How to give your ChatGPT dot a job, a schedule, and a stop

You give your dot a job by typing it into the one conversation you have with it. Say what to look after, where to look, what still needs you and when to tell you, and your dot keeps the job going after you close the tab.

#What a good brief says

A brief is four short sentences. Each one answers a question your dot would otherwise have to guess.

PromptA brief your dot can run with

Help me keep the customer newsletter on track.the job: something to look after
Use the outline and the contributor emails I shared to track what's written, what's late and what still needs a decision.the sources: where to look
Draft reminders for my review, but don't send them.what still needs you
Tell me when something needs my attention.when to tell you

Hand over something to keep track of. A one-off question gets a one-off answer.

#Build your brief

Now write yours. Pick the starting job closest to yours and change the words; an empty part shows up as a gap in the brief.

Your brief, in four parts

Start from a job, change the four parts to fit yours, then copy the brief and paste it into the conversation with your dot.

Start from

1The job What should it look after?

2The sources Where should it look?

3What still needs you Where should it stop?

4When to tell you What deserves a message?

+A fixed time Optional

Your brief

Help me keep the customer newsletter on track. Use the outline and the contributor emails I shared to track what's written, what's late and what still needs a decision. Draft reminders for my review, but don't send them. Tell me when something needs my attention.

1The job
2The sources
3What needs you
4When to tell you
+A fixed time

Keep a project on track
Help me keep the customer newsletter on track. Use the outline and the contributor emails I shared to track what's written, what's late and what still needs a decision. Draft reminders for my review, but don't send them. Tell me when something needs my attention.
Watch for something
Watch the venue's booking page for a free Saturday in June. Use the booking page I linked and my Google Calendar. Don't book or pay for anything. Ask me first. Message me only when a date opens up. Otherwise stay quiet. Run this every hour. Confirm the schedule.
Morning briefing
Send me a morning briefing. Read my unread email and today's calendar. Draft replies to anything urgent, but don't send them. Send the briefing here in chat and flag anything that needs an answer today. Run this every weekday at 7:00 AM Eastern time. Confirm the schedule.

Paste the result into your dot's conversation. Add a fixed time only when the job has to run on the clock. Open on its own page

#Hand over the job and check on it

With the brief copied, open your dot. These six steps send the job, put it on a schedule and show you where to watch it. You need a dot that's set up: create yours first.

Walkthrough

Give your dot a job

Image: The AI Advantage

1Type the brief and send it
Open your dot from the sidebar. Click Send a message, paste your brief and send it. Under your message, Delivered changes to Read with a time, and your dot says the job back before it starts, often with one question.
Marker 1 Marker 2
1. If your dot can't run that often, it says so and offers an interval it can do.
2. The confirmation tells you what was saved. Read it.
Image: The AI Advantage
2Ask for a schedule in the same conversation
For work that has to repeat, say how often and what deserves a message. To see a run straight away, ask: "Do a quick run right now so I can see it." The schedule stays as it is.
Marker 1 Marker 2 Marker 3
1. A spinner: running now.
2. A tick: finished.
3. A clock: a schedule, with its timing at the right. Check it against what your dot told you.
Image: Brendan Jowett
3Open the profile to see what's running
Click the profile button at the top right of the conversation, or click your dot's picture. Recent activity lists its jobs.
Marker 1 Marker 2 Marker 3
1. How long this task has been going.
2. Each step, including the ones that failed and were tried again.
3. The round button stops this task.
Image: The AI Advantage
4Click a job to see its steps
Click any row that's running. The panel shows how long your dot has been working and every step so far.
Marker 1 Marker 2 Marker 3
1. The clock opens this page.
2. A timed task shows its next run and how often it repeats.
3. Monitoring means it's watching for something to happen, with no clock time.
Image: The AI Advantage
5Open Scheduled to see every schedule
Click the clock in ChatGPT's left rail. Your dot's schedules sit in a group under its name, below your own scheduled tasks.
Marker 1 Marker 2
1. The instructions your dot wrote for itself from your brief. Read them once: this is what runs.
2. How often, which day, what time, and when to stop repeating.
Image: Brendan Jowett
6Change a schedule
Point at a task, click ... and choose Edit. Or skip the dialog and tell your dot: "Make the check daily at 8 instead."

Each run of a schedule reports into the same conversation with your dot. A run with nothing worth telling you stays quiet if your brief said so.

#Tell what your dot is doing

Between reports, the line under your dot's name is the quickest sign of what it's up to.

The status line reads	Your dot is
Thinking...	Working, or about to
A step in its own words, such as "Looking for recent posts" or "Writing the pricing summary"	In the middle of a job
Active, or "Active 7 minutes ago"	Idle
Paused	Stopped until you resume it

Thinking... shows a lot, including when not much is happening. Recent activity is the surer place to look, and you can always ask: "Are you still working on it?"

