How to turn Claude Code into your personal life operating system | Hilary Gridley
From How I AI by Claire Vo
March 30, 2026 · 52 min
About this episode
Hilary Gridley discusses transforming personal productivity using Claude Code as a life operating system.
Hilary Gridley is an entrepreneur, former product leader, and new mom who previously appeared on the podcast discussing AI for managers. She returns to share how she's transformed her approach to personal productivity using Claude Code as her primary tool for managing both professional work and life admin. Hilary demonstrates her "anti-system system"—a philosophy that prioritizes simplicity over complex setup, allowing AI to learn preferences through observation rather than upfront configuration. What you’ll learn: How to capture to-dos instantly using a simple iPhone back-tap shortcut that requires zero app switching The “10x impact framework” for deciding what tasks to automate versus where to invest your human effort How to use Claude Code’s observation capabilities to build a preference file that improves over time without manual setup Why the “yappers API” (talking about what you’re doing while working) eliminates the need for complex OAuth integrations A workflow for breaking down overwhelming tasks into 10-minute first steps that actually get completed How to create Claude Skills by simply describing problems rather than writing code or following tutorials…
People in this episode
Host: Claire Vo
Guest: Hilary Gridley
Topics covered
- personal productivity
- AI tools
- Claude Code
- task automation
- workflow management
Keywords
- Claude Code
- productivity
- task automation
- AI
- workflow
- preference file
- iPhone shortcut
Sponsors
WorkOS, Lovable
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