How AI sorts my email so I only see what needs me

I've spent hundreds of hours figuring things out, and my goal is to give you a shortcut to save all of that time to get you from where you are to AI-native as fast as possible. All you need to do is copy this text and paste it right into your AI model of choice, or download this as a text file and tell it to read your downloads folder.

My AI read every one of those 581. The other 431 my AI sorted out of my way: junk, updates, or someone else's to answer. For the 150 that need me, the digging is done before I open them. I read what my AI found, fix the draft if I need to, and send.

Writing the reply was never the hard part. Finding the few emails that need you, and doing the homework on each one, was.

Here's how to set up the plain version yourself, for free, with ChatGPT or with Claude, a different AI assistant that works the same way. Every prompt is written out word for word, so you can copy and paste it.

The short version:

Connect your email to Claude or ChatGPT.
Paste in my sorting prompt. It splits your inbox into what needs you and what doesn't.
Have it draft replies, read them, and send the good ones yourself.

If you're not sure which app to use, start with Claude.

I'm the chief operating officer of a construction company in New York. If your day runs through your inbox, in any business, this is for you.

There are three levels. Level 1 sorts your inbox today. Level 2 teaches it to write like you. Level 3 describes my own setup, so you can see what the plain version grows into.

The one rule: nothing goes out until you say send

The AI reads, sorts and drafts. You decide, every time. Every prompt here says "do not send." Keep that line in. You copy each reply into your email and send it yourself.

A few more habits that keep you safe:

Check any number, date or promise in a draft against the original email.
Never paste passwords or bank details into the chat.
If your work has privacy rules, like patient records, keep that information out. Don't connect an inbox that holds patient records unless you know your rules allow it.

Level 1: Start today

What you need: Claude or ChatGPT, and your work email. Look for Gmail or Outlook in your app's list of connections. If it isn't there, copy three emails into the chat instead. That works on every free plan.

Step 1. Connect your email

Connecting means giving your AI permission to read your email. Do it on a computer the first time.

In Claude: Customize, then Connectors, then Gmail. On Outlook, pick Microsoft 365 instead, which covers Outlook.
In ChatGPT: Settings, then Plugins, then Gmail.

Step 2. Have it sort your inbox

Start with the last three days, so you can check its work. Copy and paste this:

Look at my Gmail inbox from the last 3 days. Do not send, delete or archive anything.

Sort every email into one of four groups:
1. NEEDS ME: someone asked me a direct question, is waiting on my decision, or a deadline is coming.
2. NOT MINE: I'm only copied, a teammate already answered, or it's written to someone else.
3. UPDATES: reports and news I might want to skim.
4. JUNK: newsletters, promotions and automated notices.

For each NEEDS ME email, give me one line: who it's from, what they want, and by when.
Put the most urgent one at the top.
Then list the other three groups, one short line per email, so I can check your sorting.

On Outlook, say Outlook wherever a prompt says Gmail. If you pasted emails, say "these emails" instead.

Look hard at the NOT MINE group. In my inbox, it's huge.

Now have it do the homework on the first one:

Take the first email in NEEDS ME. Read the whole thread from the beginning, and any attachments you can open.
Then tell me:
- What this is about, in two sentences.
- What they need from me.
- Anything I should know before I answer: numbers, dates, promises, problems.
- Anything you could not open or are not sure about.
Do not send anything.

If an attachment doesn't open through the email connection, download it and drop it into the chat. Claude and ChatGPT both read PDFs that way.

Step 3. Have it draft a reply for you to review

Draft a reply to that email for me to review. Do not send it.
Keep it short and plain. Answer only what they asked.
Do not promise any date, price or commitment I have not given you.
If the reply needs one, leave a blank like [DATE?] and tell me.
Show me the draft, then wait for my answer.

Read it, then type back one word or a quick fix:

send: copy it into your email and send it yourself.
fix: tell it what to change. "Shorter." "Warmer." "Say we can start Monday."
skip: no reply needed.

The first drafts won't sound like you yet. Level 2 fixes that.

Level 2: Teach it to write like you

Have the AI read your past replies and write a one-page document about how you write. I call mine My Voice.

Go through my last 50 sent emails. Do not send, delete or change anything.
Write me a one-page guide to how I write emails, called My Voice. Include:
1. How I open and close my emails, with real examples of my wording.
2. How long my replies usually are.
3. Words and phrases I use a lot, and ones I never use.
4. How my tone changes for different people: customers, my team, vendors, lawyers and anyone new.
5. Five short example replies that sound exactly like me.
Leave out private details. No names, email addresses, phone numbers, prices or account numbers.

Point four matters more than it looks. How I talk to my lawyer, my customer and my employee sounds completely different.

How to use it:

Copy what it writes into a Google Doc or a plain text file, and save it.
Put it where your AI sees it every time. Claude and ChatGPT both have Projects, free plans included. In these apps, a Project has nothing to do with a job. It's a folder that keeps the same files and instructions for every chat in it. Make one called Email and add My Voice to it.
Add this line to your Step 3 prompt: "Check every draft against My Voice and fix anything that doesn't sound like me."

Keep it growing. Every time you fix a draft, tell it why. Then say: "Add that to My Voice," and save the new version over the old one.

Be honest with yourself here. Even in my own setup, with my voice guide, I still edit about one draft in four.

Put it together: your morning run

Run this every morning inside your Email Project. Each email that needs you comes back as a card: a short block of text with a draft reply, marked red, yellow or green by how urgent it is.

Use My Voice for every draft.
Look at my Gmail inbox since yesterday morning. Do not send, delete or archive anything.
Set aside anything I'm only copied on, or that a teammate already answered. List those, one line each.
For every email that needs me, read the whole thread and any attachments you can open, then give me a card:

[red, yellow or green] FROM: who | ABOUT: the subject
WHAT THEY NEED: one line
WHAT YOU FOUND: up to three bullets from the thread and attachments
DRAFT REPLY: short, in my voice
WATCH OUT: money, a promise, a deadline, or someone copied who shouldn't see it
MY CALL: send, fix, hold or skip

Red means act today: money, legal, an unhappy customer or a deadline.
Yellow means a routine reply. Green means nothing on me.
Sort the cards red first. Nothing gets sent until I type send.

Level 3: What my own setup adds

This part is my own setup, which I've built over the last few months. I'm describing it so you can see where the plain version goes.

It reads my email as it comes in. It reads nearly every work email within minutes, day or night, and sets aside what isn't mine.

The ones that need me show up researched. The whole thread, every attachment, and what my team already said.

It reads WhatsApp, texts and Slack too. So everything about one question comes together in one place.

I answer in one word. I go down a list sorted by color, red first, and type something like: "1, send. 2, send. 3, hold." Most of my email now looks like that.

Nothing goes out until I say send. Before I do, it checks the numbers and who's copied.

It keeps my corrections. When I change a draft, it writes down what I changed and why. That's how I teach it, one fix at a time.

It isn't perfect. I still read every email it flags, and I still edit drafts.

I call this whole system Jarvis. It's my own name for it, not a product. I'm showing how I built each piece, one video at a time. Follow me so you don't miss the next one.

One free next step

Want to know what to set up after this? I made a free quiz at bernan.ai/score. It takes about 10 minutes and tells you what to try next with AI in your business.

Start with Level 1 today. Sort three days of email, and see how much of it was never yours.