Prompt Almanac

Create intermediate Works with: Any AI

Outlook Inbox Triage System With Rules, Categories and Folders

Structured brief

Design a small, working system for handling a busy Outlook inbox.

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Design an inbox system in Outlook for me. My role and the kinds of email I receive: [ROLE_AND_EMAIL_TYPES]. Volume per day: [VOLUME]. Senders who matter most: [KEY_SENDERS]. What I must never miss: [MUST_NOT_MISS]. Current folders and habits: [CURRENT_SETUP].

Ask me for missing details about senders or topics before designing for them. Propose no more than six folders, colour categories with meanings, flags for follow-up, and a small set of rules. For each rule give the name, conditions (sender, subject words, recipients), action (move, categorise, mark), and what it must not do (never delete or forward automatically; forwarding to outside addresses may break policy [VERIFY]). Daily routine: when to check, and process each message once (do, delegate, defer, delete or archive), with a weekly review of rules and of the Read later folder, with a deletion policy.

Worked day: 120 emails arrive; rules move newsletters (30) and system notifications (25) out, leaving 65; of these 20 are handled in under two minutes, 10 delegated, 15 flagged and 20 archived; the inbox ends at zero. The routine is three sessions of 20 minutes. Explain how to create each rule and category [VERIFY menu names for desktop or web]. Test each rule on a few emails first, check Junk weekly, and review the rules list monthly because rules can hide important messages. Return a table of folders and categories, a numbered list of rules and a one-page routine.

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