Building the Future of Work with OpenClaw

I'm not a developer. Let's get that out of the way first.

I run a lead gen agency, I'm the CMO of Thingiverse, I've got two kids under three, and my ADHD brain juggles more context switches in a day than most people do in a week. I build products with AI tools like Claude Code, but I don't write much code myself. And for the last few months, I've been running my entire operation through an AI assistant infrastructure called OpenClaw.

This isn't a LinkedIn thought leadership piece about "the future of work." This is about how I actually work now, and why it's fundamentally different from anything I've tried before.

The Problem: Context Is Expensive

Here's the thing nobody tells you about running multiple projects: the killer isn't the work itself, it's the context switching.

I'll be deep in a Levity client campaign strategy, then get a Slack ping about Thingiverse marketing metrics, then remember I forgot to follow up on that partnership email from three days ago, then realize I promised my wife I'd handle daycare pickup, then notice a Discord message about a bug in one of my side projects. By the time I've dealt with all that, I've completely lost the thread on the original campaign strategy.

Traditional productivity tools try to solve this with notifications, reminders, and task managers. But they're all reactive. They're dumb systems waiting for you to tell them what to do. They don't remember context. They don't understand priorities. They definitely don't know that when I'm tagged in a family group chat about weekend plans, I probably need a calendar check before I commit to anything.

What I needed wasn't another app. I needed an assistant that actually persists across my entire life—one that remembers everything, works everywhere, and doesn't need me to context-switch to interact with it.

Enter OpenClaw: The Always-On AI Assistant

OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent gateway. That sounds technical, so let me translate: it's infrastructure that lets you run a persistent AI assistant that actually remembers shit and can act across all your channels and tools.

Not a chatbot you talk to when you need something. Not an automation that runs on a schedule. An actual assistant that's always there, watching for things that matter, taking action when needed, and maintaining context across everything you do.

I interact with my OpenClaw agent through Telegram and Discord, but it's connected to my Gmail accounts (personal, agency, Thingiverse), my Google Calendar, GitHub, various APIs, and a growing list of tools I use daily. It's the same assistant everywhere. Same memory, same context, same understanding of my priorities.

When I ping it in my Levity Telegram group about a client question, it has access to the right email account, knows what campaigns we're running, and can draft a response that actually makes sense. When I mention a blog idea in a personal DM, it remembers it and will proactively suggest developing it when things are quiet. When it sees an important email hit my Thingiverse inbox, it notifies me in the right Discord channel with context I need to make a decision.

Memory Changes Everything

The breakthrough isn't the AI itself—Claude has been brilliant for a while now. The breakthrough is persistence.

Every interaction with my assistant adds to its memory. Not just a chat history—actual structured memory that gets encoded, prioritized, and recalled when relevant. It knows:

• Which clients I'm working with and what stage their campaigns are at
• The side projects I'm building and what's blocked
• Family commitments and calendar constraints
• My communication style for different contexts (agency emails are professional, Discord is casual, family stuff is personal)
• The running list of "I should really get around to that" ideas I mention in passing

This is huge for an ADHD brain. My working memory is terrible. I'll have a brilliant idea for a Levity service offering, mention it in a voice note to myself, and completely forget about it by the time I'm back at my desk. Now? I mention it to my assistant in Telegram, and it remembers. Better yet, a week later when I'm talking about client services, it'll surface that idea: "Hey, you mentioned X last week—want to develop that now?"

Traditional AI chat sessions reset. You start fresh every time. OpenClaw maintains continuity. It's the difference between hiring a temp who starts from zero every day and having a team member who actually knows your business.

Multi-Channel Presence: Work Where You Are

I don't live in one app. I'm in Telegram with my team, Discord with developer communities, email for formal client communication, and occasionally even LinkedIn when I remember it exists.

My OpenClaw assistant is in all of them. Not separate bots—the same assistant with full context.

This morning I was in a Telegram group planning a client campaign. I asked my assistant to pull recent email threads with the client. It did, summarized the key points, and drafted a strategy doc. I asked for it to be saved to our shared Google Drive. Done. All without leaving Telegram.

Later I was tagged in a Discord thread about a technical decision for a side project. I asked my assistant for context on what we'd decided last week. It pulled from memory, reminded me of the constraints we discussed, and suggested a direction based on our previous conversation.

This isn't magic—it's just having one assistant that actually follows you across your workspaces instead of siloed tools that don't talk to each other.

Proactive Task Management: It Knows What Matters

Here's where it gets really interesting: my assistant doesn't just wait for commands. It runs periodic checks—what OpenClaw calls "heartbeats"—to stay on top of things that matter.

A few times a day, it'll:

• Check my email inboxes for anything urgent
• Scan my calendar for upcoming conflicts or prep I need to do
• Review ongoing projects and flag blockers
• Look for opportunities to batch similar work

If something needs my attention, I get a ping in the right channel with the context I need. Not every email—that would be noise. Just the stuff that actually matters based on what it knows about my priorities.

