Automation
Automatic Email Triage
A rule that reads a defined slice of your inbox and files it before you see it, so what is left is mail from people.
Start narrow, label before you archive, and read every decision for a week before you let it act. The discipline is the Build.
Before you start
What it takes
- Time
- 1 hour to 1 hour 30 min
- Level
- Some experience helps
- Tools
- Zapier · ChatGPT
- Cost to run
- Free tier throughout, with a real ceiling. Zapier's free plan allows 100 automation runs a month, which is fine for a filtered slice and nowhere near enough for a whole inbox. Going beyond that starts at around $20 a month.
Last checked and updated 1 August 2026.
The plan
What you will do
All 5 steps, in the order you do them. There is a short setup before the first one, listing what to have open.
- Decide what you are allowed to automateAbout 12 minutes
- Write the classifierAbout 15 minutes
- Build the Zap, but do not let it act yetAbout 20 minutes
- Read every decision it madeAbout 15 minutes
- Let it act, and keep watchingAbout 12 minutes
Free
Automatic Email Triage can be your free Build.
Not a preview and not a sample. One Build of your choosing, all the way to a thing that works — and you only get one, so it may as well be the one you actually want.
- Every step in order, with the exact prompt to paste and where to paste it
- A checkpoint after each step, so you know it worked before moving on
- The walkthrough, the templates and any files that go with it
- Your place kept, so you can put it down and come back to the same step