#Where the work runs

Some of that activity happens outside the conversation. Small jobs run right in it; for a bigger one, your dot starts a separate task and drops a chip with the task's title into the chat.

The chip is a link. Click it to open the task, an ordinary Work or Codex thread where each prompt is labelled Sent by with your dot's name.
The same title appears in Recent activity, which is where you stop it.
Work and Codex tasks count toward those products' usage limits. Talking with your dot doesn't count toward your ChatGPT limits. Usage limits has the detail.

#Pause, stop a task, or cancel a schedule

That leaves three kinds of work that can be running at once, and each has its own off switch. Try all three here before you need them.

Three things running, three ways to stop

Your dot has a job in the conversation, a task it handed off, and a daily check. Press a control and watch which one ends.

Goal: make all three go quiet. 0 of 3 quiet.

The job in your conversationUpdating the launch checklistWorkingPaused
A task it handed offBuild the pricing deckWorkingStopped
A scheduleInbox check, daily at 9:00 AMScheduledDeleted

Tomorrow 9:00 AMWednesday 9:00 AMThursday 9:00 AM

Pause your dot

In the profile, point at the status line under the name and click it.

Ends the job in your conversation. The message box turns into a Paused pill, so you can't write to your dot until you resume. The handed-off task isn't stopped and the schedule isn't cancelled.
Stop the task

Under Recent activity, click the task, then the round stop button.

Ends that one task. The job in your conversation and the schedule aren't touched. Stop each handed-off task you want ended.
Delete the schedule

On the Scheduled page, open the task's ... menu and choose Delete.

Removes every future run of that schedule. Work already under way carries on, and so do your other schedules.

None of the three undoes anything your dot has already finished. An email that went out stays sent.

Pausing your dot leaves a handed-off task and a schedule alone. Each has its own off switch. Open on its own page

#Pause your dot

On the real screen, pause is the one without a button. Open the profile and point at the status line under your dot's name: it turns into Pause and the name. Click it.

Image: The AI Advantage

A Paused pill replaces the Call and Slack buttons, and another replaces the message box, so you can't write to a paused dot. To carry on, click the Paused pill in the profile. It reads Resuming... for a few seconds, then the buttons come back.

The other two controls are quicker to find:

Stop one task. Type "stop" in the conversation, or open the task from Recent activity and click the round stop button at the bottom.
Cancel a schedule. On the Scheduled page, point at the task, click ... and choose Delete. The same menu has Pause and Run now. You can also ask: "Cancel the Monday check, then list what's still scheduled."

#Check yourself

One question before you hand over a real job.

Predict

A job is running and you close the ChatGPT tab. What happens to the job?

It stops, like a normal chat would
It carries on, and the result is waiting when you come back
It pauses until you open the tab again

Show the answer

It carries on, and the result is waiting when you come back

Your dot works on its own computer in the cloud, so closing the tab or ending a call doesn't end the work. To end it, pause your dot, stop the task or cancel the schedule.

Next lessonConnect apps

Connect Gmail, Calendar, Drive and other apps to your dot, then pick one of four permission levels to decide what it does without asking you first.

How is a dot different from ChatGPT's scheduled tasks?

A scheduled task runs the same prompt at a fixed time. A dot can hold a whole job: it decides when to follow up, takes new information from you without starting over, and brings you the decisions. A dot can also save fixed schedules, and those appear on the same Scheduled page. Dots vs Codex, Work and scheduled tasks compares them.

Can my dot act when something happens, with no fixed time?

Yes, where the connected app supports it. Ask for it in the brief: "When a new bug report is posted in the #product-feedback channel, look into it and tell me what you find." Connecting an app doesn't start any watching by itself. On the Scheduled page these tasks read Monitoring.

Can I give my dot a second job while the first one runs?

Yes. Send it in the same conversation. Your dot keeps both going.

6 October 2026
Rebuilt as a lesson with the real screens, a brief builder and a stop simulator.
5 October 2026
First published.

#What a good brief says

#Build your brief

#Hand over the job and check on it

1Type the brief and send it

2Ask for a schedule in the same conversation

3Open the profile to see what's running

4Click a job to see its steps

5Open Scheduled to see every schedule

6Change a schedule

#Tell what your dot is doing

#Where the work runs

#Pause, stop a task, or cancel a schedule

Pause your dot

Stop the task

Delete the schedule

#Pause your dot

#Check yourself

How is a dot different from ChatGPT's scheduled tasks?

Can my dot act when something happens, with no fixed time?

Can I give my dot a second job while the first one runs?

Sources