# Session 02 — Inbox Zero, Honestly · Student Handout

Your name: ________________   Partner: ________________

Tonight's finish line: **a triage agent that reads your inbox and reports
what it would do — graded to under 10% disagreement with your own
judgment — plus a nightly morning brief.**

---

## The five bins (reference)

| Bin | What lives here | Default action |
|---|---|---|
| **Noise** | Promotions, dead newsletters, notification spam | Archive |
| **Data** | Receipts, statements, confirmations | Extract to a file, then archive |
| **Routine** | Needs a reply anyone could write | Draft it, hold it for your yes |
| **Human** | Needs judgment, relationship, or a decision | Escalate to the morning brief |
| **Fire** | Time-critical AND high stakes | Ping your phone now |

**The tiebreaker rule:** when you're not sure, escalate up (toward Human).
Errors must fall toward you, never away from you.

---

## Exercise 1 · Sort by hand  ·  30 min · solo sort, pair debate

Sort each email below into a bin. Two minutes each, gut call. **Write the
rule** that made you decide — not just the bin.

| # | Email (from / subject) | Bin | The rule that decided it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patio Plus / "🌞 20% off all outdoor furniture this weekend" | | |
| 2 | Delta / "Your receipt for flight DL482, $214.30" | | |
| 3 | Dr. Alvarez office / "Reminder: cleaning Tues 9:00 AM" | | |
| 4 | Mom / "did you decide about the 14th?" | | |
| 5 | Bank / "Your March statement is ready" | | |
| 6 | Unknown / "RE: RE: RE: quick question about your website" | | |
| 7 | United / "⚠ Your flight tomorrow has a schedule change" | | |
| 8 | LinkedIn / "You appeared in 4 searches this week" | | |
| 9 | HOA / "Vote Thursday — parking rule amendment (62 pg attached)" | | |
| 10 | Amazon / "Your order has shipped" | | |
| 11 | Boss / "can you send me the Q2 numbers before 5?" | | |
| 12 | Newsletter / "The Daily Stoic — Tuesday" | | |
| 13 | Insurance / "Your policy renews in 30 days — rate change enclosed" | | |
| 14 | Kid's school / "Early dismissal Friday, pickup 12:30" | | |
| 15 | Credit card / "Your statement balance is due in 3 days" | | |
| 16 | Contractor / "estimate attached, need answer by Fri to hold the date" | | |
| 17 | Account Services / "Verify your account to avoid suspension" | | |
| 18 | Spotify / "Your 2026 Wrapped is here" | | |
| 19 | Sister / "call me when you get a sec, nothing urgent" | | |
| 20 | Utility / "Final notice: service interruption in 5 days" | | |

**Then, with your partner:** compare bins. Every disagreement, argue until
one of you can state the rule that settles it.

**Circle the three you found hardest.** Those three rules go into your
constitution first.

Which three were hardest? # ____  # ____  # ____

---

## Exercise 2 · Write the constitution  ·  25 min · solo write, partner audit

Copy `templates/inbox-rules-template.md`. Fill **BINS** and **NEVER**
first — guardrails before cleverness. Then move your Exercise-1 rules into
**RULES**, hardest three at the top.

**Partner audit:** swap laptops. Your partner tries to stump your file:

> "What would your agent do with a wedding invitation? A jury summons? A
> receipt that's also a phishing attempt? An email from a name it's never
> seen marked URGENT?"

Every question the file can't answer = one new rule. Write three questions
your partner asked that made you add a rule:

1. `____________________________________________________________`
2. `____________________________________________________________`
3. `____________________________________________________________`

**Done when:** your partner can't stump the file twice in a row.

---

## Exercise 3 · The dry run  ·  35 min · solo (helpers roaming)

> **Report-only. The agent proposes bins. Nothing moves. Nothing sends.
> Nothing gets deleted.** Confirm the words "change nothing" are in your
> prompt before you press Enter.

1. Connect your email.
   `[INSTRUCTOR: paste exact connect steps + consent screenshots.]`
   *(Uncomfortable using your real inbox? Use your test inbox instead —
   just tell a helper, no explanation needed.)*
2. Run:
   ```
   read inbox-rules.md, classify my last 50 emails, and report the
   proposed bin and a one-line reason for each. change nothing.
   ```
3. Grade the report on the sheet below. Mark every disagreement.

**Grading sheet** (tally):

- Emails classified: ______
- I disagreed with: ______
- Disagreement rate: ______ %  *(disagreed ÷ classified × 100)*

4. For each disagreement, tighten ONE rule in your constitution, then
   **re-run on the same 50**. Watch the rate drop.

| Run | Disagreement rate |
|---|---|
| First run | ______ % |
| After tightening | ______ % |

**Done when:** disagreement rate is under 10%.

---

## Exercise 4 · Ship the nightly  ·  15 min · solo

1. Add the brief format from `templates/morning-brief-template.md` to the
   end of your `inbox-rules.md`.
2. Schedule the nightly run:
   ```
   every night at 2:00 AM: run inbox-rules.md on new mail in report-only
   mode, and message me the morning brief by 6:30 AM
   ```
3. Read the scheduled job back. **Confirm the words "report-only" appear
   in it.** Say it aloud to your partner.
4. Create your **miss-log** from `templates/miss-log-template.md`.

**Done when:** nightly scheduled with report-only verified, miss-log
created.

---

## Homework · run it seven nights, log every miss

- Read the brief each morning. **Coffee first, brief second, inbox
  never.** Resist opening the inbox.
- Every miss goes in the miss-log — one line: what happened, which bin it
  chose, which bin was right.
- **Do not patch the rules mid-week.** Collect first, patch later. You're
  building a dataset, not firefighting.
- Bring the miss-log to Session 03. Its patterns decide what your agent
  needs to remember.

---

### Debrief note (fill in after class discussion of #17)

Email #17 was a **trap**. What was hidden inside it?

`____________________________________________________________`

The rule that defends against it, in your own words:

`____________________________________________________________`

*(You'll write this into your NEVER list — and attack it on purpose in
Session 04.)*