Inbox Triage

---
name: inbox-triage
description: Sorts a flooded inbox into four piles by what each message actually needs (act now, reply later, hand off, or archive), then writes ready-to-send drafts for the act-now pile and hand-off notes for the delegated ones. Use after time off, before a busy day, or whenever the backlog has stopped being readable.
---

# Inbox Triage

You are the person who reads the whole pile once so the user only has to read it once more. Sorting is the work. Drafting is the reward for having sorted properly.

## The question that sorts everything

For each message, ask one thing: **what does this actually need from this person?**

Not how it feels, not how loudly it is written, not how senior the sender is. A message from the chief executive that needs nothing goes in the archive pile. A quiet one-line message that blocks four other people goes to the top of act now.

## Workflow

1. **Establish the shape of the day.** Their role, what genuinely counts as urgent for them, who they can hand work to, and how much time they have right now. A twenty-minute triage and a full clear-out produce different outputs.
2. **Sort everything before drafting anything.** Two passes. Mixing them means the first few emails get careful drafts and the last forty get skimmed.
3. **Pass one: assign every message to one pile.** Act now, reply later, hand off, archive. One message, one pile.
4. **Sweep for dates before archiving.** Any message with a deadline, an expiry, a meeting or a renewal in it leaves the archive pile, however routine it looks.
5. **Cap the act-now pile.** Five at most. If more qualify, the pile is wrong and needs re-sorting against what actually breaks today.
6. **Order act now by what breaks first**, not by what arrived first.
7. **Pass two: draft.** A short ready reply for each act-now message, a hand-off note for each delegated one. Nothing for reply-later beyond a suggested window, nothing at all for archive.
8. **Name the first three.** The three things to do before anything else, in order.

Copy this checklist into your working notes and tick it as you go:

```text
Inbox triage checklist
[ ] Role, urgency definition, and who can be handed work to
[ ] Every message assigned to exactly one pile
[ ] Date sweep done before anything was archived
[ ] Act-now pile capped at five, ordered by what breaks first
[ ] Drafts written only after all sorting was finished
[ ] Each act-now draft is short, specific and ready to send
[ ] Each hand-off note names a person and what "done" means
[ ] Anything needing information only the user has is marked, not invented
[ ] "Do these first" list of three
[ ] Nothing sent - drafts only
```

## The four piles

| Pile | What it means | The test |
|---|---|---|
| **Act now** | Needs this person, today | Something breaks or someone is blocked if it waits |
| **Reply later** | Needs this person, not today | It matters, but tomorrow costs nothing |
| **Hand off** | Someone else can do it | The user is not the only person who could answer |
| **Archive** | Needs nothing | Reading it was the whole job |

Two rules keep the piles honest. When unsure between act-now and reply-later, choose reply-later; an over-full act-now pile is the failure this skill exists to fix. And a message can be urgent for the sender without being urgent for the reader, which is the single most common sorting mistake.

## What hides in the archive pile

Sweep for these before archiving anything:

- A date: a deadline, a renewal, an expiry, an event, a cancellation window.
- A silent yes: "unless we hear otherwise, we will proceed".
- A thread where the user was moved to bcc, which usually means a decision was made and they are expected to have noticed.
- A last message that is a question, however casual, from a customer or someone senior.
- An automated notice with a real consequence: a failed payment, a certificate expiring, an account nearing a limit.

Everything else in the archive pile is genuinely just reading.

## Writing the act-now drafts

- Short. Three to six sentences. Long replies invite long replies.
- Answer the actual question in the first line, then any context.
- Match the user's normal tone. If you have their previous messages, match those instead of guessing.
- End with what happens next and when, so the thread can close.
- Where the reply needs a fact only the user has, mark the gap in square brackets, as in `[confirm the date with Ana]`, and never invent the answer.
- If a message needs a hard conversation rather than a reply, say so and do not draft a comfortable version of it.

## Writing hand-off notes

A hand-off is not a forward. It needs four things: who is doing it, what "done" looks like, by when, and what they need to know that is not in the thread. Two sentences is usually enough.

Also name what the user should say back to the original sender, because a hand-off with silence toward the sender reads as being ignored.

## Output shape

- **Act now:** for each item, the sender, one line on what it needs, then the ready draft.
- **Reply later:** for each item, the sender, one line, and a suggested window (today, this week, by Friday).
- **Hand off:** for each item, one line, who it goes to, and the hand-off note.
- **Archive:** a plain list, no drafts.
- **Do these first:** three items, in order.
- **Watch out for:** anything time-sensitive that nearly got archived, or anything that looks like it is about to become a problem.

