This is how Tortoise Watch is meant to be used. The app is for standing a watch — the deck, the commitment, the block of time. Everything around it — capturing projects as they occur to you, adding goals, reviewing your list — is better said than typed. Connect the assistant you already talk to, and "add that to my projects" happens mid-conversation, no app-switching, no thumb-typing. (No assistant? The app stands alone just fine.) Before you start, two things: you'll want to have signed in to Tortoise Watch at least once, and you'll want to know which Google account you used — you'll sign in with that same account here.
What you're actually granting. You're not signing in to Tortoise Watch again — you're issuing your assistant its own permission slip to read and write your goals and projects, and nothing else. Each assistant you connect gets its own slip, and you can revoke any of them without touching the app or the others. One habit keeps this safe: you start the connection, from your assistant's own settings. If an approval screen ever appears that you didn't set in motion, close the tab.
Part one
Claude
Works on Claude's paid plans, on the web or in the desktop app.
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Open Claude's settings and find Connectors
Click your name or initials, choose Settings, and look for Connectors. Menus get rearranged now and then — the word to hunt for is connector.
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Add a custom connector
Choose Add custom connector. Name it Tortoise Watch and paste the connector address from the top of this page.
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Connect, and sign in with the same Google account
A browser tab opens asking you to sign in and approve. Use the Google account you use in Tortoise Watch — that's how the connector knows whose goals and projects to show. Approve, and the tab hands you back to Claude.
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Say hello to your projects
In a new chat, try "What are my current projects?" The first time, Claude may ask permission to use the connector — that's normal. Say yes and your list appears.
On a Claude Team or Enterprise account?
Custom connectors on work plans are added by an account Owner, for the whole workspace. Forward this page to whoever administers your Claude account — everything they need is on it.
Part two
ChatGPT
Requires a paid ChatGPT plan, and one extra switch: OpenAI keeps custom connectors behind a setting called developer mode. Despite the name, it's a toggle, not a skill test.
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Turn on developer mode
Open ChatGPT's Settings and look for Connectors (in some versions it lives under Apps & Connectors, or near Security). Find the Advanced section and switch on Developer mode. ChatGPT shows a warning that custom connectors act on your behalf — that's a fair description of exactly what you're setting up. Accept it.
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Create the connector
Back in Connectors, choose Create or Add custom connector. Name it Tortoise Watch, paste the connector address as the server URL, and leave authentication set to OAuth.
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Sign in with the same Google account
Same moment as with Claude: a browser tab opens, you sign in with the Google account you use in Tortoise Watch, and you approve. The tab returns you to ChatGPT.
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Enable it in a chat, then ask
In the message box, open the + menu and enable Tortoise Watch for the conversation (ChatGPT enables connectors per-chat). Then try "What are my current projects?"
On a ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, or Edu account?
Workspace administrators can switch developer mode off for the whole organization, or limit which connectors are allowed. If the setting isn't there or the connector won't add, that's the likely reason — forward this page to your admin.
Elsewhere
Other assistants
The connector speaks MCP — an open standard most AI tools now understand, including Codex, Cursor, and others. The recipe is always the same three moves: find where your tool adds an MCP server or custom connector, paste the address, and sign in with your Tortoise Watch Google account when the browser asks. If your tool has a separate "authenticate" step after adding, take it.
Once connected
What to say to it
Plain language works — no commands to memorize. A few that fit the practice:
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"Add fix the gutter to my projects, about 45 minutes"
Things you'd act on land as projects. Mention a time estimate if you know it and your assistant will pass it along.
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"Create a goal called Launch the spring workshop"
Say goal when you mean the bigger thing a season is about — the port, not the day's sailing.
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"What are my goals? Which projects don't have one?"
Good before your weekly reflection — your assistant can read your list back and help you see what's drifted.
The app is still where you stand watches. Your assistant is for capturing and reviewing — the deck, the commitment, the watch itself live in Tortoise Watch. Some is better than none; the watch is better than the chat.
If it snags
Three knots and how to untie them
I clicked connect and nothing seemed to happen
The sign-in opens in your computer's default browser, which may not be the window you're looking at. Check all your browser windows — and your other browser, if you keep two. Still nothing? Quit the assistant app fully, reopen it, and try the connect step again.
It connected, but my projects came back empty
Almost always this means you approved with a different Google account than the one you use in Tortoise Watch — the connector faithfully showed you that account's (empty) data. Disconnect the connector in your assistant's settings, reconnect, and when the Google screen appears, pick the right account deliberately rather than letting it auto-choose.
An approval screen appeared that I didn't start
Close the tab. Approval screens should only ever appear seconds after you clicked connect or authenticate inside your assistant's settings. One that arrives any other way — from a link, an email, out of the blue — is not from us.
Anything else: email gregdyche@creighton.edu with what you saw. You won't be the only one, and you'll be helping the next person.
Connected or not, the practice is the same: pick a port, stand your watches, reflect and correct. Your assistant just makes the capturing quicker — so more of your attention goes to the standing.
Some is better than none. Now is better than later.
The same race, the same way, tomorrow.
— Greg