Gemini in Google Workspace · Lesson 7 of 7

Capstone: five everyday tasks and a two-week habit

20 minutes today, then five minutes a day for two weeks. Prove Gemini saves you time on real work, and make it a habit.

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You've learned what you have, what Gemini can see, and how to use it in Gmail, Docs, Drive, Sheets and Meet. You've saved your first instruction. Now you prove it works, on your own work, in your own accounts.

The capstone has two parts. Today, you do five everyday tasks with Gemini and write down what Gemini can't see. Then, for two weeks, you build the habit.

Open the Two-Week Gemini Habit template. Do these five tasks on real work, not practice files. For each, write the time it took and one word: kept, edited or redone.

Task 1: Gmail, catch up on a long thread

Open the longest unread or half-read thread in your inbox. Click Summarize this email, or open Ask Gemini and ask for the action items. Then read the thread yourself and check that the summary caught everything that matters.

Task 2: Gmail, draft a real reply

Pick a routine customer or supplier email. Use Help me write, or your skill or Gem from Lesson 6, with the facts in the prompt. Run the 30-second check: facts, promises, did it answer the question. Edit it, then send it yourself.

Task 3: Docs, draft from your own files

Start a document you actually need this week: a proposal, a procedure, a customer letter, a job posting. Click Ask Gemini, name at least two source files with @, and ask for [CHECK] marks where a fact is missing. Check every fact before the document goes anywhere.

Task 4: Drive, find and summarize

Ask Drive a real question in the search bar ("When does our liability insurance renew?" or "What's our current price for a duct cleaning?"). Click the citation and confirm the file is current.

Task 5: Sheets, organize and analyze

Take a real working sheet (a copy, if it matters). Ask Gemini to clean one thing up and answer one question about the numbers. Check that answer by hand.

> Have a meeting this week? Add a sixth: turn on Take notes for me in an internal meeting, then read and correct the notes.

Write your team's version of this list in the template. Start with Google's facts from Lesson 2, then add your business's own blind spots.

From Google:

• Files, folders and email you don't have permission to open.
• Email and files with client-side encryption (if you use it).
• Files locked so you can't download, copy or print them.
• Content Gemini flags as a threat.
• From the Gemini app: images and comments in Gmail, pictures and videos in Drive, comments and images in Docs, Sheets and Slides.
• Its own past conversation in Docs and Sheets, after you refresh or reopen the file.

From your business (Comfort Zone's list, as an example):

• Phone calls and voicemail.
• Texts on technicians' cell phones.
• The paper job tickets in the truck.
• The scheduling and accounting software, unless someone exported a report to Drive.
• What Marcus agreed with a customer on a job site and never wrote down.

This list matters as much as the five tasks. When someone asks Gemini "did we ever quote the Hendersons for a new system?" and the quote lives in the accounting software, Gemini can't find it. It may find something nearby and sound sure. Knowing the blind spots keeps people from trusting a confident wrong answer.

Habits stick when they're small and tied to something you already do. For the next two weeks, everyone who took this course does three things.

Every day (five minutes):

• First thing: summarize the one longest thread in your inbox before you read it.
• At least once: draft one reply with Help me write or your saved skill. A person checks and sends it.
• Before you leave: write one line in the habit log. What did you use Gemini for, roughly how much time did it save, and did you have to fix anything?

Once a week (ten minutes):

• Try one thing you haven't yet: Drive search, a Sheets analysis, Meet notes, a new skill.
• Look at the "had to fix" column in your log. If the same mistake keeps coming up (an old price, a wrong tone, a promise you don't make), fix the prompt or the skill, or fix the source file Gemini keeps finding.

At the end of two weeks (ten minutes, as a team):

Answer three questions at the bottom of the template:

• Where did Gemini save the most time? Usually it's summaries and first drafts.
• Where did it cause extra work? Every "redone" is worth a look.
• What's the one thing we'll change? A better skill, a cleaner source file, a sharing fix, or a new item on the "always a person" list.

• Every quarter, rerun the Drive Oversharing Check from Lesson 2. People leave, folders get shared, and Gemini makes sharing mistakes easier to find.
• When prices or policies change, update your Prompt Card and your saved skills on the same day.
• Before March 1, 2027, check that every Gem you rely on is now a skill, or has been migrated and turned back on. Google says Gems stop working for business accounts on that date.
• When Google changes something, you'll hear about it. Check the dates and menus against Google's own help pages before you change how your team works.

Use your three templates and tick every box:

• [ ] Your Drive Oversharing Check is done, and no sensitive file is open to "Anyone with the link."
• [ ] You've done all five everyday tasks in your own Gmail, Docs, Drive and Sheets, with times and "kept, edited or redone" written down.
• [ ] Every customer email in this course was read, checked and sent by a person.
• [ ] Your Gemini Prompt Card has your best prompts and the instructions for at least one saved skill or Gem.
• [ ] Your team's What Gemini can't see list is written down and shared.
• [ ] Your Two-Week Gemini Habit log has two weeks of entries and one change chosen.

You started with a Gemini button nobody was sure about. Now you know what your plan includes, what Gemini can and can't see, and who can open your sensitive files. You use it to read faster and write first drafts in Gmail, Docs and Sheets. It takes your meeting notes. Your best instructions are saved. And a person still checks and sends everything that matters.

Next steps, when you're ready:

• Answer Customers Faster with AI to build an answer bank, so your Gmail drafts get every price and policy right.
• Write Your Team's AI Rules in an Afternoon to turn your "always a person" and "can't see" lists into a one-page policy.
• Lock the Doors: AI Security Basics for a Small Office for the accounts and settings behind all of this.

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