I don’t use AI to write my emails — here’s how I use it to manage my inbox instead

A smartphone with the Gmail logo on it resting on top of a computer keyboard.

When my grandfather would write me while I was away at school, he would end each letter with, "It's been fun to visit with you for a few minutes." That's the way I still feel about any correspondance -- it's a way to visit with someone regardless of how quick or meaningless.

And now that Claude can not only draft an email but send it, I feel like that's just another AI feature I simply don't need. However, I feel differently about everything surrounding that conversation.

There’s nothing personal about sorting newsletters, searching for a buried attachment or rereading a 20-message thread to work out what everyone decided. These are the jobs that could easily consume my day, and I’m more than happy to hand some of them to AI.