The short answer: turn on alfred_’s Wrap up my day routine and choose text. Every weekday at 4:30 PM it texts you the client replies and approvals still waiting on you, with who, what for and how long, oldest first. The same text covers today’s open tasks, anything overdue, and what is on tomorrow before 10 AM. Answer from the car by texting alfred_ back.
The 4:30 problem
You are an account manager at a commercial cleaning company with twenty-odd buildings on your book. Today was a 9 AM walkthrough at a medical office, an 11 AM complaint about a lobby, and a 2 PM crew meeting at a school. While you were walking floors, the email kept coming: a property manager asking you to confirm the holiday schedule, a facility director who wants to add a Saturday clean, an office manager with a restroom complaint.
At 4:30 you are in the car. Two of those need an answer today. The rest can wait until morning. The problem is knowing which two without scrolling a day of email on a phone in a parking lot.
That is the job of this text, and it serves two outcomes owners care about. Nothing slips through the cracks. And the admin comes off the account manager: the replies go out from the parking lot in five minutes, instead of eating the evening or the next morning’s sales calls.
The native ways, and where they stop
- Outlook flags. Flag a message that needs a reply and it shows up in the To-Do Bar and Tasks (Microsoft Support). It covers what you flagged, and flagging is the thing nobody does from a job site.
- Gmail nudges. “Suggest emails to reply to” puts messages you may have forgotten at the top of your inbox (Gmail Help). You see them when you open Gmail.
- Microsoft Viva. The daily Briefing email that used to show follow-up reminders from your email is paused. Those reminders now live in the Viva Insights add-in, built from your sent mail and the requests colleagues emailed you over the last 14 days, and you open it inside Outlook (Microsoft Learn).
- Texts from Outlook. Microsoft discontinued text message notifications for Microsoft 365 accounts on Exchange Online and points you to the Outlook phone app instead (Microsoft Support).
Every one of these waits for you to open something. None of them texts you a short list at 4:30.
Turn on Wrap up my day
- On your desktop, open alfred_ and go to Routines.
- Open Wrap up my day, and choose text, email or both.
- Press Turn it on.
It runs weekdays at 4:30 PM in your time zone. For texts, add your mobile number in Settings and send alfred_ one text from that phone; that switches texting on, with no code to enter. The SMS quickstart walks through it.
What it reads:
- Inbox threads from the last 7 days where someone else sent the last message and asked you for something: a reply, an approval only you can give.
- Your tasks due today that are still open, plus anything overdue.
- Tomorrow’s calendar before 10 AM.
It skips newsletters, receipts and automated mail, and it asks you nothing.
What the text looks like
alfred_ 3 clients waiting on you. Dana Ortiz, confirm holiday schedule, 3 days. Marcus Lee, approve added Saturday clean, 2 days. Ana Ruiz, lobby restroom complaint, since 11 AM. Still open: Parkview revised scope. Tomorrow 8 AM walkthrough, St. Anne’s. Start with Dana. [link to the full list]
Illustrative example, not output from a real run. Names and buildings are invented, and the wording differs from run to run.
A text has room for about 300 characters, so the full version, with every thread, sits behind the link, in the web app, and in your email if you chose email too. If nothing needs you, it says so in one line and stops; a run with nothing to report does not text you.
Answer from where you are
The text is the list, not the reply. From the parking lot:
You: Reply to Dana Ortiz: confirmed, same holiday schedule as last year, crews off the 25th and the 1st.
alfred_ shows you the reply and sends it only when you say yes. Or open the iPhone app: email drafting is on by default, so there may already be a reply in your voice under Dana’s email with Edit and Send. Nothing sends until you send it.
What it leaves out
- Threads where you sent the last message. Those are waiting on the client, not on you; if you asked for something in them, they show up on Monday’s list of what you are still waiting on.
- Requests older than 7 days.
- Newsletters, receipts and automated notices.
- Anyone else’s inbox. It is your list, from your mail.
Where each step happens
- Desktop, in the office: turn it on from Routines, and read the full list in the web app.
- Text, at 4:30 on the road: the short list, and texting replies back.
- iPhone app: alfred_’s drafts under each email, ready to edit and send.
- Email, if you chose it: the full list in your inbox.
The honest caveat
It reads the inboxes you connected, and only yours. If clients write to a shared service address you have not connected, their requests are not in it. Whether a message “asked you for something” is alfred_’s reading of the thread, so a request buried in a long reply-all can be missed. And it is a report: it tells you who is waiting, and you still send the reply. Plans are on the pricing page.