## Example

**Input from the user**

> Six emails, I run a small design studio, three staff. Anything client-facing is urgent for me. I can hand work to Nadia.
>
> 1. Client asking to move Thursday's review to Wednesday.
> 2. Accountant needs last quarter's receipts, mentions a filing date in eleven days.
> 3. A supplier's newsletter.
> 4. Someone asking if we do brand strategy work, no budget mentioned.
> 5. Nadia asking whether to use the old logo or the new one on the Hartley deck, due tomorrow morning.
> 6. Notice that the domain auto-renews next week on an expired card.

**Act now**

**1. Nadia - logo question on the Hartley deck.** Blocks someone else's work today, and the deck is due tomorrow.

> Nadia - new logo, the one from the March pack. If anything in the deck was built on the old one, leave it and flag it to me rather than rebuilding it tonight. Send me the deck when it is done and I will do a pass before it goes.

**2. Domain renewal on an expired card.** Not urgent-feeling, genuinely urgent. If it fails, the site goes down and the fix takes longer than the prevention.

> No reply needed. Update the card today - five minutes, and it is the only item here with an outage attached.

**3. Client wants Thursday moved to Wednesday.** Client-facing, and the answer depends on whether Wednesday is free.

> Hi Ruth - Wednesday works from my side. [Check Wednesday afternoon is clear before sending.] Shall we keep the same time, or would earlier suit you better? I will send an updated invite once you confirm.

**Reply later**

- **Accountant, receipts.** Eleven days to the filing date. This week, not today, and it is the item most likely to be forgotten because there is no external pressure yet.
- **Brand strategy enquiry.** Today or tomorrow. Enquiries go cold quickly, but nothing breaks by this afternoon.

**Hand off**

- **Brand strategy enquiry, if you would rather not scope it yourself.** To Nadia.

> Nadia - can you reply to this enquiry and find out three things: what they are trying to achieve, whether they have a budget range, and their timing. Do not quote anything. Come back to me with the answers by Thursday and we will decide whether to pitch. I will let them know you are picking it up.

**Archive**

- Supplier newsletter. Nothing in it needs anything.

**Do these first:** 1) Nadia's logo question, because she is stopped. 2) The domain card, because it is five minutes and prevents an outage. 3) The client reschedule, after you have looked at Wednesday.

**Watch out for:** the receipts. Eleven days feels comfortable and this is exactly the item that turns up with two days left.

Notice three things: the domain notice moved out of the archive pile on the date sweep, the client reschedule draft has a bracketed gap rather than an invented answer, and the hand-off note names what Nadia must not do as clearly as what she must.

## Rules

- Sort everything before drafting anything.
- One message, one pile. When torn, choose the calmer pile.
- Keep act now to five or fewer. If everything is urgent, the sorting has failed.
- Never invent a fact to complete a draft. Mark the gap in brackets.
- Do not send anything. Drafts are for the user to approve.
- Sweep for dates before archiving.
- Draft in the user's voice, not a corporate one.
- If a message needs a difficult conversation, say so rather than drafting around it.

## Edge cases

- **Only subject lines, no message bodies.** Sort from the subjects, say that is what you did, and ask for the bodies of the act-now pile only.
- **The pile is enormous.** A hundred or more. Do not triage all of it. Sort into the four piles at speed, draft only for act now, and offer to work through reply-later in a second pass.
- **Everything looks urgent.** Ask one question: what actually breaks today, and for whom? Re-sort against that answer. Usually two survive.
- **A thread, not a message.** Read the last message and the first, sort on what the thread now needs, and note if the user was quietly moved to bcc.
- **Nobody to hand off to.** Drop the pile and split it between reply-later and a short "these could go if you had someone" list. That list is useful evidence at the next hiring conversation.
- **Something has already gone wrong** because it sat too long. Say so plainly, put it top of act now, and draft the acknowledgement first rather than the fix.
- **Personal and work mixed together.** Sort both, keep them in separate sections, and do not draft personal messages unless asked.
- **A message needs a decision the user has been avoiding.** Name it as a decision rather than a reply, and put it in act now if anyone is waiting on it.

## Files

- `references/examples.md` - three inboxes triaged end to end: a return from a week away, a founder's mixed morning inbox, and a heavy delegation case where most of the pile belongs to someone else. Read it to see how the piles are argued and how drafts are kept short.

# Worked triages

Three inboxes sorted and drafted. Watch how the sorting argument is made before any draft appears.

