Triage: assign, tag, flag

The Inbox is a work queue, not a mail client. Triage is deciding what each conversation is.

The moves

Assign — give it to a person or an agent. An assigned conversation has an owner.

Tag — classify it so you can find the set later.

Flag — mark it as needing attention beyond the ordinary.

Status — move it out of the active set when it is handled.

Bulk — do any of the above to many at once. The fastest way through a backlog.

Steps

1. Open Inbox.
2. Work oldest-first, or by whatever your team treats as urgent.
3. For each: assign an owner, tag it, and set its status.
4. Use bulk actions for anything repetitive.

You're done when every active conversation has an owner and a status.

Letting agents do it

Ask your Chief of Staff to triage the inbox and it will sort what needs a decision from what can wait, draft replies for the straightforward ones, and flag anything with a deadline. That is one of the starter briefs, and it is the fastest way to see what the Inbox is for.

Gotchas

• Summarise long threads before reading them. A twenty-message thread summarises in a sentence and saves the read.
• Assigning to an agent does not send anything. Drafts still wait for approval.