This inbox sorting prompt solves the half hour lost every morning scrolling through email: list the sender, subject, and date of each message, paste the list to the AI, and it sorts everything into three groups using rules you set — urgent, needs a reply, and can be archived. Urgent items come first, messages that need a reply come with a draft attached, and you only confirm and send instead of rereading every message.
You do not need to change the structure below. Copy it and replace only the text inside the curly braces. The list only needs the sender, subject, and date. Do not paste verification codes, passwords, or full contracts; if a message body contains one key number, paste that one line only.
The prompt
You are a careful email assistant. Handle only the messages in the list below and do not guess anything beyond it.
Time range: {{time_range}}
Email list:
{{email_list}}
Urgency rule: {{urgency_rule}}
Reply style: {{reply_style}}
Archive rule: {{archive_rule}}
Output one table with these columns: number, category, message, suggested action, reply draft. The "can be archived" group needs no reply draft.
1. Put urgent messages first, with a suggested action and no reply draft.
2. Attach a reply draft to every message that needs a reply. Use only facts already in the list; leave numbers and dates that are not in the list blank, marked with square brackets.
3. Mark anything uncertain as "to confirm" and state clearly what still needs checking. Do not guess.
4. Do not output verification codes, passwords, or any sensitive content. If the list contains any, say first that it has been left out.
5. You only sort and draft. Do not send anything; I will confirm all results before anything is handled.
End with one summary line: how many messages in total, and how many are urgent, need a reply, or can be archived.What goes inside the curly braces
| Placeholder | How to fill it in | Example |
|---|---|---|
| {{time_range}} | State the period the list covers | Last 3 days; this morning |
| {{email_list}} | One message per line: date, sender, subject | Oct 30 · Finance team · October expense deadline reminder |
| {{urgency_rule}} | State what counts as urgent, and keep it narrow | A client is waiting for an answer before 6 p.m. today; a payment deadline is involved |
| {{reply_style}} | Tone plus a fixed wording for each type of reply | Short and polite; for leave requests, first confirm receipt, then give a time for the answer |
| {{archive_rule}} | State what can go straight to the archive | Notices already read, subscription mail, copies that need no reply |
Sort first, then decide what to answer
Do not reverse the order: look at the urgent table first and clear everything that must be handled today, then go through the reply drafts one by one and send them only after editing. Do not open archived messages one by one; before archiving in bulk, scan the subjects to make sure no urgent message was misfiled. If a draft sounds wrong, you do not need to rewrite the whole prompt — change one sentence in the reply style.
If the sorting goes wrong, adjust it like this
- Too many urgent messages: narrow the urgency rule and add "only messages meeting both conditions count as urgent."
- Notices mixed in with replies: add to the archive rule "notices that only need reading go straight to the archive."
- A draft with the wrong tone: add a ready-made wording to the reply style, for example start with "Received, checking now" instead of "Thank you for your email."
- Too many messages at once: split them into two batches of no more than 30, and start the second batch with "use the same sorting rules as the previous batch."
The value of this prompt is not the sorting itself. It is deciding in advance which message to read first and which to answer first. Once the rules are set, the same prompt works every day with a fresh list; when the rules change, edit two or three lines inside the curly braces instead of teaching the AI again from scratch. If a draft needs to go out in English, see this English email prompt (/article/2460) on the site.
