Inbox Zero with AI
A free guide by Kamran Imam — Instagram · TikTok · YouTube
Email costs you more thinking than typing — every message is a small decision, and decisions compound into the 90 scattered minutes a day most professionals spend “doing email.” AI collapses the typing AND most of the deciding. The system:
Step 1 — build your voice file (once, 10 minutes)
Find 5 sent emails that sound like you on a good day. Then:
Here are 5 emails I've written: [paste]. Describe my email voice as instructions another writer could follow: greeting style, directness, sentence length, sign-off, what I never do. Keep it under 10 lines.Save the output. This is your voice file — paste it into any email-drafting chat, forever. (Or bake it into custom instructions: /r/setup.)
Step 2 — the triage pass (mornings, 5 minutes)
Paste your unread subject lines + senders (or connect your inbox if you use an AI email tool):
Sort these into four piles: NEEDS A REAL REPLY (thought required), QUICK YES/NO (one-liner closes it), CALENDAR (scheduling motion), NOISE (archive candidates). For the quick pile, draft the one-liners now.The quick pile — usually a third of the inbox — is done before your coffee cools.
Step 3 — batch the real replies (one sitting, not all day)
Per email:
[Voice file]. Reply to this: [paste]. My intent: [say yes with one condition / decline warmly / ask for X]. Two versions: 3 sentences and 6.You choose, tweak one phrase, send. The intent line is the trick — deciding what to say was always the hard part; now it’s one honest phrase instead of four rewrites.
Step 4 — the follow-up ledger (Fridays)
The invisible bleed of email isn’t replies — it’s the sent messages that never came back:
Here are threads I'm waiting on: [paste or list]. For each: how long since last touch, and draft a follow-up matched to the stage - nudge (3 days, light), bump (1 week, add value), closer (2+ weeks, "should I close the file?"). My voice: [voice file].The “closer” email gets responses at a rate that will genuinely surprise you.
The two-line rule that makes it all faster
Most replies deserve two sentences. AI’s instinct is five; add “max 2 sentences unless the situation truly needs more” to your voice file. Short reads as senior. And the never-rule: AI drafts, YOU send — nothing leaves your name without your eyes on it. That rule is permanent (/r/agents).
Related
/r/meetings · /r/automate (prompt #4 automates step 2) · /r/codes (#23)
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