Appreciate this, Mike! That’s the thing I find most exciting about AI + automation: holding systems together in ways our brains (or even assistants) can’t always manage consistently.
Absolutely. What I shared in the article is just one small use case, but the ways we can use AI to improve how we experience both work and free time go much further.
I was away for a long weekend and came back to a clean summary of tasks from my emails thanks to the AI Task Generator. They really do wonders for me. I hope it’ll be useful for you too!
And PS, you don’t need to leave Outlook if you don’t want to. You can set up a Gmail account just for the automations, then redirect all your Outlook emails there (in settings, make sure you tick “keep a copy” so nothing disappears from your main inbox). That way you keep your current system but still get the benefits.
I’m interested in your feedback and creating automatic task systems. I’m an educator and always get emails about meetings and things to do last minute postings. Kind of annoying. Plus those emails comes with lesson planning and needing to share collaborative work at certain days of the month. Let me know if this applies to your offer.
Hey Joshua! I’m pretty sure we can build something around what you need. Just want to get a clearer picture of the main goal, and what the automation should solve. You can DM me, if you want.
Hahah, I set all automations up before vacation & wrote about 85% of the article then. I just waited until I was back so I could test the last two automations properly, and finished the post today.
The problem is that I have 6 emails, 5 of which are native Microsoft 365 and one gmail, which is also used on Microsoft 365. Your automations would only work on 1. I tried setting up Perplexity Comet, but that seemed way too complicated. I hate doing tech. It drives me crazy. Setting up Zapier integrations is brain pain. I will procrastinate endlessly before doing it. Almost as bad as writing a physical check and putting it in an envelope, addressing it and getting it into the mail.
Hey Neil! Actually, there’s a way to make this work even with multiple accounts. You can set up Gmail as your “main inbox” and forward all your Microsoft 365 emails into it.
For each of your 5 Microsoft accounts, you just log in and set up a forwarding rule (from settings) to send every incoming email to your Gmail. Microsoft lets you do this right in the Outlook settings. Make sure to tick “keep a copy” so nothing disappears from the original inbox.
That way, everything goes into Gmail automatically, and the automation only needs to run in one place.
I haven’t tried Perplexity Comet yet, I'm still on the waitlist.
But curious, what were you trying to solve with Zapier?
Zapier does this: takes new subscribers to Substack that were sent to a specific folder in Microsoft 365 and then sends them to a form in Kit and tags them. I don’t distribute newsletters from Substack, just Notes. All my Substack subscribers—and many mor—are in Kit. I manage distributions from Kit and direct Kit ssubscribers to my dakotaridgecapital.com website using bit.ly links. That way, I track open rates, clicks etc
Awesome stuff! If you managed to set that up with Zapier, I think the automations I described using Google Apps Script with their step-by-step guide (+ forwarding all your addresses to one main inbox) will be a piece of cake.
Great way to leverage AI to do things only top-tier executive assistants used to be able to do.
No, scratch that, Daria - This exceeds the potential of most humans to prevent things from falling between the cracks!
Appreciate this, Mike! That’s the thing I find most exciting about AI + automation: holding systems together in ways our brains (or even assistants) can’t always manage consistently.
And I suspect the real implications of this approach to rethinking AI and productivity could have far deeper and more positive impacts, Daria.
Absolutely. What I shared in the article is just one small use case, but the ways we can use AI to improve how we experience both work and free time go much further.
This is a familiar feeling: “the undifferentiated mass of communication creates a kind of cognitive vertigo”
exactly what pushed me to build the automations
These are great ways to use AI to make things easier for ourselves! This might be what convinces me to move out of Outlook and into Gmail, lol!!
I was away for a long weekend and came back to a clean summary of tasks from my emails thanks to the AI Task Generator. They really do wonders for me. I hope it’ll be useful for you too!
And PS, you don’t need to leave Outlook if you don’t want to. You can set up a Gmail account just for the automations, then redirect all your Outlook emails there (in settings, make sure you tick “keep a copy” so nothing disappears from your main inbox). That way you keep your current system but still get the benefits.
Ah ok, great tip, thanks!! I may have to reconsider trying this then!!
I’m interested in your feedback and creating automatic task systems. I’m an educator and always get emails about meetings and things to do last minute postings. Kind of annoying. Plus those emails comes with lesson planning and needing to share collaborative work at certain days of the month. Let me know if this applies to your offer.
Hey Joshua! I’m pretty sure we can build something around what you need. Just want to get a clearer picture of the main goal, and what the automation should solve. You can DM me, if you want.
Such a relatable issue! Thanks!
Still don’t know how you did this while on vacation!
Hahah, I set all automations up before vacation & wrote about 85% of the article then. I just waited until I was back so I could test the last two automations properly, and finished the post today.
The problem is that I have 6 emails, 5 of which are native Microsoft 365 and one gmail, which is also used on Microsoft 365. Your automations would only work on 1. I tried setting up Perplexity Comet, but that seemed way too complicated. I hate doing tech. It drives me crazy. Setting up Zapier integrations is brain pain. I will procrastinate endlessly before doing it. Almost as bad as writing a physical check and putting it in an envelope, addressing it and getting it into the mail.
Hey Neil! Actually, there’s a way to make this work even with multiple accounts. You can set up Gmail as your “main inbox” and forward all your Microsoft 365 emails into it.
For each of your 5 Microsoft accounts, you just log in and set up a forwarding rule (from settings) to send every incoming email to your Gmail. Microsoft lets you do this right in the Outlook settings. Make sure to tick “keep a copy” so nothing disappears from the original inbox.
That way, everything goes into Gmail automatically, and the automation only needs to run in one place.
I haven’t tried Perplexity Comet yet, I'm still on the waitlist.
But curious, what were you trying to solve with Zapier?
Genius!
🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
Zapier does this: takes new subscribers to Substack that were sent to a specific folder in Microsoft 365 and then sends them to a form in Kit and tags them. I don’t distribute newsletters from Substack, just Notes. All my Substack subscribers—and many mor—are in Kit. I manage distributions from Kit and direct Kit ssubscribers to my dakotaridgecapital.com website using bit.ly links. That way, I track open rates, clicks etc
Awesome stuff! If you managed to set that up with Zapier, I think the automations I described using Google Apps Script with their step-by-step guide (+ forwarding all your addresses to one main inbox) will be a piece of cake.
Glad it's useful. It is indeed one of those things so many of us deal with.
Always so educating and insightful. Welcome back from your vacation, Daria, I really missed your posts.
Thanks, Sae! Happy to be back and writing again. I’m glad this was useful for you 🙏