Use WorkBuddy to Turn the Most Annoying Part of Client Communication into Templates

Last Wednesday I took on a new client. By day three, they sent over a 12-page glossary saying, "Just follow this." I stared at that PDF for half a minute, and my only thought was: I've done this job too many times.

After three years of freelance translation, what annoys me most isn't the translation itself, but having to repeat the same spiel every time I onboard a new client. Which version of the glossary to use, whether output should be markdown or txt, keeping proper nouns in original language, forcing half-width punctuation, adding spaces between Chinese and English. I've been explaining these trivialities for three years, until I got tired of hearing myself ramble.

Last month I came across a roundup of AI tips mentioning how tools increasingly rely on context and document support, casually bringing up things like WorkBuddy that handle docs and emails. I didn't pay much attention until one day, completely frustrated by a client's 47 revision comments, I remembered to give it a try.

I opened the WorkBuddy desktop app and created a new Skill. The interface was clean—skill list on the left, config panel on the right. I broke down the "Client Preferences" skill into three steps: Step 1 upload the glossary PDF, Step 2 set output format, Step 3 fix punctuation and spacing rules. Each step had trigger conditions, e.g., automatically retrieve when the client mentions the glossary.

I tweaked key parameters twice. First, I put the glossary in global settings, but it didn't work when processing emails. Later I found a "Linked Documents" button under the Skill's "Context" tab. Dragging the PDF in and checking "Auto-load for every conversation" finally made it click. I spent an afternoon hitting this wall until I saw a "Scope" option in the docs—defaulting to "Current Session," changing it to "All Sessions" fixed it.

Configured, I tested a job. The client sent: "Please process according to our house style." I clicked the "Apply Client Preferences" button in WorkBuddy. It auto-pulled that 12-page glossary and converted all formatting requirements in the email into action items. The whole flow took about three minutes; manually flipping through the PDF and checking line-by-line used to take at least half an hour.

Now my workflow is: after onboarding a new client, dump the glossary and format requirements into WorkBuddy to create a dedicated Skill. For every subsequent chat, I start with "Follow our previous agreement," and it auto-loads all configs. If the client changes rules temporarily, I just state it in the chat, and it updates the Skill for future automatic application.

One detail worth noting: WorkBuddy's permission settings. I set my Skill to "Visible Only to Me" to prevent accidental edits by client-side staff. For team collaboration, you can set "Viewable" or "Editable" under "Sharing." I'm currently solo so don't need it, but I tried a shared template from a colleague once—the logic holds up.

My biggest takeaway after using it these past few days: Whether AI tools save time depends on whether you're willing to spend an afternoon writing out the rules clearly. WorkBuddy Skills essentially turn repetitive labor into reusable templates. The more detailed the initial setup, the easier life gets later. Don't try to specify every requirement at once. Build step-by-step, keep each Skill doing one thing, and it works better.

If you're struggling with AI tools too, start with the smallest repetitive task. Just make the glossary a Skill, use it for two weeks, and you might save those two hours of daily nonsense.

Didn't take any orders today, spent the afternoon organizing Skill configurations.