Tuesday Edition | By Jordan Hale
Email is where productivity goes to die. You know it. I know it. We all spend 2.5 hours a day in our inbox and somehow still end up behind.
I’ve been testing AI email tools for the last six weeks. Spent about $400 on trials and subscriptions. Wasted probably 30 hours setting things up, breaking them, and starting over. Here’s what actually works and what’s complete garbage.
THE INBOX PROBLEM NOBODY TALKS ABOUT
Most email AI tools promise to “save you time” but what they really do is add another layer of complexity to your workflow. You end up managing the AI tool instead of managing your email. That’s not productivity. That’s just a different flavor of busy work.
I run three businesses. Between them, I get about 300 emails a day. Maybe 30 of those actually matter. The rest is noise, but you can’t ignore it because buried in that noise are the messages that’ll cost you money if you miss them.
So here’s what I needed: something that could intelligently filter, prioritize, draft responses, and get out of my way. Bonus points if it didn’t require a PhD to set up.
TOOL #1: SUPERHUMAN (THE ONE THAT ACTUALLY WORKS)
★★★★★ 9.2/10
THE GOOD: This thing is stupid fast. Keyboard shortcuts that actually make sense. AI that prioritizes your inbox based on what you actually open and respond to, not some algorithm’s guess. Split inbox feature shows you VIPs first, everything else later. Read statuses tell you when people opened your emails. Game changer for sales.
THE BAD: It’s $30/month. Some people will choke on that. Also Mac/iOS only right now, though Windows is coming. If you’re deep in the Google Workspace ecosystem, there’s a learning curve.
THE REALITY: I’ve been using it for three weeks. My inbox time dropped from 2+ hours to about 45 minutes a day. I’m not exaggerating. I tracked it. The AI drafts aren’t perfect, but they’re good enough that I’m editing instead of writing from scratch. That’s the difference.
BEST FOR: People who live in email. Founders, consultants, sales teams. If you’re sending/receiving 50+ emails a day, this pays for itself in saved time by Tuesday.
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Try Superhuman and get $80 CREDIT when you sign up.
👉 COMMENT “SUPERHUMAN” and I’ll send you the link with the $80 credit.
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TACTICAL TAKEAWAY #1: THE SUPERHUMAN SETUP THAT SAVES 90 MINUTES DAILY
Do this the day you install it:
1. SPLIT INBOX SETUP: Move your top 20 contacts to VIP (Cmd+K, type “VIP”). These appear first. Everyone else goes to Other. You’ll check VIP constantly, Other twice a day.
2. AI TRAINING: For one week, manually mark emails as Important or Not Important. Superhuman learns your patterns. After that, it’s scary accurate.
3. SNIPPETS: Create 5 email templates for your most common responses. “Cmd+;” pulls them up. I’ve got snippets for meeting requests, “not interested” replies, intro emails, all of it.
4. REMINDERS: Hit “H” on any email to snooze it. I snooze everything that’s not urgent to 6pm. Inbox Zero by lunch, then batch process at end of day.
This setup took me 20 minutes. It’s been saving me 90 minutes every single day since.
TOOL #2: THE DISAPPOINTMENTS
GMAIL’S GEMINI 3.0 INTEGRATION (5/10): Better than it was six months ago, but still generic. The AI suggestions miss context constantly. Tried it for two weeks. Went back to doing it myself. Only worth it if you’re already all-in on Google Workspace and refuse to pay for anything else.
SANEBOX (6/10): Good at filtering, terrible at everything else. If you just need basic sorting, it’s fine. But you’re paying $7/month for something Superhuman does better as a side feature.
SPARK (5/10): The AI features feel tacked on. Interface is pretty but slow. Kept crashing on my Mac. Hard pass.
TOOL #3: FATHOM (THE MEETING KILLER)
★★★★☆ 8.7/10
WHAT IT DOES: Records your Zoom/Teams/Meet calls, transcribes everything, pulls out action items, and emails you a summary. Sounds simple. It’s actually revolutionary.
WHY IT MATTERS: I used to spend 20-30 minutes after every call writing notes and follow-up emails. Now Fathom does it in 2 minutes. The AI catches stuff I miss. Client said they’d send the contract “next Tuesday”? Fathom flags it and reminds me on Wednesday if I haven’t received it.
THE SETUP: Install it once, forget it exists. It auto-joins your meetings, stays quiet, sends you the summary afterward. Integration with CRM means notes go straight into client records.
COST: Free for basic, $19/month for pro. The pro features (custom summaries, CRM sync) are worth it if you’re doing 10+ calls a week.
TACTICAL TAKEAWAY #2: THE FATHOM + EMAIL WORKFLOW
Here’s how to never write follow-up emails again:
1. Let Fathom record and transcribe your calls
2. Copy the action items from Fathom’s summary
3. Paste into Superhuman, hit Cmd+K, type “AI write”
4. Prompt: “Write a professional follow-up email covering these action items”
5. Edit for 30 seconds, send
I went from 20 minutes of post-call admin to literally 2 minutes. Do that across 15 calls a week and you’ve just bought yourself 5 hours. What’s that worth to you?
THE COMBO THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
Here’s what nobody tells you: individual tools are fine, but the magic happens when you stack them right. Superhuman for email, Fathom for calls, Make.com connecting them to everything else.
My current workflow: Fathom transcribes calls, Make.com pulls the action items, creates tasks in my project management tool, drafts follow-up emails in Superhuman, and updates my CRM. I touch none of this manually. It just happens.
Total cost: $49/month. Time saved: 12-15 hours per week. That’s not even close to a fair trade. That’s highway robbery in my favor.
Email AI tools are everywhere, but most of them are solving problems you don’t have while ignoring the ones you do. Superhuman is the first tool I’ve found that actually feels like it was built by someone who lives in email hell and decided to do something about it.
Is it perfect? No. Is it worth $30/month? If you value your time at more than $20/hour, absolutely. The $80 credit makes it a no-brainer to try.
Stop drowning in email. Use tools that work. Move on with your life.
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👉 COMMENT “SUPERHUMAN” below and I’ll send you the link with the $80 credit.
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Jordan Hale
The AI Newsroom
Seattle, WA
Real AI. Real Results. No Hype.