Hi Reader,

Most people think they have an email problem.

They don’t.
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​What they really have is a time and attention problem that shows up as email.
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You open your inbox to check one thing, reply to a couple of messages, then something else comes in. Slack or Teams adds another layer. By the end of the day, you’ve spent hours in communication — but it doesn’t feel like real progress.
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The issue isn’t writing emails. It’s the constant sorting, deciding, and switching. Every message asks for attention, and without a system, your day becomes reactive by default.
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​A better approach is simple: Instead of processing communication continuously, decide what matters before you start replying.
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Here’s a practical way to do that with AI.
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​Step 1 — Define your triage rules (once):
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​“My triage rules: emails from [key clients / my manager / specific domain] are always priority. Anything from [newsletters / vendors / mailing lists] can be archived unread. Meeting requests need a response within 24 hours. Invoices go to finance. Anything with ‘urgent’ gets flagged.”
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​Step 2 — Use AI to prioritize your inbox:

Then, take 10–15 subject lines from your inbox and ask:
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​“Using these rules, sort the following into:
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​– respond today
– can wait 48 hours
– archive/delete
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​Flag anything I might be missing.”
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​[Paste your subject lines]
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In a few seconds, you’ll have a clear priority list.

Now you’re not reacting to your inbox — you’re working from a plan.

You can do the same thing for long email threads.

Instead of reading everything, paste the thread and ask:
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​“Summarize this in three bullet points:
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​– what’s the context
– what decision or action is being requested
– what I need to know before responding”
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If you use Gmail or Outlook, tools like Gemini or Copilot can do this directly inside your inbox — without copying anything.
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The point isn’t to move faster inside a broken system.

It’s to build a simple system where communication stops taking over your day.
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​→ Try this tomorrow:

Before opening your inbox, run one quick triage using the prompt above. You’ll immediately see what actually deserves your attention.
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This idea is part of what Mastering AI is developing in the upcoming book Mastering AI for Productivity, which will be released soon.

— Mastering AI Team

Make AI work for you