How to hand your inbox to an assistant

The average knowledge worker checks email about 70 times a day. Almost none of those checks end in an action. They end in a decision to do nothing yet, which is the most expensive decision there is, because you will make it again in twenty minutes.

Start with the mail you never wanted

Before you let an assistant near anything important, give it the mail you already ignore: newsletters, receipts, notifications, calendar noise. Orbi learns your labels from the first few corrections and files everything that follows. Within a week the inbox you open is only mail from people.

The goal is not an empty inbox. It is an inbox where every message deserves a human.

Then the mail with an obvious answer

Roughly a third of what remains has one right reply: a confirmation, a link you have sent before, a date that is already in your calendar. Orbi drafts those in your tone and leaves them waiting. You read, you approve, it sends. Nothing goes out on its own.

• Confirmations and thank-yous

• Scheduling back and forth

• Questions your docs already answer

• Invoices and payment reminders

Keep the mail that needs you

Some threads are the job. Negotiations, hard feedback, a client who is upset. Orbi flags those, summarizes the thread so far and stays out of the reply. The point of an assistant is more room for exactly this kind of work.

A note on trust

Every action is visible in the activity log, and every connected account can be disconnected with one click. The first week feels strange. The second week feels like Monday used to be Tuesday.