Inbox triage routine

Unread mail is the only queue nobody can inspect, so it becomes the week's plan. Messages that need one sentence sit next to notifications, and the person who is actually waiting gets answered three days later. The routine treats the inbox as a fixed appointment instead of a background process. Pick one window a day and protect it. Inside that window, work every thread once and take exactly one of four actions: delete it unread, answer in two sentences, schedule the reply with a date, or hand it to someone else with a line saying what you were asked for. Nothing stays in the inbox as a promise. Anything you cannot finish in the window becomes a task with a date so the thread can be closed. Filters handle the dull work: receipts and statements filed by rule, newsletters moved out of sight, and threads where you are not the only recipient archived automatically. Once a month, read the list of senders you subscribed to and never open, and unsubscribe without guilt. A person still decides what is urgent, what deserves a real answer, and what a reply owes. The pass is finished when the unread count is zero, or when every thread left open has a date and an owner attached.