My Outlook triage eats the first hour of every day

I opened Outlook at 8:40 and the unread count was already high. I did my usual top-to-bottom scan, opening anything that looked urgent, flagging what I could not deal with, and promising myself I would come back to the rest. By 9:30 I had answered a few messages, added more flags, and still did not know whether something important was hiding lower down.

The small win was that I did catch one customer thread before it became a problem. But I only caught it because the name looked familiar while I was scrolling. That is not a system I can trust. I made a project folder last month, but half the thread still lands in the inbox because the rule only catches one sender.

After lunch the unread count had climbed again. A colleague messaged me on Teams asking if I had seen the email about Thursday's deadline change. I had not. It was sitting below a newsletter and two automated notifications. I dealt with it, apologised, and then re-checked my flagged messages, which have become a second inbox I am also behind on.

I finished the day clearing email after 6pm because that is the only time nothing new lands. What I want is simple: a morning routine I can run in 20 or 30 minutes that tells me what needs me today, what is filed, and what is safely gone.