The short answer: switch on alfred_’s Wrap up my day routine. At 4:30 PM on weekdays it sends you, by text, email or on the web, three short lists: the replies people are still waiting on from you and approvals only you can give, oldest first; your open and overdue tasks; and what’s on tomorrow before 10 AM.
Between showings you answer what’s loud: the buyer texting from the driveway, the listing agent calling about the counter. What goes quiet is email. The sellers who asked on Monday whether the price change is live yet. The lender who needs your OK on the repair credit before the Closing Disclosure can be redrawn. By late afternoon you’ve been in the car all day, and the email that needed a two-line answer is three screens down.
The native way, and where it stops
Gmail has reply nudges. In Settings, on the General tab, next to “Nudges,” turn on “Suggest emails to reply to,” and Gmail shows “emails that you forgot to reply to” at the top of your inbox (Gmail Help).
Where it stops: it’s a suggestion at the top of a Gmail inbox, and you see it only when you open Gmail, one account at a time. It doesn’t come to you when the day winds down, and it doesn’t put the lender’s question next to tomorrow’s 9 AM inspection.
Outlook lets you flag what you receive. Microsoft describes flagging as the way to “make sure that you follow up on messages that you receive,” with an optional reminder (Microsoft Support).
Where it stops: you flag each one yourself, usually while reading it on your phone in a parking lot, which is exactly when you won’t.
Your CRM has a task list for leads and contacts. The lender’s email about the repair credit isn’t a CRM task. It’s an email in your inbox, and the CRM doesn’t know you haven’t answered it.
Wrap up my day: three lists at 4:30
Open Routines in alfred_ on the desktop, find Wrap up my day, and switch it on. (The iPhone app has a Routines screen too.) It runs at 4:30 PM, Monday through Friday. Routines come with an alfred_ subscription; plans are on the pricing page.
To get it by text, add your mobile number in Settings, then text alfred_ once from that phone. That first text verifies the number; there’s no code to type. It works over iMessage or regular SMS, with no app to install. The wrap-up can also arrive by email, and it’s on the web in alfred_.
What’s in it:
- Replies people are still waiting on from you, and approvals only you can give. It looks at threads from the last 7 days where someone else sent the last message and asked you for something, and lists who, what for, and how long they’ve waited, oldest first.
- Tasks you marked for today that are still open, plus anything overdue.
- Anything on tomorrow’s calendar before 10 AM, then the one thing tomorrow should start with.
It skips newsletters, receipts and automated mail. If nothing needs you, it says so in one line and stops.
What it looks like
Example, invented for this post. Tuesday, 4:30 PM, by text.
Waiting on you, oldest first:
- Sellers, 220 Pine Avenue: asked Monday whether the price change is live. 1 day.
- Lender, 14 Oak Street: needs your OK on the $2,500 repair credit before the Closing Disclosure is redrawn. 6 hours.
- Buyers, 9 Birch Lane: asked if Saturday at 11 works for a second showing. 3 hours.
Today and overdue: send the CMA for 1180 Harbor Road (overdue since Monday). Order the sign rider for 220 Pine Avenue.
Tomorrow before 10: home inspection, 14 Oak Street, 9:00.
Start tomorrow with: the lender on 14 Oak Street.
What it leaves out
- Your texts. It reads your connected email, your alfred_ tasks and your calendar, not the messages on your phone. A buyer who texted you at lunch isn’t on the list.
- Threads where you sent the last message. Once you’ve replied, it’s off your list. What other people owe you is a different routine, Chase what I’m owed, on Monday mornings.
- Anything older than 7 days. The first list looks at the last week of threads.
- Automated mail, which can include lead notifications. A lead that arrives as an automated portal email may be treated as automated mail. For leads that can’t wait until 4:30, a rule that texts you when they arrive is the right tool: get a text when an important email arrives.
Answering from the car
The list arrives in the same text thread you use to talk to alfred_, so you can work it down between showings:
- “Reply to the lender on 14 Oak Street: yes, the sellers approved the $2,500 credit.” alfred_ shows you the reply and sends only when you say yes.
- “Tell the buyers on 9 Birch Lane Saturday at 11 works.” Same preview, same yes.
- “Remind me at 8 tomorrow to call the sellers about the price change.” You get a text at 8.
The routine itself writes nothing. If alfred_’s reply drafting is on (it is by default), a draft may already be waiting on an email, and nothing is sent until you send it.
That’s the outcome agents actually want: they stay selling, and the admin gets done in the gaps. Nothing slips overnight, because the list comes before you stop, not the next morning. And there’s no end-of-day inbox sweep to do by hand, because the sweep is the text. What it doesn’t do is report to anyone else: there’s no broker view, and the list is yours.
Where each step happens
- Desktop, in the office: switch the routine on, write the longer replies, and read the documents on a real screen.
- Text, on the road: the 4:30 list, quick replies, reminders. See what you can ask by text.
- Email or the web: the same lists, if you’d rather read them at a desk.
- iPhone app, parked: open the thread and the attachment, and see alfred_’s draft under an email with Edit and Send.
The honest caveat
“Asked you for something” is a judgment alfred_ makes by reading each thread. A seller’s “no rush, whenever you get a chance” may or may not make the list, and a long thread can be read differently than you would. Read it as the prompt for your last ten minutes of admin, not as proof you’ve answered everyone.