Session 3 · Assignment

Triage a week of email

Let your AI assistant sort a real week of your email, then write the rule a colleague could follow.

The brief

Read the brief

What you’ll submit: Your sorting rule and what it got wrong, a short reflection and the declaration.
How it’s assessed: Johnnie reviews your work and gives feedback. Resubmit as often as you need.
Hours: Four guided learner hours, counted when you handed it in on 26 January.

Work information only. Please only use information you are allowed to use at work.

Output

A sorting rule for your inbox: four groups (act today, reply this week, read later, ignore) and the one sentence that decides each.

Why it helps. Most of a manager’s week starts in the inbox. A rule written down is one the assistant can apply every Monday, and one a colleague can use when you’re away.

Steps

Start a new chat and paste your working-context note from session 1.
Copy the prompt below, paste it in, then paste the subjects (not the content) of one week of your email.
Check every “act today” by hand and move anything it got wrong.Tone isn’t urgency: a polite email from the regulator is still act today.
Ask the assistant to turn your corrections into one rule per group, written for a colleague.
Test the rule on a fresh day of email and note what it still gets wrong.
Paste the rule and your notes into the box below.

Prompt

See the full prompt

Here are the subjects and senders of one week of my work email. Sort them into four groups: act today, reply this week, read later, ignore. Use my working-context note to decide what matters. For each group, give me the one-sentence rule you used. Then list any email you were unsure about, and ask me one question at a time to settle them.

What accepted looks like

It’s real work from your own job, with anything private taken out
It does the job: sorting rules, and a check of what the AI got wrong
You checked it, and say what the assistant got wrong and what you changed
A colleague could pick it up tomorrow and use it

Help

Ask the AI coach about this assignment

It has read the brief and Johnnie’s note. It won’t write the hand-in for you.

Ask

Raise your hand: ask Johnnie or the team

Your hand-in

changes needed

History

You · Tuesday 26 January, 7:10pmHand-in · version 1
What you handed in
Your sorting rule and what it still gets wrong
Gave the assistant four groups and sorted 212 emails from the week of 18 January. Checked every “act today” by hand and moved three.
Reflection
It put two complaints into “read later” because they were politely worded. Checking by hand caught them. Next time I’d tell it that tone isn’t urgency.
Files
triage-sorted-week.xlsx
AI coach · first read, not the mark · Tuesday 26 January, 7:12pm
Your four groups are clear and you checked every “act today” by hand, moving three. Catching the two politely worded complaints is the habit this task is for.
One thing to tighten: the rule is still in your head. Write the one sentence that decides each group, so a colleague could sort your inbox tomorrow without asking you.
A question to think about: what tells you an email is urgent when its tone does not?
Johnnie · Friday 29 January, 11:20amchanges needed
Good sorting, Priya: your “act today” pile is exactly right. One change before I accept it.
The one change: Add the two emails the AI sorted wrongly, and a line on why each went wrong.
Hand it in again when it’s done. Your hours already counted.
You · Friday 29 January, 1:05pmQuestion
Do you want the two emails in the rule itself, or as a note under it?
Johnnie · Friday 29 January, 2:40pmReply
As a note under the rule: the email, where it went, where it should have gone, and why.

Ask Johnnie a question · it joins this history. Version 2 joins it when you hand in, and “changes needed” clears.

Hand in again · version 2

Make the change Johnnie asked for. Handing in clears “changes needed”; version 1 stays in the history.

Before you submit. Remove anything you would not share outside your organisation. You can ask Claude to help, then double-check it yourself.

Only Johnnie and the training provider see what you hand in.

Your sorting rule and what it still gets wrong

Paste your final work.

Draft saved just now

Files (optional)

triage-sorted-week-v2.xlsx · 66 KB

Your reflection

In your own words or with your AI assistant: what you made, the choices you made and why, and what you’d do differently next time. At least 150 characters.

171 characters · that’s enough

A note to Johnnie (optional)

Joins the history with this version.

DeclarationI confirm that the work I am submitting is my own, that I have not presented another person’s work as mine, and that I completed this assignment within my digital classroom hours. This assignment is worth four guided learner hours.

Hand in again