Create beginner Works with: Any AI

Outlook Weekly Review Email Cleanup and Archive Plan

Structured brief Has example

• 📧 Outlook

Clear a backlog of old email in a safe way.

The Open buttons send the prompt text as currently shown below to that site only when you click. Fill in the placeholders first.

I have a large backlog in Outlook. Number of unread and total emails: [COUNTS]. My folders now: [FOLDERS]. Retention rules at my organisation: [RETENTION_RULES]. Things I must keep: [MUST_KEEP]. Time I can give each day: [TIME_PER_DAY]. Days available: [DAYS].

Make a clean-up plan as a table by day and a checklist. Use searches and sorting (by sender, date, size) to find bulk items, attachments to save elsewhere, newsletters to unsubscribe from, and threads that need action. Example: 4,000 emails sorted in batches of 200 is 20 batches; day 1 sort by sender and delete newsletters (900 deleted in 20 minutes). Give the order of work and the time for each session.

Rule for deleting or archiving; for anything possibly needed for legal, audit or HR reasons, do not delete and ask [VERIFY retention policy]. Do not suggest deleting anything subject to retention rules. Write a short note to myself with the habits that prevent the backlog returning: process each message once and do a weekly 20-minute review.

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Replace each bracketed placeholder with your own details, then paste into Any AI or another assistant.

Invented backlog of 4,000 emails over five days. Day 1: sort by sender and delete newsletters (900 deleted in 20 minutes). Day 2: search for attachments over 5 MB, save 120 to the project folders (30 minutes). Day 3: flag threads needing action (150 flagged). Day 4: archive items older than a year as policy allows (1,800 moved). Day 5: set up rules and a weekly 20-minute routine. Mailbox shrinks from 4,000 to about 1,150 items; retention rules checked first.

• structured
• outlook