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

Type a four-part brief into your dot's conversation, ask for a schedule in plain words, check on the work in Recent activity, and stop it three ways.

*From How to Use Dots, an independent guide (not affiliated with OpenAI). Web version: https://howtousedots.com/tasks-and-schedules Last verified: 2026-10-06.*

*Step 4 of 10 on the path "Learn Dots, step by step". Before it: [Set up your dot](https://howtousedots.com/setup.md). After it: [Connect apps](https://howtousedots.com/apps.md).*

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.

**In short**

- A good brief has four parts: the job, the sources, what still needs you, and when to tell you.
- There's no form for a schedule. You ask for one in a sentence and your dot confirms it.
- You check on work in three places: the status line, **Recent activity** in the profile, and the **Scheduled** page.
- Stopping takes the right control. Pausing your dot, stopping a task and deleting a schedule each end a different thing.

## What a good brief says

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

**A 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.

**Interactive: Brief builder for your dot**

Open it: https://howtousedots.com/widgets/schedule-prompt-builder.html

What it does: Start from one of three jobs (keep a project on track, watch for something, a morning briefing), edit the four parts of the brief (the job, the sources, what still needs you, when to tell you), add a fixed time if the job needs one, and copy the result. Default output: 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.

Its content as text:

### 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.

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.

- 1 · The job
- 2 · The sources
- 3 · What needs you
- 4 · When to tell you

- **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.

## 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](https://howtousedots.com/setup) first.

**Walkthrough: Give your dot a job**

### Step 1: Type 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.

![A dot conversation. The owner asks for three camper vans in Lisbon. The dot replies with what it will do and asks: Do you have a preference for automatic or manual? The owner answers no. Under it: Read 12:07 AM. At the bottom, the Send a message box](https://howtousedots.com/assets/shots/tasks-send-job.jpg)

Image: The AI Advantage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db1KRJQEt8w)

### Step 2: Ask 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.

![The owner writes: I want you to be refreshing for new listings every 30 minutes and notify me if a new camper van comes up. The dot answers that it can check hourly because automatic listing checks don't support every 30 minutes here, and asks whether to set up hourly alerts. The owner says yes. The dot confirms: Set up hourly checks.](https://howtousedots.com/assets/shots/tasks-ask-schedule.jpg)

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 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db1KRJQEt8w)

### Step 3: Open 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.

![A dot's profile panel: the name Brendot with the status Thinking..., Call and Slack buttons, Computers, then Recent activity with four rows: Find hawaii airbnbs with a spinner, Check fusalp sale with a tick, Created task with an empty circle, and Hawaii Airbnb Search with a clock and Daily at 9:00 AM](https://howtousedots.com/assets/shots/tasks-recent-activity.jpg)

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 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dE_TdWjLaU)

### Step 4: Click 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.

![A task opened in the profile panel: a back arrow and the task name, Working for 4m 14s, then steps: Listed pages, Created page, Couldn't read Camper Vans, Checked page access, Read Camper Vans. At the bottom, a round black stop button](https://howtousedots.com/assets/shots/tasks-task-view.jpg)

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 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db1KRJQEt8w)

### Step 5: Open 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.

![ChatGPT's Scheduled panel: New task, Upcoming, then a group headed Mini Alfredo with five tasks: Calendar Conflict Watch, Monitoring; Maintain Alfredo dashboard, Today 1 PM, Hourly; Review inbox meeting requests, Monitoring; Scottsdale rental alerts, Today 1 PM, Every 30 minutes; Sync Asana filming requests, Monitoring](https://howtousedots.com/assets/shots/tasks-scheduled.jpg)

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 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3xKmcHBOzY)

### Step 6: Change 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."

![The Edit task dialog: the name Fusalp Jacket Sale Watch, the instructions the dot wrote for itself, a Repeat task switch turned on, Repeat Weekly, On Monday, Time 8:00 AM Melbourne Time, End repeat Never, an Advanced section, and Pause and Save buttons](https://howtousedots.com/assets/shots/tasks-edit-task.jpg)

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 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dE_TdWjLaU)

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.

Diagram: Your dot in the middle, joined to three places it can do work: its own cloud computer, a separate Work or Codex task it starts and briefs, and your computer if you've allowed it.
- Your dot → Its cloud computer: browses and builds
- Your dot → A Work or Codex task: writes the brief
- Your dot → Your computer: only if allowed

- **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](https://howtousedots.com/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.

**Interactive: Pause, stop a task or cancel a schedule**

Open it: https://howtousedots.com/widgets/pause-stop-cancel.html

What it does: Three things are running: the job in your conversation, a task your dot handed off, and a daily schedule. Pause your dot ends the job in the conversation and leaves the other two. Stopping the task ends that task only. Deleting the schedule removes its future runs only. Making all three quiet takes all three controls.

Its content as text:

### 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.

- The job in your conversation · Updating the launch checklist · Working · Paused
- A task it handed off · Build the pricing deck · Working · Stopped
- A schedule · Inbox check, daily at 9:00 AM · Scheduled · Deleted
  Tomorrow 9:00 AM · Wednesday 9:00 AM · Thursday 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.

### 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.

![A dot's profile panel. The status line under the name Mini Alfredo has turned into Pause Mini Alfredo, with the pointer on it](https://howtousedots.com/assets/shots/tasks-pause.jpg)

Image: The AI Advantage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db1KRJQEt8w)

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

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:** [Connect apps](https://howtousedots.com/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](https://howtousedots.com/dots-vs-codex-work-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.

- 2026-10-06: Rebuilt as a lesson with the real screens, a brief builder and a stop simulator.
- 2026-10-05: First published.

## Sources

- [OpenAI docs: Tasks and memory](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots/tasks-and-memory)
- [OpenAI docs: Control your dot](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots/controls)
- [OpenAI docs: Get started with your dot](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots/getting-started)
- [OpenAI Help Center: Getting started with your dot](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001530-getting-started-with-your-dot)
- [OpenAI: Introducing dots](https://openai.com/index/introducing-dots/)
- [The AI Advantage on YouTube: screenshots of a job, a schedule request, a task's steps, pausing and the Scheduled menu](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db1KRJQEt8w)
- [The AI Advantage on YouTube: screenshot of the Scheduled page](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3xKmcHBOzY)
- [Brendan Jowett on YouTube: screenshots of Recent activity and the Edit task dialog](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dE_TdWjLaU)