Plainview Inbox Kit
Your inbox,
sorted while you work.
Ready-made rules and a small Gmail sorter that label, file, star and draft replies for you, shown on two worked examples run through the kit's own code. Built for your day job or your side hustle. Pick 1 of 2 to start; you get both.
A download you keep. No subscription, no account with us, nothing to connect to anyone.
Pick 1 of 2
One kit. Two inboxes.
Day Job edition
For the job that runs through email.
- Your manager and VIPs starred and kept in the inbox
- Action-needed emails starred (action required, please review, due today), with a holding reply drafted
- Reports, tool notifications and newsletters filed (the sorter also marks them read)
- Copied-only email moved to FYI
- Calendar accept and decline noise filed
- Outlook rules for a work account, no add-ins
Side Hustle edition
For the business you run on the side.
- New orders starred so nothing ships late
- Account alerts starred: payout problems, holds, disputes
- Failed payments and past-due bills from your other vendors kept in the inbox
- Payouts, fees and receipts filed, with their PDFs saved to Drive for tax time
- Leads starred, a reply drafted and a row added to your Leads sheet
- Customer messages from your sales platforms starred
- Platform notices and newsletters filed
- A follow-up flag when you asked something and nobody answered in three days
Worked examples
Two invented inboxes, sorted by the kit's own rules.
The people and companies are invented. The results are not typed in by hand: they come from running the kit's code on these emails with the starter rules. Your inbox will sort differently, which is why the sorter starts in dry run.
Day Job: Jordan, an operations lead, one Tuesday
| Rule | Emails | Label | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boss | 2 | Sorted/Boss | starred, stays in the inbox |
| VIPs | 1 | Sorted/VIP | starred, stays in the inbox |
| Security codes | 2 | Sorted/Security | labelled, stays in the inbox |
| Action needed | 3 | Sorted/Action | starred, stays in the inbox, reply drafted |
| Calendar replies | 3 | Sorted/Calendar | filed out of the inbox, marked read |
| Invites | 1 | Sorted/Calendar | labelled, stays in the inbox |
| Reports | 4 | Sorted/Reports | filed out of the inbox, marked read |
| Tool notifications | 3 | Sorted/Notifications | filed out of the inbox, marked read |
| FYI (cc only) | 4 | Sorted/FYI | filed out of the inbox |
| Newsletters | 4 | Sorted/Read later | filed out of the inbox, marked read |
| To reply | 4 | Sorted/To reply | labelled, stays in the inbox |
| No rule | 3 | left as it was, in the inbox |
Leo asked Jordan to review a document. The email was starred and this reply was waiting in Drafts, unsent:
Hi Leo, Got it, thanks. I will get back to you by Wednesday. Jordan
Side Hustle: Riley, who sells film cameras and shoots product photos, three days
| Rule | Emails | Label | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| VIP customers | 1 | Sorted/VIP | starred, stays in the inbox |
| Security codes | 1 | Sorted/Security | labelled, stays in the inbox |
| Account alerts | 0 | Sorted/Account alerts | starred, stays in the inbox |
| Billing problems | 0 | Sorted/Billing problems | labelled, stays in the inbox |
| New orders | 3 | Sorted/Orders | starred, stays in the inbox |
| Money in and fees | 4 | Sorted/Money | filed out of the inbox, marked read, attachments to Drive |
| Customer messages | 2 | Sorted/Customer messages | starred, stays in the inbox |
| Receipts and invoices | 3 | Sorted/Receipts | filed out of the inbox, marked read, attachments to Drive |
| Leads | 4 | Sorted/Leads | starred, stays in the inbox, reply drafted, row added to Leads |
| Platform notices | 3 | Sorted/Notifications | filed out of the inbox, marked read |
| Newsletters | 3 | Sorted/Read later | filed out of the inbox, marked read |
| No rule | 2 | left as it was, in the inbox |
Sam asked for a photo quote. Starred, logged on the Leads tab, and this reply drafted:
Hi Sam, Thanks for reaching out. To give you a straight answer fast, can you send me three things: 1. What you need (a link or a photo helps) 2. When you need it by 3. Your budget range I will reply within one business day. Riley
Where it got it wrong, in plain view
"Expense report 8812 was approved" was filed under Sorted/Reports, because the rules read the word "report" literally. Harmless here. If you want expense mail on its own, add a rule above Reports: Subject contains expense report, Label Sorted/Expenses.
"Benefits open enrollment closes Nov 13" came from an automated HR sender, so it was filed with Sorted/Notifications. A deadline you care about should not be filed. Fix: add a rule just above Tool notifications with Subject contains enrollment, closes, deadline, Label Sorted/Deadlines, Star ticked and Stop ticked.
"Dinner Saturday?", a friend asking if Riley is available on Saturday, was treated as a lead because it says "available". The sorter starred it, logged it and drafted the inquiry reply, which sat in Drafts unsent. Fix: put the friend's address in the Leads rule's Not from column.
The guide lists every email in both examples and the rule that sorted it.
How it works
Three steps, then one email a day.
1. Import the filters
Five minutes in Gmail settings. New mail is labelled, starred or filed the moment it arrives. On Outlook at work, the same rules are built-in Outlook rules.
2. Add the sorter
Fifteen minutes on a computer: paste one script into a Google Sheet. It runs in your own Google account, starts in dry run and logs every move it makes.
3. Read the digest
One short email to yourself each morning: what is starred, which drafts are waiting, who has not answered you, what got filed.
What it never does
It sorts. You decide.
- Never sends email to anyone but you. Replies stay in Drafts until you press Send.
- Never deletes, forwards or unsubscribes.
- Never files a conversation with a starred email or an unread reply to you in it.
- Runs only in your own Google account. There is no server of ours and nothing to sign up for.
- Starts in dry run: it writes what it would do to a log and changes nothing until you switch it on.
- One menu item undoes the last 24 hours of labels, stars, read marks and filing.
- Plain rules, not AI guesses: an email matches a rule or it doesn't, and the log says which rule did what.
Questions
Before you buy
Does it work with Outlook?
The Day Job edition includes Outlook rules made with Outlook's own rule editor. The sorter script is for Gmail and Google Workspace.
Can I use it on my work email?
Use only what your employer allows. The Gmail filters and Outlook rules are built-in features of those apps. Ask IT before adding a script to a work account, and never forward work email to a personal account.
What does Google ask me to allow?
Six things, all inside your own account: Gmail (to read, label, file and draft, and to send, which it does only for the digest to you), Google Drive (to save attachments into its own folder), this one spreadsheet, its menu and pop-up messages in the sheet, running on a schedule, and your email address. Google shows an "unverified app" screen because the script is your own copy, not a published app. The guide explains each line, and you can read every line of the code before you allow it.
Is it AI?
No. Plain rules you can read and change. The upside is that it never guesses; the downside is that it is literal, and the examples show where that bites and how to fix it.
Do I need to be technical?
If you can copy, paste and edit a spreadsheet, you can set it up. The guide walks every click. Setup needs a computer; after that it runs by itself.
What if it does not work for me?
Contact us within 14 days if the files will not open or are not as described here, and we will fix it or refund you.