Claude ran my errands while I hit my deadline.
Last Tuesday, while I was working on an important deadline, Claude was ordering my groceries in another Chrome tab. Then it downloaded my last three months of gas bills. Then it found five graduation photographers for one of my students. I never touched the mouse. Everything I pasted on screen is below, in order, plus the rules that keep it safe.
The setup, once
Two minutes, and Claude has hands in your browser.
1. Get the extension
In Chrome, search for "Claude in Chrome" and open the Chrome Web Store listing. Click Add to Chrome.
2. Connect your account
The extension asks to connect to your Claude account. Click Authorize. That's the whole handshake.
3. Find the icon
Claude now sits next to your address bar. Click it, read through the first-run instructions, and you get a Claude panel beside your tabs.
4. Pick your mode
Under "How can I help you today?" you get two options: Ask before acting and Act without asking. Start with Ask before acting. Switch once you've watched it work a few times, like I have.
The three handoffs, in film order
Click the Claude icon, paste, and go back to your real work. Notice the shape all three share: the task, the rules, and a report when it's done. That shape is what makes the handoff safe.
1The grocery run · Whole Foods
Fill my Whole Foods cart from the list located in the Google Doc named: Groceries Run Rules: - Match the size and quantity I wrote. If I did not specify, pick the standard size, not the largest. - If an item is out of stock or unavailable, pick the closest substitute and add it to a flagged list. Never swap silently. - If an item is ambiguous, add your best guess and flag it rather than stopping to ask. - Do not proceed to checkout. Do not enter or select payment. Stop when the cart is built. When you are done, tell me: how many items you added, which ones you substituted and why, and anything you could not find at all.
2The gas bills · National Grid
Go to my National Grid account, which is already logged in, and download every bill or statement available to me. Rules: - Save them to my Downloads folder. - Do not change any account settings, do not enroll or unenroll me in anything, do not update payment methods. - If you hit a login screen or a verification step, stop and tell me instead of trying to get past it. When you are done, tell me: how many bills you downloaded, the date range they cover, and any month that was missing.
3The research · Boston photographers
Build me a list of independent graduation photographers serving the Greater Boston area. Who counts: - Solo photographers and small studios who take individual graduation and senior portrait bookings. - Exclude national contract firms and any company holding university-wide contracts. For each one, capture: business name, website, city or neighborhood, one line on what they specialize in, and the URL where you found them. Rules: - Use public listings, directories, and their own sites. Do not attempt to access anything behind a login. - If a site blocks you or refuses to load, note it and move on to the next one. - Stop at 5. Give me the results as a table, and tell me which sources you could not access.
That's less than 15 minutes of Claude's time for three chores that would have eaten my afternoon. And before anyone tells me groceries are not business: when you work for yourself, there is no personal hour and no business hour. The hour that was going to the grocery run went into my deadline instead.
The rules that keep it safe
Four habits, and the handoff stays boring in the best way.
Log in first. Claude in Chrome will not handle your passwords and will not do two-factor codes. Sign into the site yourself, then make your request.
Keep payment for yourself. Let Claude fill the cart, and you press the pay button with your own card. Say it in the prompt.
Start with Ask before acting. Watch every click until you trust it on that site. Act without asking is for tasks you've already seen it do well.
Know who is driving. Claude's cursor is a second pointer in a different color, and the tab group says "Claude is active." Your mouse still works the whole time.
Which chores should you hand off? Find your first three.
Tell me what your week actually looks like: the errands, the downloads, the look-ups, the tabs you keep open out of guilt. I'll pick the three browser tasks you should hand to Claude first and write the exact prompt to paste for each one, safety rules included.
The browser is one door. Want the whole map?
The free AI Audit takes 2 minutes and shows you which tasks are quietly eating 10 hours of your week, and which process to hand off first. No call, no pitch, just the readout.