Triage an email backlog into action buckets
beginnerClaude HaikuPersonal ProductivityEmailemailtriageinboxproductivityfocus
Use case
Use this when you open your inbox to 80+ unread messages and need to know what actually requires your attention. Paste a list of subjects and senders (or forward a digest) and Claude will batch them into the right action so you stop re-reading the same emails.
The prompt
You are my email triage assistant. I will paste a list of emails (subject lines, senders, and a one-line preview if available). Sort every email into exactly one of these buckets: 1. RESPOND NOW (under 2 minutes) — quick replies, confirmations, yes/no 2. RESPOND TODAY (needs thought, < 15 min draft) — substantive replies I should batch later 3. SCHEDULE / TIME-BOX — requires real work; estimate time and suggest when to do it 4. DELEGATE — better handled by someone else; suggest who based on my context 5. ARCHIVE / FYI — read-only, no action required 6. UNSUBSCRIBE — newsletters or vendor noise I should kill My role and context:{{my_role_context}}My current top priorities this week:{{current_priorities}}People I commonly delegate to:{{delegates}}Emails to triage:{{email_list}}For each email, output: subject (truncated to 60 chars) | bucket | one-line reason. At the end, output a summary block: - Counts per bucket - The 3 emails most likely to be regretted if missed - Suggested order for the RESPOND NOW batch (fastest wins first)
Variables
{{{{my_role_context}}}}Replace with your {{my role context}}{{{{current_priorities}}}}Replace with your {{current priorities}}{{{{delegates}}}}Replace with your {{delegates}}{{{{email_list}}}}Replace with your {{email list}}
Example
Input
my_role_context: Head of Operations at a 40-person SaaS company; report to COO current_priorities: Q3 vendor consolidation, new hire onboarding for 2 ops analysts, board prep deck delegates: Priya (ops analyst), Marcus (project coordinator) email_list: - "Re: DocuSign renewal pricing — Sarah at DocuSign — 'attaching the revised quote per your ask'" - "Quick Q on the onboarding doc — Priya — 'do you want me to add the IT checklist or keep separate?'" - "Board materials due Friday — Janet (COO) — 'reminder, need your ops slides by EOD Thursday'" - "[Newsletter] The Operations Brief — weekly digest" - "Vendor request — Notion AI demo — Notion sales — 'free trial invite'" - "Marcus PTO question — Marcus — 'covering my Tuesday standup?'" - "Re: Salesforce contract — Legal — 'redlines attached, your sign-off needed'"
Output
Re: DocuSign renewal pricing | SCHEDULE | Vendor consolidation work — block 30 min Wed AM to compare against alternatives Quick Q on the onboarding doc | RESPOND NOW | Priya is blocked; one-sentence answer unblocks her Board materials due Friday | SCHEDULE | Real work; book a 90-min Thursday AM block [Newsletter] The Operations Brief | ARCHIVE | FYI; consider unsubscribing if unread 3 weeks running Vendor request — Notion AI demo | UNSUBSCRIBE | Cold vendor outreach, no current need Marcus PTO question | RESPOND NOW | One-line yes/no Re: Salesforce contract | RESPOND TODAY | Needs careful read of redlines; batch with other 15-min items after lunch --- SUMMARY Counts: Respond Now 2 | Respond Today 1 | Schedule 2 | Delegate 0 | Archive 1 | Unsubscribe 1 Most regret-if-missed: (1) Board materials — COO escalation risk, (2) Salesforce redlines — legal blocking, (3) DocuSign quote — expires in 7 days per typical vendor pattern Respond Now order: Marcus (10 sec) → Priya (60 sec)
Tips for best results
- 1Run this once at the start of your day and once after lunch. Don't triage continuously — that's the trap.
- 2Tell Claude your current top priorities. The same email is 'urgent' or 'archive' depending on what week it is.
- 3If a bucket is consistently huge (e.g., RESPOND TODAY > 10), the real fix is upstream — fewer subscriptions, better filters, or default-decline policies.
- 4After triaging, do the RESPOND NOW batch in one sitting. Context-switching back to email later costs more than the replies themselves.
- 5Anything that sits in RESPOND TODAY for 3 days should drop to ARCHIVE — if it still mattered someone would have followed up.
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