## Contents

- [Example 1: back from a week away](#example-1-back-from-a-week-away)
- [Example 2: a morning inbox with two false alarms](#example-2-a-morning-inbox-with-two-false-alarms)
- [Example 3: mostly somebody else's work](#example-3-mostly-somebody-elses-work)
- [What the three have in common](#what-the-three-have-in-common)

---

## Example 1: back from a week away

### The input

> Fourteen emails after a week off. I am a project manager at an agency. Urgent for me means a client is waiting or a deadline moves. I can hand things to Sam, who covered while I was out. I have about forty minutes.

The messages: a client asking for a status update twice, four days apart; a supplier invoice query; an internal request for holiday approval from a team member; a calendar invite for a workshop next Tuesday with no agenda; a system notice that a shared drive is nearly full; a recruiter; three newsletters; a thread where the user was moved to bcc on day three; a colleague asking for a template; a client's finance team chasing a purchase order; and a note from Sam listing what he handled.

### Act now

**1. Sam's handover note.** Read before anything else. It changes how every other message gets sorted, and half of them may already be resolved.

> No reply needed yet. Read it first, then re-check the client thread below against it.

**2. Client asking for a status update, twice.** The second message four days after the first is the real signal. Being asked twice means the first was not answered.

> Hi Tom - I am back today and catching up. Apologies for the silence; that should have been covered while I was out. Short answer on where we are: [confirm status against Sam's note before sending]. I will send the full update by end of tomorrow, and I will set a standing Friday note so this does not depend on me being at my desk.

**3. Client finance chasing a purchase order.** Payment is blocked, and it is somebody else's process waiting on us.

> Hi Erin - thanks for chasing, and sorry it sat over my week out. Sending the purchase order details today. [Get the reference from accounts.] If anything is missing at your end, reply here and I will get it to you the same day.

### Reply later

- **Holiday approval request.** Today. It is a two-line answer and someone is waiting to book something.
- **Supplier invoice query.** This week. Nothing breaks, but invoice questions get worse with age.
- **Colleague asking for a template.** This week, or hand it off.

### Hand off

- **Workshop invite with no agenda, Tuesday.** To Sam.

> Sam - you were in the earlier conversation about this. Can you find out what the Tuesday workshop is for and whether both of us need to be there? If it is a working session, I will go; if it is a briefing, one of us is enough. Let me know by Friday.

### Archive

- Three newsletters. The recruiter. The bcc thread, after reading it: the decision was made and no response is expected.

### Do these first

1. Read Sam's note. Ten minutes, and it changes everything else.
2. Reply to Tom. He has now asked twice.
3. Get the purchase order to Erin. Somebody's payment is stuck behind it.

### Watch out for

- **The shared drive notice.** It reads as routine and it is not: a full drive stops people saving work, usually at the worst moment. Not act-now today, but this week and not later.
- **The bcc thread.** Being moved to bcc mid-thread usually means a decision was made without you. Nothing to reply to, but worth knowing it happened.

**Why it is shaped this way:** the handover note is the top act-now item even though it needs no reply, because reading it prevents work on things Sam already fixed. The "asked twice" client outranks the invoice query for the same reason it always should: repetition is the clearest signal in an inbox.

---

## Example 2: a morning inbox with two false alarms

### The input

> Nine emails, I run a small consultancy on my own. Everything feels urgent and I have started avoiding the inbox entirely. Nobody to hand off to.

The messages: a subject line reading "URGENT: action required" from a software vendor; a client asking a question about last month's report; a payment failure notice from a subscription; an invitation to speak at an event in four months; a long complaint from a client about a deliverable; a request for a meeting "sometime soon"; a bank security alert; a professional body membership renewal; and a cold sales pitch.

### Act now

**1. The client complaint.** A relationship is at risk and time makes it worse. This one needs a proper reply, not a fast one.

> Do not draft this in two minutes. It needs an acknowledgement today and a considered response after you have looked at the work. Send this now:
>
> Hi Priya - I have read your message properly and I am not going to fire off a quick answer to it. I want to look back at what we delivered against what we agreed, and come back to you tomorrow with something real. If it would be easier to talk it through, I am free tomorrow afternoon.

**2. Payment failure notice.** Small, boring, and it turns into a service being cut off.

> No reply needed. Update the card. Five minutes.

**3. Bank security alert.** Check it directly through the bank's own app or by typing the address yourself, never by clicking a link in the message. If it is genuine, it is act-now. If it is not, it is a phishing attempt and belongs in the bin.

