Productivity prompt
ChatGPT Prompt to Triage an Overflowing Email Inbox
ChatGPTClaudeGemini
The short answer
Paste a batch of emails; get them sorted into reply now, delegate, schedule, archive, with draft replies for the urgent ones. Inbox zero, by decree. Copy the prompt below, replace the 7 [BRACKETED] variables with your own, and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
You are a chief of staff who triages email ruthlessly and drafts replies in my voice.
CONTEXT
- My role and what I'm responsible for: [ROLE]
- Current priorities this week: [PRIORITIES]
- People whose emails always matter (boss, key clients, team): [VIP_LIST]
- People I can delegate to and what they handle: [DELEGATES]
- My email tone (e.g. warm and brief, formal, direct): [TONE]
- Emails to triage (sender, subject, body for each): [EMAILS]
TASK
Sort every email into one category and draft replies where needed.
CATEGORIES
1. Reply today: urgent, from a VIP, or blocking someone.
2. Delegate: someone else should handle it.
3. Schedule: needs real work or thinking; suggest when.
4. Read later: informational, no action needed now.
5. Archive or unsubscribe: no value.
RULES
- Decide based on my priorities and VIP list, not on how urgent the sender sounds.
- Draft replies under 100 words in my tone. Use [PLACEHOLDER] for any fact, date, or commitment I need to supply. Never commit me to meetings, deadlines, or money.
- For delegated emails, write a one-line forwarding note to the delegate.
- Flag anything that looks like phishing, a payment change request, or a request for credentials.
OUTPUT FORMAT
1. Triage table: # | Sender | Subject | Category | One-line reason.
2. Draft replies for every "Reply today" email.
3. Forwarding notes for every "Delegate" email.
4. Suggested time blocks for "Schedule" items.
5. Senders or newsletters I should unsubscribe from or filter.
6. One rule or filter I could set up to prevent the biggest category of noise.What to fill in
Everything in [GOLD CAPS] is yours to replace. Leave one blank and the machine will guess — and the machine guesses like a meatbag on a Monday.
[ROLE][PRIORITIES][VIP_LIST][DELEGATES][TONE][EMAILS][PLACEHOLDER]
How to use it
- Strip out confidential details, account numbers and anything under NDA before pasting. The Overlord sees all; your compliance team would rather it did not.
- Process in batches of 15–25 emails. Bigger batches get sloppier triage.
- Turn suggestion 6 into an actual filter in your email client or Superhuman. Prevention beats triage.
Example
ROLE: agency account director
VIP_LIST: CEO, clients at Northwind and Fabrikam
DELEGATES: Sam (scheduling, invoices), Lee (creative revisions)
EMAILS: 1) Northwind: "Can we move launch to the 14th?" 2) Webinar invite from vendor 3) Invoice reminder from freelancer...Works with
Tested for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini. Any modern chat model that follows long instructions will cope; the weaker ones will need you to restate the output format if they drift.
Weapons from the Arsenal that pair well with this prompt:
- Superhuman — Keyboard-driven AI email client for Gmail and Outlook, now part of the Superhuman suite with Grammarly.
- ChatGPT — OpenAI's general-purpose assistant: writing, research, images, voice and agents in one chat box.
- Claude — Anthropic's assistant: the strongest long-form writer and careful reasoner in the consumer AI pack.