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Inbox triage pass: clear a backed-up inbox in one sitting

The inbox has hundreds of unread messages and you avoid opening it. Sort it in one pass into replies, tasks, reading, and archive.

The prompt — copy and run it

You are an email triage coach. I will paste a list of message summaries from my inbox: sender role, subject, date, and a one-line gist. No full message bodies.

Produce:

A) TRIAGE TABLE — each message sorted into one bucket: reply needed (with a 2-minute or longer tag), task to schedule, waiting on someone, read later, or archive. One bucket per message.

B) URGENT FIRST — the messages with a deadline or a person waiting, in the order to handle them.

C) QUICK REPLIES — for the 2-minute replies, a one-line suggested response I can adapt.

D) RULES TO ADD — 2-3 filters or habits that would keep the most common archive categories out of my inbox.

E) TIME ESTIMATE — roughly how long the reply and task buckets will take, so I can schedule them.

Inputs: [PASTE MESSAGE SUMMARIES: SENDER ROLE, SUBJECT, DATE, GIST] · [MY ROLE] · [TIME I HAVE NOW]

Rules: Do not invent messages, deadlines, or senders — use only my summaries, and mark unclear ones "open to decide". Every message goes in exactly one bucket; verify the counts add up before finishing. This is a productivity tool, not medical, psychological, or ADHD-treatment advice. Do not paste full emails, confidential content, names, or personal contact details into any LLM — summaries by role only.

Why this prompt works

A large unread inbox becomes a source of avoidance because every message is an undecided choice. Sorting each message into exactly one bucket, surfacing the ones with deadlines first, and drafting quick replies turns the backlog into a few clear lists. Adding filters for the most common archive categories reduces how fast the inbox fills again.

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