   Content/Ideas/YYYY-MM-DD.md, a Google Doc or a Notion page].

## The rules
- Every idea says where it came from: the meeting, the email, the
  file, my note.
- Never invent numbers, replies, results or feelings. If you can't
  point to where you saw it, leave it out.
- Ideas only. No hooks, no scripts, no captions.
- Never name a client. Say "a client" or the type of business.
- Quiet day: write "Nothing worth posting today" in one line. Never
  pad the list.
- You never send, post or delete anything.

## Output exactly this
WHAT I DID TODAY
- [what happened] - [where you saw it]

POST IDEAS
1. [Title: plain, what happened]
   What I did: [the facts, my numbers only]
   Why my audience cares: [the lesson or the honest bit]
   Main points: [3 bullets, my words where I said them]
   Format: [talking head / carousel / B-roll / story]
   Receipt: [where you saw it]

Reply with the numbers you want ("1, 3" or "all").

## When I reply with numbers
Add the ideas I picked to [MY CONTENT CALENDAR - e.g. a Google Sheet
with the columns Date · Title · Format · Status], one row each, with
today's date. Then add their titles to "Ideas I've already had" in my
content brief.

If you don't have a content calendar, ask Claude to make you a simple sheet with four columns: Date, Title, Format and Status. That's all mine started as.

If you only use Claude in the normal chat and not the Claude Code tab, you can still use the skill by hand. Go to Customise, then Skills, then Add Skill, upload it, and say "content ideas from today" at the end of the day with your note.

Step 4 - Make it run every night

A scheduled task is Claude on a timer. You tell it what to do and when, and from then on it wakes up at that time, does the job and goes back to sleep. If you want the full picture, I wrote it up in how to build a Claude routine.

In the same chat, paste this, filled in.

Set this up as a scheduled task that runs every night at [TIME, e.g.
22:00].

Each run, use my nightly-content-ideas skill on today. Read only the
sources the skill lists. Save the list where the skill says, & tell
me when it's there.

Then run it once now so I can see tonight's.

Watch that first run. Every time it stops to ask your permission to read something or save a file, allow it, and then tell Claude to update the task so it won't need to ask again.

Update the scheduled task so it has every permission it just asked
me for, so it never stops & waits for me at night.

Step 5 - Pick by number in the morning

Open the list with your coffee. Reply with the numbers you want: "1, 3", or "all". The skill adds them to your content calendar and adds them to the "already had" list in your brief, so tomorrow night it won't suggest them again.

Mine goes one step further. Lyra puts the list in a task in ClickUp, I reply with the numbers, and she files each idea into my content calendar for that series. You don't need that to start. A list you read and a sheet you add to does the same job.

The catch, and the fix

A scheduled task can stop and wait for a permission click, and nobody's there at night to click it. One of my routines inside the Claude app sat waiting 25 hours on a single permission. There was no error. It just didn't run.

The fix is the end of Step 4: watch the first run, give it every permission it asks for up front, and test it before you trust it. Then check the next morning that the list is there. If it isn't, that's your signal to open Claude and see what it's waiting for.

The second catch is your laptop. A scheduled task runs where the Claude app is open. If your laptop's shut at 22:00, it runs when you next open it. For a list you read in the morning, that's usually fine. Mine runs just after midnight on a Mac Mini that stays on, because I didn't want to depend on remembering to leave my laptop open.

If you want to see the difference between something that runs on a timer and an employee that does the job, I wrote that up too: Claude routine or AI employee?.

What this looks like as a business

Every business owner you work with knows they should be posting about their work, and almost none of them remember what they did by Friday. This is a simple first build for a client, because it only reads and suggests. It can't send anything, post anything or break anything.

You're not being paid for setting up a scheduled task. You're being paid for knowing where their working day actually lives, and for writing the filter that turns it into content they'd post.

Start with tonight

Don't build the whole thing this week. Tonight, talk for 60 seconds about what you did, paste the prompt from Step 2, and see what comes back. Do it for three nights. If you like the list, install the skill and put it on a timer.

If you haven't got your AI brain set up, that's the foundation for all of this: start here.