email-triage-system

Email Triage System Skill

Inboxes overflow because every message gets the same treatment: opened, half-read, left "for later" — and later compounds. Triage replaces reading with deciding: every message gets exactly one of four verbs on first touch, the two-minute rule handles the small stuff instantly, and the system runs on a cadence measured in minutes per day, not heroic weekend purges.

What This Skill Produces

• The triage pass — the current backlog sorted into the four verbs, oldest-first batches
• The four-verb rules — archive / reply-now / task / park, with the decision test for each
• The minimal structure — 3–4 labels maximum; folders are where email goes to die
• The daily cadence — two fixed windows, timeboxed, with the backlog-never-returns rule

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:

• The inbox state — count, oldest unread, and the honest description ("4,000, mostly newsletters" vs. "200, mostly real")
• The role's email reality — customer-facing (reply SLAs matter) vs. internal (batching is fine)
• Past attempts — what system died before and why; the new one must not repeat its failure mode

Framework: The Four Verbs

1. Archive (the default): no action needed, might need finding later → archive immediately. Search beats filing; the archive is one big searchable bucket. Most email is this, and treating it as anything else is the whole problem.
2. Reply-now (the two-minute rule): if a real reply takes under two minutes, send it during triage — touching it twice costs more than answering it once. Short is fine; sent beats polished.
3. Task: replies needing real work become tasks in the task system with the email linked — never left in the inbox as their own reminder. An inbox used as a to-do list fails at both jobs.
4. Park (rare, explicit): genuinely waiting-on-something messages get a @waiting label and a weekly review. Parking without the review label is just procrastination with a name.
5. The cadence: two triage windows daily (morning, late afternoon), 15–20 minutes each, inbox to zero decisions (not zero work). Between windows, email stays closed — every glance costs a context switch. Backlogs older than 30 days get declared bankrupt: archive-all + one "if it was important, resend" note to self.

Output Format

Email Triage: [inbox state] → system

The Backlog Pass

[Batches with verb counts: "archive ~3,100 (newsletters, notifications) · reply-now 12 · task 23 · park 4" · the bankruptcy call if warranted]

The Rules Card (keep visible)

[The four verbs with their tests · the two-minute rule · labels: @waiting, @task-filed, +1 optional]

The Cadence

[Windows, lengths, the closed-between rule · the weekly @waiting review]

Quality Checks

• Every message class in the backlog maps to exactly one verb
• The two-minute rule is stated with its touch-it-once logic
• Labels number ≤4 — structure stays under the complexity that killed the last system
• The cadence is timeboxed and the between-windows rule is explicit
• 30-day-plus backlogs get the bankruptcy option, framed as the rational move it is

Anti-Patterns

• Do not build 20 folders — filing is procrastination that looks like organization
• Do not leave actionable email in the inbox as its own reminder — task systems exist
• Do not check between windows — ambient email is the tax that never stops
• Do not process newest-first during backlog clearing — oldest-first or the backlog is immortal
• Do not moralize the overflow — inboxes overflow structurally; the system is the fix, not discipline