Zero Inbox in 10 Minutes

The Problem

The average professional spends 2.5 hours per day on email. Most of that time is:

• Reading emails that don't require a response
• Writing replies to emails that follow a predictable pattern
• Deciding whether something is urgent or can wait
• Searching for an email from 3 weeks ago

None of that requires your brain. Claude can do it.

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What This Builds

A daily email triage routine where you tell Claude:

> "Process my inbox from the last 24 hours"

Claude will:

1. Read every unread email
2. Categorise each one: Urgent / Needs reply / FYI / Newsletter / Automated
3. Draft replies for any routine messages (meeting confirmations, standard questions, status updates)
4. Surface the 2-3 emails that genuinely need your attention
5. Archive everything that doesn't need a response

You review Claude's drafts, send the ones you approve, and you're done.

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MCP Servers Required

| Server | Purpose |

|---|---|

| Gmail MCP | Read, draft, label, and archive emails |

| Google Calendar MCP (optional) | Check availability when drafting meeting replies |

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Setup

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gmail": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-gmail"],
      "env": {
        "GOOGLE_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID": "your_client_id",
        "GOOGLE_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET": "your_client_secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Gmail MCP requires the same Google OAuth credentials as Calendar — if you set that up from the Daily Briefing playbook, you're already done.

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The Triage Prompt

Save this as a Claude Project instruction or paste it each time:

Process my inbox for the last 24 hours.

For each email:
- Categorise as: Urgent | Reply needed | FYI | Newsletter | Automated
- For "Reply needed" emails: draft a reply in my tone (professional but friendly, concise)
- For "Urgent" emails: surface them at the top with a one-line reason why they're urgent

Do NOT send anything. Only draft. I will review before sending.

My context:
- I work in [your role/field]
- I can decline meetings on Fridays
- Standard reply time expectation is same day for clients, 48h for others

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Real Examples

Email: "Can we do a quick 30-min call this week?"

Claude draft: "Absolutely — I have Thursday 2pm or Friday 10am free. Does either work for you?"

Email: "Following up on the invoice I sent last week"

Claude draft: "Apologies for the delay — I'll check on this and get back to you by end of day."

Email: Newsletter from SaaStr

Claude action: Archives immediately, no draft.

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Advanced: Auto-Labels

Ask Claude to apply Gmail labels as it triages:

> "Apply the label 'Claude/Urgent' to urgent emails, 'Claude/Drafted' to emails where you've drafted a reply"

Now you have a visual overview in Gmail even before you look at Claude's output.

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The Rule

Never send Claude's drafts without reading them. Claude will occasionally draft a reply that's technically correct but tonally wrong, or miss context you have that it doesn't. The 10 minutes you save is from the reading and categorising — the sending is always yours.