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Claude Cowork2 min read
Inbox triage with Claude — from 60 unread to 10 minutes.
A simple prompt and a weekly tightening discipline. Most CW-1 alumni name this as the workflow that paid for the workshop.
Overview
You sit down to 60 unread emails. Some need replies today. Some need replies this week. Some you don't need to read at all. The triage prompt makes the bucketing decision for you in 30 seconds.
The morning triage prompt
"Read all unread emails in my inbox from the last 24 hours. For each: sender + subject; bucket as REPLY-TODAY / REPLY-THIS-WEEK / FYI-NO-ACTION / IGNORE. For REPLY-TODAY items, draft a 2-sentence reply in my voice. Group output by bucket."
Tightening the prompt
Week one, the buckets are slightly wrong. Some REPLY-TODAY items weren't urgent; some FYI items needed action. Add one line: "Treat anything from [specific client] as REPLY-TODAY even if it looks routine."
By week three the buckets fit your work and the morning triage takes 10 minutes instead of an hour.
Where it falls apart
If you don't act on the triage, the value is zero. The discipline is showing up the next morning, running the prompt, and actually replying to the REPLY-TODAY items. Three runs and it's a habit.
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