I’ve been skeptical about AI productivity claims, but connecting Claude to my work apps actually changed the way I work. After integrating it with Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, Asana, Notion, and Canva, my daily workflow has become more efficient and saves me time.
Claude Works With More Apps Than You’d Expect
Claude can connect to tools like Linear, Zapier, PayPal, Workato, and many others. This makes it one of the best AI chatbots for handling big conversations that span multiple work contexts and data sources.
The technical setup varies by app, but most connections use OAuth authentication. Which means, once linked, Claude can read, analyze, and act on your data across platforms without the constant context-switching that kills productivity.
Here’s how to connect apps with Claude:
- Navigate to Settings in your Claude interface.
- Select Connectors from the sidebar menu.
- Scroll down and click Browse Connectors to view all available integrations.
- Choose the apps you want to connect to from the directory.
- Select between web and desktop extensions depending on your workflow needs.
Desktop connections require downloading Claude Desktop to function properly. The web version handles most integrations, but some advanced features need the desktop client.
Download: Claude (All platforms)
As a test, I asked Claude to check my calendar, search for relevant documents in Drive, and update the project status. That’s when this shifted from being a useful tool to becoming essential for my workflow.
I Put Claude at the Heart of Google Workspace
Google Workspace runs my entire work life, so connecting Claude here had the biggest impact.
For Gmail, Claude reads emails, and it understands the context and relationships between messages. I can ask it to find all the emails about a specific project from the last month, summarize lengthy email threads, or draft responses that match my writing style. The integration reads thread history, so Claude knows what I’m responding to without me explaining the context.
Document work in Google Drive has also changed for me. Claude can analyze spreadsheets and extract key points from lengthy reports. When I needed to compile insights from two different files, Claude pulled the relevant data and created a new document.
Besides that, Google Calendar integration solves my scheduling headaches. Claude can check my availability, suggest meeting times based on participant time zones, and even draft calendar invites with proper context. It reads my existing events to avoid conflicts, which is something that saves me from double-booking disasters.
Claude can read an email request, check my calendar for availability, create a meeting invite, and add relevant documents from Drive to the agenda. All from one conversation.
My Project Management Now Runs on Autopilot
Connecting Claude to both Asana and Notion eliminated most of my manual project tracking work.
In Asana, Claude reads project status across all my active work and identifies bottlenecks before they become problems. When I ask for a project update, it pulls task completion rates, identifies overdue items, and can even suggest priority adjustments. The Asana project tracking features become much more powerful when Claude can interpret patterns and dependencies automatically.
You can create tasks through conversation now. You just have to tell Claude about a new project requirement, and it creates properly structured tasks with due dates and adds them to the correct project boards. It reads existing project templates to maintain consistency.
I also integrated Notion, which made my personal workflow management better. I almost run my entire life in Notion, and Claude makes it easy. It can update project pages, create meeting notes with action items, and cross-reference information between different databases.
The automation magic happens when both tools work together. Claude can create weekly progress reports by pulling data from both platforms and update project timelines based on actual completion rates.
So, what used to require daily manual updates now happens through simple questions. I often ask Claude for project health checks, and it delivers insights without me touching either app.
Canva Integration Simplified My Design Workflow
Claude can search through my entire Canva library to find specific designs, templates, or brand assets. When I need to locate that presentation template I created months ago, Claude pulls it up instantly by searching through design titles or content. This alone has cut my design time in half.
Claude integration has also proved handy for project organization. Claude reads my design folders, identifies duplicates, and can suggest better organization structures based on project types and usage patterns.
The collaboration features also work with team projects. Moreover, Claude can track which designs need approval and also identify pending comments.
Connecting Claude to my work apps proved handy for handling daily tasks. The integrations aren’t perfect and sometimes throw errors, but they’ve eliminated some of the manual work. If you’re drowning in scattered tools (that Claude can connect to), this setup can deliver on its productivity promises.