I get, on average, 90+ emails a day hitting my inbox.

Newsletters from friends and clients I want to keep up with, software updates that may or may not need action, invoices that need to be paid, receipts that need to be filed, and calendar invites to accept. Not to mention stripe notifications, spam, and cold pitches that don’t even mention my name.

Most of it isn't urgent, and plenty of it I'll never read, but tucked in there is stuff I need or want to know, and it gets lost or missed all too easily.

Now, if I miss paying an invoice, someone’s going to send a reminder. But when a friend announces they’re getting married, a peer has their best launch ever, or a potential client puts a call out looking for someone who does the exact thing I do, I don’t want to miss those.

I have tried so many different things to stay on top of it all while also keeping my inbox at zero.

Filters are the obvious choice to try first, but there's only so much they can do and they’re such a pain to manage. Plus, when something goes wrong it’s not easy to spot.

Besides, what I really needed was someone to triage my email, not just label it. I needed someone who could read an email, decide what was important and what could be archived without a second glance.

So I hired a VA.

But it was hit and miss. They couldn’t always tell what invoices were already paid or what still needed to be done. They didn’t always know what was important to tell me from the newsletters of the friends and peers I was trying to stay connected with. And they were overly cautious and often left over half the emails for me to look at because they weren’t sure it was safe to archive.

I tried a couple of different people but it was no good.

Then came AI and vibe coding. When Lovable came on the scene you can bet this was the first problem I tried to solve. But after a couple months of building, the security wasn’t good enough and I didn’t know enough on my own to fix it. So it went on the back burner.

It’s been a year and a half since that attempt and I figured it was finally time to try again.

I worked with Claude to build out a lightweight app using Google Apps Script and I have to tell you this thing is beautiful. It’s easy to update, easy to use, and easy to stop using.

I’m running a test with it right now to make sure there’s no hiccups, but so far I’m loving it.

This thing checks my inbox every fifteen minutes and:

• Labels everything.
• Archives everything that doesn’t need a response from me.
• Checks each newsletter sender against my CRM and, if there’s a match, it updates the record with anything noteworthy that I may want to reference the next time I reach out to them.
• Pings me if there’s a CRM match and there’s something timely I should respond to.
• Creates a task in my project management tool for anything that needs action (Invoices that need to be paid. A change to an app that needs my attention, etc).
• Captures any opportunities from HARO or podcasts etc.
• Pings me if there’s a last minute change to a calendar event.
• Keeps an eye out for anyone who might be a potential client or referral partner.
• Pulls newsletter ideas when topics come up that I might have a unique perspective on.
• Sends me a daily brief giving me the highlights on any news items I’ve told it to watch for.
• Lets me know if anyone is waiting on me for anything.

That’s a lot!

It would take me at least an hour or two just to go through it all most days, and that doesn't even include the time it would take to create tasks and capture opportunities.

I just can’t keep up with 90+ emails a day on my own, and the important ones were slipping past me. Now they don’t.

The part I care about most is the CRM notes. When a friend shares big news in a newsletter, or a peer has their best launch ever, I’ll know about it and can reach out while it still matters.

It’s still in test mode, so I’m not calling it done just yet. But if you’re curious about how it’s set up let me know. I’m eager to answer any questions you might have. Just hit reply and ask.

xo,
Sandra