Automate Your Inbox

Create a free account on [Make.com](https://make.com) (recommended) or [Zapier](https://zapier.com).

Make.com is recommended because its free tier is more generous for AI-powered automations.

Connect your email account:

• In Make.com: Add a Gmail or Outlook module as a trigger


• In Zapier: Add Gmail or Outlook as a trigger app

Set the trigger to "New Email Received."

Add an AI processing step after the email trigger:

In Make.com: Add an "OpenAI" or "Anthropic" module
In Zapier: Add a "ChatGPT" or "Claude" action

Configure the AI prompt:
> "Categorise this email into exactly one of these categories: URGENT, ACTION_REQUIRED, FYI, NEWSLETTER, SPAM.
> Also write a 1-sentence summary.
>
> Email subject: {{subject}}
> Email body: {{body}}
>
> Respond in this exact format:
> Category: [category]
> Summary: [one sentence summary]"

This turns every incoming email into a categorised, summarised item.

Add a Router or Filter after the AI step to handle each category differently:

• URGENT — Send a Slack/Teams message to you immediately, move email to "Urgent" folder
• ACTION_REQUIRED — Add to your task list (Todoist, Notion, or Google Tasks), keep in inbox
• FYI — Move to "Read Later" folder, send a daily digest summary
• NEWSLETTER — Move to "Newsletters" folder automatically
• SPAM — Archive or delete

Configure each route with the appropriate actions for your email provider and productivity tools.

Create a second automation that runs once daily (e.g., 8:00 AM):

1. Trigger: Schedule (daily at 8:00 AM)
2. Action: Collect all "FYI" emails from the past 24 hours
3. Action: Send them to AI with this prompt:

> "Here are my FYI emails from the past 24 hours. Create a brief daily digest with: > - 3-5 key highlights > - Any items that might need attention this week > - One interesting thing I might have missed"

1. Action: Send the digest to yourself via email or Slack.

Run the automation for 3 days before fully trusting it:

1. Send yourself test emails in each category to verify routing
2. Check the AI categorisation accuracy — is it getting categories right at least 90% of the time?
3. Review the daily digest — is it useful and concise?
4. Adjust the AI prompt if categories are being assigned incorrectly

Common adjustments:

• Add example emails to the prompt for better accuracy
• Add a "CLIENT" category if you get a lot of client emails
• Adjust the summary length based on your preference