and so do you...
According to Microsoft, we spend 8.8 hours per week on our emails. Basically, an entire workday wasted clicking through messages.
That’s 20% of your week spent:
I know I’m exaggerating (a little). Email is useful. But if we can even save a fraction of that time, that’s hours back in your week—every single week.
I’ve never been able to keep Inbox Zero until now.
The idea is simple: Every email gets handled, filed, or deleted ASAP so you’re not drowning in a digital landfill. Easier said than done.
Then I found Shortwave AI. These are my favorite features:
✅ Groups similar emails together so I can quickly process them in bulk. It automatically sorts unimportant updates into one section, making it easy to archive, delete, or mark them all as read in a few clicks.
✅ AI-powered responses that use the email chain for context. You can prompt the AI to draft replies, rewrite what you wrote, or generate quick responses—saving a ton of time on back-and-forth emails.
✅ Suggests actions based on email content—if it detects a date, it lets you schedule an event to your calendar in one click, and it understands email chains well enough to do things like add a description of the event.
I was skeptical before using it, but it’s been amazing so far.
Gmail and Outlook are starting to include these sorts of features, but I like the feel and functionality of Shortwave.
Most of the junk in your inbox comes from signing up for things.
Even if you unsubscribe, some companies will move you to a different newsletter or find other ways to keep emailing you.
One way to stop this: Masked emails.
This keeps your inbox clean, protects your real email from data leaks, and makes it easy to kill spam at the source.
Some email providers offer this as a built-in feature. If your inbox is overflowing with junk, it might be worth trying.
Your inbox isn’t your to-do list.
Instead of letting emails pile up, move them to where you actually handle tasks:
✅ Forward key emails to Todoist, Notion, Asana, Trello, or ClickUp. Most of these tools give you a unique email address that lets you create tasks via email. Just forward an email, and it will automatically turn into a task.
✅ Pipe important messages into Slack so they don’t get buried. Slack has built-in email integrations that let you send emails straight to a channel or DM.
✅ Automatically route client emails into your CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, etc.). Many CRMs allow you to BCC a unique email address on replies, so client emails get logged instantly.
Save each of these email addresses as a contact and give it an easily identifiable name. As you go through your inbox, any time you come across an email that needs action, just forward it to the right tool.
Forwarding emails is a great start, but it still relies on you to move things around. Automating takes it a step further—so important emails get handled automatically, and you only step in when needed.
Here are a few automations & AI-powered upgrades to streamline email even more:
✅ Auto-sort invoices into a database (Airtable, Google Sheets). Instead of searching through emails for invoices, set up a rule that automatically forwards emails with invoice-related terms (“invoice,” “payment received,” “receipt”) to a database for tracking.
✅ Route client emails into Slack or your CRM (more automated than simple forwarding). Instead of manually forwarding client emails, set up an automation that detects messages from client domains and pushes them into a Slack channel or CRM. This ensures the right people see them immediately—without clogging your inbox.
✅ Auto-reply to meeting requests—but with controls. Rather than blindly sending your scheduling link to anyone who asks, filter who gets an auto-reply.
✅ Flag important emails based on real context. Instead of just looking for keywords like “Action Required,” AI can analyze the contents of an email and flag it as high priority if it actually requires your input. This helps surface critical emails without adding noise.
AI Agents: The Next Step
You can take this even further by training AI agents to read, sort, and even respond to emails. These agents can:
The goal isn’t to remove all human input—it’s to reduce the number of emails you actually have to touch.
Sometimes, the line between automation and AI agents is blurred—what starts as a simple rule-based automation can evolve into an intelligent system that adapts based on patterns and context. The more refined your setup, the less you have to think about email at all.
If forwarding emails is manual, and filtering is semi-automated, then AI agents are the next level—handling emails before you even see them.
For me, email is just a tool—not a workspace. The more things sit in my inbox, the more times I end up seeing them, thinking about them, and wasting time on them.
So instead of letting emails pile up, I try to:
✅ Move tasks to a task manager (Todoist, Notion, Asana, etc.)
✅ Route client communication to my CRM or Slack so it’s in the right place
✅ Save important info where it actually belongs instead of leaving it in an email thread
✅ Archive or delete things immediately if I don’t need them
I’ve found that the faster I get things out of email, the less time I waste re-reading the same messages over and over again.
I’m not saying this is the only way to handle email, but figuring out a system that gets me out of my inbox has saved me a ton of time.
And the less time I spend on email, the better.
“Lost time is never found again.” – Benjamin Franklin