First morning back. 412 unread emails, a red badge on Slack, and a calendar that somebody has been filling while you were away. The instinct is to start at the oldest message and read forward. That takes most of the day, and by lunch you still do not know what is urgent.
Almost everything in that pile has already resolved itself. A question was answered by someone else. A meeting happened. A thread ended. The job is not to read it. The job is to find the part that is still open.
Catch up by question, not by date
| Order | Question | Why first |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Who is waiting on an answer from me? | These get worse every hour |
| 2 | What changed with my most important clients? | So you are not surprised on a call |
| 3 | What did the team decide without me? | So you do not reopen settled things |
| 4 | What is on my calendar this week? | So you know what you have to be ready for |
Doing it by hand, in about an hour
- Do not open the inbox top-down. Search instead. In Gmail:
from:client.com newer_than:10d. Do that for your three or four most important clients and for your manager. - Sort by sender. In Outlook, sort the inbox by From. Whole blocks of newsletters and notifications can be archived at once.
- Chat by mentions only. In Slack, open Activity. In Teams, open the Activity feed. Read what named you and leave the channels.
- Look at the week. Open the calendar and check what was added.
- Write the list. Who you owe a reply, in order.
It works. The weak step is the first one: you can only search for the clients you think of.
Asking instead
alfred_ is an AI personal assistant for work. It reads your email as it arrives, including while you are away, and keeps the threads waiting on your answer on one list. It also connects to your calendar, Slack and Microsoft Teams. So the four questions are four questions.
Who is waiting on me? The list is already there when you get back, across every connected inbox. Ask about chat too:
# ops
Dana Kim
@Chris did the Acme invoice go out? Need it before Friday.
Direct message
Luis Ortega
Can you send over the signed SOW?
alfred_
Today 9:41 AM
Anything in Slack waiting on me?
Delivered
Two things. Dana asked in #ops yesterday if the Acme invoice went out.
Luis asked for the signed SOW in a DM on Monday.
Remind me about Luis at 4
Delivered
Got it. I'll text you at 4:00 PM.
What changed with a client? “What did I miss from Harbor Facilities since the 15th?” It answers from the email threads, and from the deal in HubSpot or Salesforce if you have connected one.
What did the team decide?
What did the team decide about the Harbor walkthrough?
Searching Slack for #harbor-facilitiesChecked SlackSlack
#harbor-facilities · Dana Kim · Yesterday 4:12 PM
#harbor-facilities · Luis Ortega · Yesterday 4:30 PM
It moved to Thursday at 10. Dana confirmed it yesterday, and Luis said he'd bring the updated quote.
What did the team decide about the Harbor walkthrough?
What is on this week? “What’s on my calendar this week?” returns every connected calendar together.
Then answer, in order
For each person waiting, ask for a draft, review it and send it. alfred_ does not send anything on its own, and it did not reply to anyone while you were away.
Once that list is clear, sort what is left by sender and archive in blocks. You do not owe those messages a read.
Before the next time
Two things shorten the first morning back: an out-of-office that says when you will answer, and one colleague named in it for anything urgent. Fewer people wait, and the ones who do know how long.
Plans start at $29.99 a month with a 7-day free trial. More on what you can ask is on the Ask page.
