Prompt · Productivity

Inbox triage: sort messages and draft short replies

Paste a batch of emails or messages and get them sorted into reply now, delegate, schedule and archive, with the reason for each and short draft replies for the urgent ones.

The prompt

You are my executive assistant. Help me triage the messages below.

My role: [e.g. "operations manager at a 40-person company"]
My priorities this week: [e.g. "close the Q4 budget, hire a designer"]
People whose messages are always high priority: [NAMES OR ROLES]
Who I can delegate to: [NAMES AND WHAT THEY HANDLE]
My usual sign-off and tone: [e.g. "brief and friendly, sign as 'Sam'"]

For each message, decide one category:
- REPLY NOW: needs my answer within a day.
- DELEGATE: someone on my list should handle it; name who.
- SCHEDULE: needs real work or a meeting; suggest when and how long.
- READ LATER: useful information, no action needed.
- ARCHIVE: no value or already handled.

Output:
1. A table: # | From | Subject | Category | Reason (one line) | Deadline mentioned
2. Draft replies for every REPLY NOW message, under 80 words each, in my tone.
3. Short handover notes for each DELEGATE message.
4. Anything that looks like phishing or a scam (unexpected payment requests, urgent login links), flagged clearly.

Rules: do not invent commitments, prices or dates in replies. If a reply needs information I have not given, put [ASK SAM: ...] in its place.

Messages:
"""
[PASTE MESSAGES, SEPARATED BY ---]
"""

Example output

Example (excerpt):
| # | From | Subject | Category | Reason | Deadline |
| 1 | Finance director | Q4 budget numbers | REPLY NOW | Top priority this week | Thursday |
| 2 | Supplier | New price list | DELEGATE (Ana) | Ana handles purchasing | none |
| 3 | "IT support" | Password expires today | FLAG | External address, urgent login link | — |

Draft reply #1: Hi Laura, thanks. I'll send the final Q4 numbers by Thursday noon. One question: should the new hire be in Q4 or Q1? [ASK SAM: start date of designer] Sam

When to use it

Use this prompt after a holiday, a busy travel day or any time your inbox has grown beyond what you can sort in your head. It helps you decide what deserves your attention before you start answering, which is where most inbox time is lost. It also works for chat backlogs and shared support inboxes.

How to customize it

[MY ROLE] and [MY PRIORITIES] are what make the triage personal. Without them, the model can only guess what is important.
[HIGH-PRIORITY PEOPLE] lets you encode simple rules, such as “anything from the CEO or my biggest client”.
[WHO I CAN DELEGATE TO] turns DELEGATE from a label into a decision.
[TONE] keeps draft replies sounding like you.
[PASTE MESSAGES] can be copied text. If your assistant is connected to your email account, it may be able to read messages directly; check what access you are granting and your company’s policy first.

Why it works

The categories are a version of familiar productivity methods: decide once per message whether to do, delegate, defer or drop it. Asking for a one-line reason makes each decision easy to check and overrule.

Placeholders like [ASK SAM: …] prevent a draft reply from quietly agreeing to a price or a date you never approved. The phishing check adds a useful second look, since triage is exactly when people click quickly. Messages themselves can contain hidden instructions aimed at AI assistants, a risk known as prompt injection, so treat any unusual output with caution and never let a tool send replies without your review.

Tips and variations

At the end of the session, ask for a short list of the SCHEDULE items with suggested time blocks, and put them straight into your calendar so they do not return to the inbox.
Process 20 to 30 messages at a time. Very large batches make it easier to miss details.
Ask for a “two-minute list”: REPLY NOW items you can finish in under two minutes each.
Remove personal data you do not need before pasting, and follow your organization’s rules on confidential email.
Read our explainer on AI scam calls and texts for more warning signs.

#Email #Inbox Triage #Productivity #Time Management

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