Scheduled Tasks On ChatGPT Is Actually Pretty Cool

Scheduled Tasks is a new function on ChatGPT, which I have been playing around with recently. It is still in Beta, but it works really well. It looks at first glance like it might be like a reminder or to-do app, but it is a lot more. Or at least, it is capable of more – you could still get it to remind you how to put your pants on in the morning, if needed.

Essentially, Scheduled Tasks lets you set ChatGPT a task and a time. This can be a simple reminder like ‘buy milk’, but you can do a ton more with the right prompts. I lack in imagination when it comes to creating things for AI to do, but I write a science fiction website called ScifiWard and always want to keep up with what’s going on in scifi and fantasy.

I tried Scheduled Tasks to help me tap into the SFF zeitgeist

I saw a decent but basic prompt somewhere or other and adapted it. I wrote the following:

Look at newspapers and social media and let me know what are the top five topics relating to science fiction and fantasy that everyone is talking about and is trending on social media every morning at 9 AM.

Not particularly inspired but it did the trick. For the last few mornings, I have received an email and a link to the ChatGPT Scheduled Tasks. It then did what I asked. Here is what I got this morning. There is a paragraph below each one, but including that will make this post too long. So, I’ll just include the headlines.

As of Tuesday, March 25, 2025, here are the top five trending topics in science fiction and fantasy:?

‘Romantasy’ Genre Continues to Surge in Popularity
Escapism Influences Fashion Marketing Strategies
‘Pantheon’ Series Expands Sci-Fi Storytelling Through Animation
Climate Fiction (‘Cli-Fi’) Recognized with New Literary Prize
Afrofuturism’s Growing Impact Across Media

It has done what I asked but it isn’t perfect

It works really well, but it can be a tad repetitive. You can see the sources used below:

This is cool but it is hardly the current state of science fiction and fantasy. Over half are from 2022-2024. I did wonder why awesome shows like Severance or the new Daredevil show weren’t mentioned.

I am thinking of cancelling this particular task as it has mentioned romantasy every day and repeated quite a few others. But I’ll set up a new one to track my stocks and shares (pretty sure those are the same thing).

I asked ChatGPT what the most common Scheduled Tasks are and it came up with this:

Common Uses Include:

1. Regular Reminders and Notifications:

• Daily or weekly reminders about upcoming meetings or deadlines.
• Habit tracking (e.g., exercise check-ins, journaling prompts, or language practice).

2. Content Generation and Publishing:

• Drafting or editing social media posts at scheduled intervals.
• Automatically generating outlines or article drafts to jumpstart your workflow.

3. Daily Briefings or Summaries:

• Receiving daily news summaries or topic updates relevant to your interests.
• Regularly scheduled reports or summaries from provided data.

4. Learning and Education:

• Regular language-learning sessions, quizzes, or practice exercises.
• Daily trivia, quick lessons, or content refreshers.

5. Creative Writing and Productivity:

• Scheduled brainstorming sessions for story ideas or prompts.
• Consistent check-ins on writing or productivity goals.

6. Personal Assistant Tasks:

• Weekly planning assistance (e.g., “Remind me each Monday to plan out the week ahead”).
• Checking in periodically on project statuses or deadlines.

Final thoughts and where to find it

So there you go – lots of great things to try out. I will be trying the shares thing, as I said, and I’ll probably set up some language lessons, although I’ll have to see if I trust it first. A summary of all tech news would be cool but it might take a similar approach to my sci-fi and fantasy request. Of course, I could also improve my prompt.

It is also still in Beta, so it will get better. And more importantly, people will come up with better prompts. At least I hope so, I am bollocks at it.

As to where to find Scheduled Tasks, it seems to be different depending on what interface you’re using. I am writing this on an iPad and if I go to the ChatGPT app, it doesn’t appear. My prompts and questions as shown above are there, but I can’t find the tab or link. But if I go through my browser, it is on the top right hand corner where my initials are in a blue circle.

If you find some good prompts or even cooler things to do let me know. I think it is pretty cool already, but I suspect it could be cooler.