How to Automate Inbox Triage and Prioritization with AI

What This Workflow Does

Email overwhelm is real. Most professionals receive 50-200 emails daily. Processing each one (deciding importance, determining next action, filing appropriately) creates significant cognitive overhead.

Inbox triage handles this automatically:

1. Classifies incoming emails into custom categories you define
2. Assesses priority based on sender, content, and context
3. Drafts replies for emails that warrant responses
4. Detects action items hidden in email threads
5. Applies labels while respecting your manual organization
6. Generates a daily brief summarizing what needs attention

How It Works

Step 1: Define Your Categories

You tell Consul how you organize email. Common categories include:

• Needs Response: Emails requiring a reply from you
• FYI: Informational emails, no action needed
• Meeting Requests: Scheduling-related emails
• Urgent: Time-sensitive matters requiring immediate attention
• Newsletters: Subscriptions and marketing emails
• Delegated: Items for your team to handle

You can create any categories that match your workflow. Consul learns to apply them consistently.

Step 2: Set Draft Preferences

For each category, you specify whether Consul should:

• Always draft a reply: For categories where responses are routine
• Never draft a reply: For FYI or newsletter categories
• Draft when appropriate: Let AI decide based on content

This prevents unnecessary drafts while ensuring important emails get response suggestions.

Step 3: Process Incoming Email

When new email arrives, Consul runs triage in a single, efficient pass:

Classification: Consul reads the email content, sender relationship, and thread context to assign the appropriate category.

Priority Assessment: Beyond category, Consul assesses urgency based on:

• Sender importance (executives, clients, key contacts)
• Time-sensitive language ("urgent", "by EOD", "deadline")
• Thread history (ongoing conversation vs. new thread)
• Content significance (decisions, commitments, requests)

Draft Generation: If the category calls for it, Consul drafts an appropriate reply:

• Matches your writing style (formal, casual, brief, detailed)
• Addresses the specific content of the email
• Includes relevant context from your calendar or previous threads
• Waits for your approval before sending

Action Detection: Consul identifies commitments and requests embedded in emails:

• "Can you send me the report by Friday?"
• "Let's plan to follow up next week"
• "I'll need your input before the meeting"

These become actionable items you can track.

Step 4: Label Application

Consul applies Gmail labels to organize your inbox. Key behaviors:

Respects manual labels: If you've already labeled an email, Consul won't overwrite it. Your organization takes precedence.

Consistent application: The same type of email gets the same label every time.

Thread-aware: Labels apply appropriately to entire threads, not just individual messages.

Step 5: Daily Brief Generation

Each morning, Consul prepares a summary:

• New emails needing response (count and highlights)
• Urgent items flagged for immediate attention
• Today's calendar with meeting context
• Action items due from previous emails
• Suggested follow-ups for unanswered threads

This brief replaces the overwhelming experience of opening your inbox cold. You start knowing exactly what needs attention.

Setting Up Inbox Triage

What You See Each Day

Morning Brief

When you start your day, Consul shows:

📬 12 new emails overnight
  - 3 need your response
  - 2 meeting requests
  - 7 FYI/newsletters

⚡ 1 urgent item
  - Client escalation from Sarah (arrived 11pm)

📅 Today's calendar
  - 9am: Team standup
  - 11am: Client review
  - 2pm: Board prep

✅ 2 action items due
  - Send proposal to Jane (committed Tuesday)
  - Review contracts (deadline today)

Categorized Inbox View

Your inbox organized by priority:

Urgent (1)

• [Sarah Chen] Issue with deployment - needs immediate attention

Needs Response (3)

• [Mike Johnson] Question about Q2 projections
• [Lisa Park] Partnership opportunity
• [Tom Davis] Feedback on presentation

Meeting Requests (2)

• [Alex Wong] Coffee chat next week?
• [Board EA] Board meeting scheduling

FYI (7)

• Various newsletters and notifications

Ready Drafts

For emails marked "Needs Response," Consul prepares drafts:

To: Mike Johnson Subject: Re: Question about Q2 projections

Draft ready for review:

"Hi Mike, The Q2 projections you asked about show a 15% increase over Q1, primarily driven by the new enterprise contracts. I've attached the detailed breakdown. Let me know if you need additional context for your presentation."

Review and approve to send

Customization Options

Priority Rules

Define what makes an email urgent for your context:

• Specific senders always flagged as priority
• Keywords that trigger urgent classification
• Domains that warrant immediate attention
• Thread patterns (escalation, multiple stakeholders)

Category Behaviors

Fine-tune how each category works:

• Notification settings: Get alerts for urgent, batch notifications for FYI
• Archive behavior: Auto-archive newsletters after reading
• Response timing: Draft follow-ups for overdue items

Writing Style Per Context

Different relationships warrant different tones:

• Formal for clients and executives
• Casual for close colleagues
• Brief for internal requests
• Detailed for external partners

Consul learns these patterns from your existing emails and applies them appropriately.

Common Scenarios

Handling Email While Away

Going on vacation? Consul continues triaging:

• Urgent items get flagged for immediate attention (via mobile notification)
• Routine emails get sorted and queued for your return
• Auto-responses can be drafted for appropriate senders

You return to an organized inbox, not email chaos.

Processing Email Backlog

Behind on email? Consul can process historical emails:

• Triage your last 7/14/30 days of email
• Identify conversations that still need response
• Flag dropped threads that warrant follow-up
• Clean up newsletters and FYI items

Turn a daunting backlog into an organized todo list.

Team Email Management

For shared inboxes or when managing for an executive:

• Route emails to appropriate team members
• Flag items requiring the principal's attention
• Draft responses for delegation
• Track response status across the team

Why This Works

Single-Pass Efficiency

Traditional email processing requires multiple decisions per email:

1. Is this important?
2. What category does it belong to?
3. Do I need to respond?
4. What should I say?
5. When do I need to act?

Consul handles all of this in one intelligent pass. You see the result, not the process.

Context Awareness

Consul doesn't just read the current email. It understands:

• Your relationship with the sender
• The history of this thread
• Your calendar and commitments
• Your typical response patterns

This context makes classification and drafting accurate, not generic.

Respect for Your System

Many automation tools impose their own organization. Consul adapts to yours:

• Uses your existing labels
• Respects your manual organization
• Learns your categories over time
• Never overwrites your decisions

You stay in control of how your inbox is organized.

Getting Started

Setting up inbox triage takes about 3 minutes:

1. Connect your Gmail account
2. Define 3-5 initial categories
3. Set draft preferences per category
4. Let Consul calibrate on recent emails

Tomorrow morning, you'll have a daily brief waiting. Your inbox will be sorted. Drafts will be ready for approval.

Email processing becomes a 10-minute review instead of an hour-long excavation.