Example: Yesterday it noticed I had three client calls scheduled back-to-back with no buffer time. It pinged me mid-morning with a suggestion to move one to Thursday and drafted the reschedule email. Took me 15 seconds to approve and send instead of realizing mid-call number two that I was already running late for number three.

This is what "AI productivity" should actually mean. Not making me faster at checking email—making me not have to think about checking email in the first place.

Email Monitoring: The Right Balance

I get a lot of email. Three accounts (personal, Levity, Thingiverse), each with their own context and priorities.

My OpenClaw assistant monitors all of them. It's not auto-responding—that would be insane. But it's watching, categorizing, and flagging based on rules that have evolved over time:

• Client emails to Levity account → notify immediately if urgent keywords, otherwise batch summary twice daily
• Partnership/opportunity emails → flag with context (do we know them? is this legit? related to current priorities?)
• Family/personal → notify if time-sensitive, otherwise let me check on my schedule
• Newsletter/automated stuff → quietly filter, I'll check if I want to

The key is it learns. When I tell it "actually, anything from this person is important," it remembers. When I ignore certain types of messages repeatedly, it stops flagging them.

I'm not trying to achieve inbox zero. I'm trying to make sure nothing important falls through the cracks while I'm context-switching between three different professional identities and being a present parent.

Content Creation Pipelines: From Idea to Published

I mention a blog idea to my assistant in passing. It logs it. A week later when things are quiet, it suggests developing it. I say yes. It:

1. Searches for recent related content and trends
2. Pulls relevant stats or examples from my previous work
3. Drafts an outline based on my writing style
4. Generates a first draft
5. Saves it to our content folder with suggested images noted
6. Adds it to my editorial calendar

I still edit and refine—AI-generated content always needs a human pass. But the difference between "I should write about X someday" and having a decent draft ready to polish is massive. Especially when you're juggling client work and family chaos.

This workflow extends to social content, client reports, pitch decks, technical documentation—anything that benefits from templates, research, and iteration.

The Real Win: Cognitive Offloading

The biggest change isn't any single feature. It's cognitive offloading.

I don't have to remember to follow up on that email. I don't have to check if I'm free Thursday afternoon. I don't have to keep a mental list of all the projects I'm juggling and their current states. I don't have to context-switch between tools to get context.

My assistant remembers. It tracks. It proactively surfaces what matters when it matters.

This isn't about being lazy—it's about focusing my actual brain on the work that requires creative thinking, relationship building, and strategic decisions. All the remembering, tracking, monitoring, and context-switching? Offloaded to a system that's better at it than I am.

Why OpenClaw Specifically?

You might be thinking, "Can't I do this with ChatGPT or whatever AI assistant du jour?"

No. Here's why:

1. Persistence: OpenClaw agents maintain state and memory across sessions. ChatGPT resets every conversation.
2. Multi-channel: Same assistant, full context, everywhere you work. Not separate chat interfaces.
3. Proactive: Heartbeats and periodic checks mean your assistant takes initiative. Chat interfaces are purely reactive.
4. Open source: I can see the code. I can extend it. I'm not locked into someone's SaaS pricing or feature roadmap.
5. Self-hosted: My data lives on my infrastructure. Not required—there are hosted options—but important to me.
6. Customizable: Role files, skill scripts, memory systems—I can tune how my assistant behaves for different contexts.

It's infrastructure, not a product. That's a feature, not a bug. Products have limitations. Infrastructure adapts to how you work.

This Is How I Work Now

I'm writing this post via my OpenClaw assistant. I mentioned the topic in a Discord channel, it drafted an outline, I gave feedback, it generated this draft with image suggestions, and I'm now editing while my toddler naps.

I didn't open a writing app. I didn't switch contexts. I had a conversation, and the work happened.

My Levity clients get faster responses because my assistant flags urgent stuff and drafts replies based on context. My Thingiverse team gets better availability because my calendar is actually managed. My side projects move forward because I have a system that remembers what I'm building and unblocks me when I have 20 minutes.

And my family gets more of my actual presence because I'm not constantly context-switching in my head or compulsively checking email.

This isn't the future of work. It's how I work now. The infrastructure exists, it's open source, and it's absurdly powerful if you invest the time to set it up properly.

You don't have to be a developer. I'm not. You just have to be willing to rethink what an "assistant" actually means.

Want to Try It?

OpenClaw is open source: github.com/openclaw/openclaw

Documentation: docs.openclaw.ai

Fair warning: This isn't plug-and-play consumer software. It takes setup. You'll need to think about your workflows, configure integrations, and tune memory systems. But if you're juggling multiple projects and roles like I am, the ROI is absurd.

Or just hire Levity to set it up for you. We're starting to offer this as a service because I'm tired of people asking how I get so much done while also chasing a three-year-old around.