The Inbox Color-Code System
Make action status visible at a glance — apply a consistent category system across your existing inbox
The prompt
Apply Outlook categories to emails in my inbox from the last 30 days based on action status: Red = I need to reply and haven't yet, Yellow = I'm waiting on a reply from someone else, Green = informational — read but no action needed, Purple = meeting or calendar-related. Show me the proposed categorization and the count per color before applying. Flag any email where you're unsure which category fits — I'll decide those manually.
How to use it
- 1Select Copy the prompt above.
- 2Paste it into Microsoft 365 Copilot.
- 3Replace anything in brackets with your own detail, then send it.
Copilot gathers and drafts. You verify and decide. Check every figure, name and date against the system it came from before you act on it.
Written for
Manager, Executive, Individual Contributor, Chief of Staff, Operations Manager
More for Copilot Inbox Management: Action Mode
- The Three-Day Triage
- The Daily Priority Commander
- The High-Priority Auto-Tagger
- The Non-Responder Scanner
From the source collection in awesome-microsoft-copilot-prompts, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.