### Reply later

- **Client question about last month's report.** Today. It is a real question from a paying client, but nothing is blocked.
- **Meeting request, "sometime soon".** This week. Reply with two specific times; vague requests stay open forever otherwise.
- **Speaking invitation, four months out.** This week. It deserves a decision, not a fast yes.

### Archive

- **"URGENT: action required" from the software vendor.** Opened, read: a feature announcement. The urgency belongs to their marketing team, not to you.
- **Membership renewal.** Automatic, and the date is three months out. Note the date, then archive.
- **Cold sales pitch.**

### Do these first

1. Acknowledge Priya. Today, and before you have the full answer.
2. The failed payment.
3. Check the bank alert, through the bank, not through the email.

### Watch out for

- **The membership renewal date.** It is archived, but put the date in your calendar first, because it is the only message here that will matter in three months.
- **The pattern.** Two of nine were engineered to feel urgent and one was possibly a phishing attempt. Feeling overwhelmed by this inbox is partly a design decision made by other people.

**Why it is shaped this way:** the complaint gets an acknowledgement draft rather than a full reply, because the honest thing to send in ten minutes is "I am taking this seriously and will answer properly", not a defensive paragraph. The two false alarms are named as false alarms so the user starts recognising the pattern.

---

## Example 3: mostly somebody else's work

### The input

> Twelve emails. I am a head of operations with a team of five. My problem is that everything comes to me and I answer it, so it keeps coming to me. Team: Kwame (logistics), Dee (supplier relationships), Ana (systems).

The messages: four supplier queries about delivery windows; two internal questions about the new expenses process; a warehouse system error report; a request from finance for next quarter's forecast; a customer escalation about a late delivery; a recruitment agency; a meeting request from the managing director; and a policy update from head office.

### Act now

**1. Customer escalation about a late delivery.** External, and it has already escalated once.

> Hi Marcus - this reached me and I am dealing with it personally. [Confirm the current delivery position with Kwame first.] Here is where it stands and what happens next: [status]. I will come back to you by [time] with a firm date, and I will tell you what went wrong once I know rather than guessing now.

**2. Meeting request from the managing director.** One line, two minutes, and it unblocks their diary as well as yours.

> Thursday morning works, or Friday any time after eleven. Happy to come to you.

### Hand off

This is the heart of this inbox. Nine of twelve messages belong to somebody else, and the reason they keep arriving is that they keep getting answered.

- **Four supplier delivery queries.** To Dee.

> Dee - these four are yours from now on, not just today. Answer them directly and copy me on nothing unless a supplier is asking to change contracted terms. I am telling all four suppliers you are their contact for scheduling.

- **Two expenses process questions.** To Ana.

> Ana - both of these are about the new expenses process. Can you answer them, and then write the answer once in the team wiki page? These are the third and fourth times this has been asked, which means the page is missing something.

- **Warehouse system error report.** To Ana.

> Ana - can you take this, work out whether it is recurring, and tell me by Wednesday whether it needs a fix or a workaround. If anything stops shipments in the meantime, tell me the same hour.

- **Finance forecast request.** Not delegable, but not act-now. Reply-later with a real slot.

### Reply later

- **Finance forecast.** Needs an hour of your own time. Book the hour this week; a reply promising it without the slot booked is how it slips.
- **Policy update from head office.** Read this week, then decide whether the team needs to hear about it.

### Archive

- Recruitment agency.

### Do these first

1. The customer escalation, after a two-minute check with Kwame.
2. The managing director's meeting request.
3. Send the three hand-offs. They take ten minutes and they are the only thing here that changes next week's inbox.

### Watch out for

- **The pattern, not the messages.** Two questions about the same process means the process is not documented, and the fix is Ana's wiki page rather than your reply.
- **Telling the suppliers.** The Dee hand-off only works if the suppliers are told who to contact. A hand-off that the sender never learns about comes straight back to you.

**Why it is shaped this way:** the hand-offs are written as permanent redirections rather than one-off forwards, because the user's stated problem was recurrence, not volume. The final note about telling the suppliers is the part that most delegation attempts miss.

---

## What the three have in common

- The sorting argument is made before any draft appears, and every act-now item states why it is act-now.
- Something moved out of the archive pile on the date sweep in all three: a nearly-full drive, a renewal date, a redirected sender.
- Drafts carry bracketed gaps where a fact is missing, and never a guess.
- At least one item is deliberately answered with "acknowledge now, answer properly later", which is the honest reply when a real answer takes longer than a triage session.
- The "watch out for" section names a pattern rather than a message: manufactured urgency, an undocumented process, or a hand-off that will bounce back.