AI Email Management

Inbox Zero — Every Day

🔄 Quick Recall: In the previous lesson, you set up AI scheduling to save 4.8 hours per week on calendar management. Now you’ll tackle the other major time drain: email. AI email tools save another 3-4 hours weekly.

The average executive receives 120-150 emails daily. Without a system, managing that inbox can consume 2-3 hours of your day. With AI, you can process the entire inbox in under 30 minutes.

The Three-Layer Email System

The most effective approach uses three AI layers, each reducing the workload for the next:

Layer 1: Auto-Triage

AI categorizes every incoming email instantly:

Tools that do this: SaneBox (works with any email client), Shortwave (Gmail), Inbox Zero (open-source).

SaneBox, for example, learns which senders your executive considers important, which emails get quick replies versus long responses, and which are always archived unread. It gets smarter over time.

Layer 2: Voice-Matched Drafting

Once emails are sorted, AI pre-drafts responses for the “needs response” category — in your executive’s voice.

Setting up voice matching:

Analyze the writing style of these 20 sent emails from [executive name].
Identify patterns in:
- Greeting style (formal vs. informal, by recipient type)
- Sentence length and paragraph structure
- Tone markers (direct, warm, diplomatic, etc.)
- Common phrases and sign-offs
- How they handle requests (immediate yes, conditional yes, redirect, decline)

Create a voice guide I can use when drafting emails on their behalf.

Once you have the voice guide, include it in every drafting prompt:

Draft a reply to this email using [executive name]'s voice:
[paste voice guide summary]

The email to reply to:
[paste incoming email]

Context: [any additional information — like "they're supportive of this project" or "they want to delay this decision until Q2"]

✅ Quick Check: Why is the “context” line in the drafting prompt so important? Because AI can match tone and style perfectly, but it can’t know your executive’s current position on an issue, their relationship with the sender, or internal politics. That context — which only you know — is what separates a generic draft from one your executive approves without changes.

Layer 3: Review and Send

With emails sorted and drafted, your morning routine becomes:

1. Urgent (5 min): Review and send the 3-5 urgent AI drafts, or escalate to your executive
2. Needs response (15 min): Review the 20-30 pre-drafted replies, adjust context where needed, send
3. FYI (5 min): Batch-archive informational emails, flagging only items your executive should see
4. Newsletters (2 min): Quick scan for relevant content, forward highlights to your executive

Total: ~30 minutes for 120-150 emails.

Email Templates for Common Scenarios

Build a template library for recurring email types. AI uses these as starting points:

Meeting request response:

Draft a response to this meeting request:
[paste request]

Template: [Executive] is interested but needs to know the agenda
and expected outcomes before confirming. Suggest they send a brief
outline. Tone: warm but professional.

Scheduling coordination:

Draft an email to coordinate schedules for a meeting between
[executive] and [contacts]. Include 3 time options from
[executive]'s availability this week. Tone: efficient and friendly.

Decline with grace:

Draft a polite decline for this invitation:
[paste invitation]

Reason: [executive] has a scheduling conflict / this doesn't align
with current priorities / suggest connecting next quarter.
Tone: warm, appreciative, leaves door open for future.

✅ Quick Check: Why build templates instead of writing fresh prompts every time? Because templates encode your executive’s preferences and standard responses. The AI doesn’t need to figure out how your executive typically declines invitations — the template already captures that pattern. You just provide the specific context for each situation, and AI fills in the rest.

Managing Multiple Inboxes

Many EAs manage their own inbox plus their executive’s (and sometimes a shared team inbox):

Pro tip: Set up different AI profiles for each inbox. Your executive’s profile uses their voice guide; the team inbox uses a neutral professional tone.

Key Takeaways

• The three-layer system (auto-triage → voice-matched drafting → review-and-send) processes 150 emails in 30 minutes
• Voice matching is the key to executive approval — AI drafts that sound like your executive get sent without revision
• Build a voice guide by analyzing 20+ sent emails for patterns in tone, greeting, structure, and sign-offs
• Always add context to drafting prompts — AI handles style, you provide the judgment
• Template libraries for common scenarios (meeting requests, declines, coordination) speed up every future draft

Up Next: You’ll learn meeting intelligence — how AI transcribes meetings, generates briefing docs before calls, and automates the entire follow-up workflow.