Clear your morning inbox in half an hour

Project manager · Time: 30 min · Email

Tools that fit this task

• Copilot in Outlook $20/mo
• Fyxer Free
• Superhuman $30/mo
• Shortwave Free

Prompt

Role: you are an executive assistant triaging email.
Context: below are the subjects and first lines of the overnight emails. My priorities for the week: {{priorities}}.
Task: sort the emails into four groups: reply today, turn into a task, for information, can be archived. For the "reply today" group, give a draft reply of up to three sentences.
Format: four sections listing the emails, with drafts under each email in the first group. No long dashes.
Emails:
{{subjects and first lines}}

Steps

1. Open the overnight inbox summary or the "needs reply" section
2. Read the summaries of long threads and open only those that need your decision
3. For emails with a simple answer, ask for a draft and edit it
4. Turn emails that need more than two minutes into tasks with a date
5. Archive everything you have read so the inbox holds only unresolved items
6. Check the "for your information" section so you do not miss an invoice or a demand

How to check the result

Within 30 minutes the inbox holds only emails waiting on others, and every email with an action became a reply or a dated task

Pitfalls

• A thread summary misses attachments and changed amounts in later emails: open the original for financial emails
• Automatic sorting hides important emails from new counterparties under "for your information"

Data that stays out of public AI tools

• Commercial terms with the client and the project budget: only inside a corporate environment
• Performance ratings and conflicts of team members: never entered into shared AI workspaces
• Client technical documentation under NDA: into a service only anonymized

Other tasks for project managers

• Build a project plan with phases and owners
• Compile a project status from the team's tasks
• Build a project risk register
• Run a retrospective and capture the takeaways
• Send action items to participants after a meeting
• Write meeting minutes from an audio recording
• Plan your week in the calendar with focus blocks
• Turn a finished document into a presentation
• Write a weekly report to your manager
• Build a team knowledge base

AI tools for project managers · Prompt: Clear your morning inbox in half an hour