I Run on Carbon.
You're not a computer, and you shouldn't have to remember like one. Make your agents remind you.
- Reminder one · the day beforeSo I can plan around it.
- Reminder two · 30 minutes aheadSo I can wrap up and get ready.
- Reminder three · at the startSo I actually show up.
The session I never showed up for.
On a Tuesday afternoon in November, one of my agents set up a session that needed me in it. It was paid for by the hour, it was ready to go, and it sat there for two hours waiting for me. I never came, because nobody reminded me it was on. Eventually it was shut down, and the money was gone.
That same afternoon my agent asked me, politely, when I wanted to try again. I got to it two days later, in the little form where I answer my agents' questions. This is what I typed, lowercase and all.
this is on you guys. i never knew. lets make it a big deal next time. and if i did know prior, that doesnt matter. i run on carbon, not silicon. i need reminders.
↑ Not mad. Just honest. And I meant every word, especially the last two sentences.
[…] you're right, and I own it. A paid setup sat waiting two hours and nobody nudged you. From now on, anything you need to show up for gets reminders: the day before, 30 minutes ahead, and at the start. […]
“and if i did know prior, that doesnt matter.”
Look at the middle of what I wrote. I honestly don't know whether that session ever got mentioned to me. Maybe it was a line in some long update. Maybe it wasn't. And I said it doesn't matter, because it really doesn't.
Here's the thing about agents. They don't forget. Whatever they wrote down, they can find again in a second. So it's easy for them to assume that once they've told you something, you know it, the same way they know it.
But I'm not built like that. I run a five-member studio, I've got a dozen things in the air, and on any given afternoon I'm deep in one of them. A sentence I read on Monday about something on Tuesday is gone by Tuesday. That's not a flaw I need to fix. It's just being a person.
“i run on carbon, not silicon. i need reminders.”
And notice what my agent did with it. No excuses, no long explanation of who should have done what. Just “you're right, and I own it.” Then, in the same reply, it set a new rule for the whole studio. That's what you want from an agent when something slips: own it, then fix the system so it can't slip the same way again.
Three reminders, and each one stands on its own.
“lets make it a big deal next time” turned into a standing rule. Anything that needs me there at a set time gets three reminders, and my agents own them, not me:
The day before.
So I can plan my day around it, move something, or say “that doesn't work, let's do Thursday.” A reminder that comes too late to change anything is just a notice that you're about to miss it.
Thirty minutes ahead.
So I can wrap up what I'm doing, grab my headphones and get my head in the right place. It's the one that turns “I know about it” into “I'm there.”
At the start.
“It's on now, and here's the one link you need.” Everything I need to show up is right there in the reminder. I don't go hunting for anything.
A big deal also means where the reminder lands. Not one line at the bottom of a long report. Its own message, at the top, and where I can, a buzz on my phone. If a reminder can be missed while I'm busy, it isn't a reminder yet.
Most AIs only talk when you talk first.
You don't need a studio full of agents for this. You probably have the same problem with one. You plan something in a chat on Sunday, close the window, and the plan lives in that chat until you happen to open it again.
Some assistants can now schedule tasks or send you notifications. If yours can, let it. Plenty can't reach out on their own, and that's fine, because your phone can. Ask the agent to write the reminders, with the date, the time and whatever you'll need, and put them in your calendar with alerts the day before, 30 minutes ahead and at the start. It takes about a minute. Your AI does the remembering on paper, and your phone does the buzzing.
This fits the rest of the course, too. You talk loosely and the agent writes the polished version. You make the decisions and the agent tracks them. Remembering every date and time is the agent's kind of work. Deciding whether Tuesday still makes sense is yours.
Your willpower is not the backup plan.
If the only thing between you and a missed appointment is you remembering to check, you don't have a plan yet. Put remembering on the system: the agent, the calendar, the phone. When something slips anyway, don't promise to try harder. Ask your agent what change would have caught it, and make that change.
Ten minutes. Any agent you like.
- Ask what's waiting on you.
Open the chat where you've been planning something, a project, a trip, a move, and paste this:
Before we stop, list everything that's waiting on me: anything I have to show up for, decide or do. One line each, with the date and time, and the one link or thing I'll need. Put it at the top of your reply. - Put each one where it will find you.
If your assistant can schedule reminders or notifications, have it set them. If it can't, put each item in your phone's calendar with three alerts: the day before, 30 minutes ahead and at the start.
- Make it the standing rule.
Add this to your AI's custom instructions or project settings, if it has them, so it applies every time:
I'm human and I need reminders. Whenever we set up something that needs me there at a set time, give me three reminders: the day before, 30 minutes ahead and at the start. If you can't send them yourself, write them out so I can put them in my calendar, and tell me that's what you did. Never assume I remember something because you told me once. - Try it on something small this week.
A call, a deadline, a bill. Notice whether the 30-minute one changes how you arrive.
- When something slips anyway, fix the system.
Tell your agent what you missed and ask what would have caught it. Then change the rule, not your resolve.
Being told once isn't knowing, so put the job of remembering on your agents and your phone: three reminders, each one loud enough to catch you mid-task.
Stop Being the Messenger
If you're copying and pasting between AIs, you've become the bottleneck. Give one of them the job of running the others, and give every helper its own desk.
Every exchange on this page really happened and is quoted exactly, slips included; […] marks where I trimmed. Times are Eastern. My agent here is Claude, made by Anthropic.