Let me paint you a picture.
It’s 9:47 AM. You’ve been at your desk for an hour. You opened your inbox at 9:00. You’re still there. You’ve responded to maybe six emails. Flagged twelve for later. Archived nothing. Your inbox count went from 247 to 253.
You feel productive because you’re busy. You’re not productive. You’re drowning.
Your inbox isn’t a communication tool anymore. It’s a anxiety generator that occasionally delivers useful information between the chaos.
I lived this way for three years. Then I spent 30 days testing SuperHuman, tracking every minute, every email, every decision. Here’s what actually happened.
The Brutal Truth About Email:
Most “productivity” email tools are garbage. They reorganize the mess. They give you new ways to categorize the chaos. They add features you don’t need and complexity you don’t want.
Gmail’s tabs? Great in theory. In practice, important emails hide in Promotions while newsletter spam camps in Primary.
Outlook’s focused inbox? Decides what’s important based on who knows what algorithm. Misses client emails, surfaces internal newsletters.
Spark, Edison, Hey, all the others? Tried them. They’re fine. They’re also not solving the actual problem.
The problem isn’t organization. The problem is speed. You’re making hundreds of micro-decisions per day about emails, and each one takes cognitive load you can’t afford to spend.
What Makes SuperHuman Different:
SuperHuman isn’t trying to help you organize email. It’s trying to help you obliterate email. Get to zero. Stay at zero. Never think about your inbox outside designated times.
Here’s how:
Speed: Everything is keyboard shortcuts. No mousing around. No hunting for buttons. Email appears, you hit two keys, it’s handled. Next email. Two more keys. Next email.
AI Triage: Actually good AI that learns what matters to you. Not “this person emailed you before so it must be important.” Real pattern recognition. After one week, it’s scary accurate.
Zero Friction: Send later, remind me if no reply, snippets for common responses, calendar integration. Everything that should be automatic actually is automatic.
The 30-Day Test (Real Data, No Hype):
I tracked everything. Time spent in email. Number of emails processed. Decision fatigue at end of day. Deal velocity (how fast I closed sales). Response time to clients.
Week 1: The Learning Curve
First three days were rough. Had to unlearn Gmail muscle memory. Kept reaching for my mouse. Keyboard shortcuts felt alien. Almost quit twice.
Day 4: Something clicked. Started thinking in shortcuts instead of clicks. Processed 87 emails in 23 minutes. That was my entire morning’s work done before my first coffee got cold.
Week 1 stats:
• Average time in email: 2.1 hours daily (down from 3.4 hours in Gmail)
• Emails processed: 412
• Inbox zero achieved: 3 times (vs. never in previous month)
• Frustration level: Still high, but declining
Week 2: The AI Starts Learning
SuperHuman’s AI watches how you handle emails. Which ones you respond to immediately. Which ones you snooze. Which senders are always important. Which are always noise.
By day 10, it was surfacing my most important emails first. Not guessing. Knowing. Client emails, deal-related threads, urgent requests from my team. All at the top.
Everything else (newsletters, notifications, FYI emails) got pushed down or auto-sorted into “Later” pile.
Week 2 stats:
• Average time in email: 1.6 hours daily
• Emails processed: 438
• Inbox zero achieved: 6 times
• Response time to clients: Down to 47 minutes average (from 4.2 hours)
Week 3: The Workflow Solidifies
By week three, I had a system. Check email three times daily (9 AM, 1 PM, 4 PM). Process everything to zero. Takes 20 to 35 minutes per session. Rest of the day, inbox is closed.
The “Send Later” feature became my secret weapon. Client email comes in at 8 PM. I respond immediately (takes 90 seconds). Schedule it to send at 8 AM next day. Client thinks I’m responsive but not desperate. I sleep without work invading my evening.
Week 3 stats:
• Average time in email: 1.3 hours daily
• Emails processed: 467
• Inbox zero achieved: 7 times
• Deals closed: 3 (vs. average of 1.7 per week previous quarter)
Week 4: The New Normal
Email anxiety: gone. I trust the system. Important stuff surfaces. Everything else can wait. If it’s truly urgent, people call or Slack me.
I’m processing more emails in less time with better outcomes. Clients get faster responses. My team gets clearer direction. I have mental energy for actual work instead of inbox management.
Week 4 stats:
• Average time in email: 1.1 hours daily
• Emails processed: 501
• Inbox zero achieved: 7 times
• Stress level: Significantly lower
The Features That Actually Matter:
SuperHuman has a lot of features. Most of them don’t matter. Here are the five that do:
1. AI Triage
The AI learns your priorities and sorts accordingly. After two weeks, it’s better at prioritizing your email than you are.
Example: I have a client named Sarah. Her emails always get top priority. But I also get automated reports from a tool called “Sarah Dashboard.” SuperHuman learned the difference. Client Sarah emails surface immediately. Dashboard emails go to low priority. Gmail would’ve treated them the same because they both have “Sarah” in the subject.
2. Send Later
Schedule emails to send at optimal times. I write all my client emails in batch at 7 AM, schedule them to send throughout the day at appropriate times.
Client in London gets their email at 2 PM my time (end of their workday). Client in LA gets theirs at 9 AM my time (start of their day). Both think I’m attentive to timing. I just batched everything once.
3. Remind Me
Send an email, set a reminder for 48 hours. If recipient hasn’t replied, email pops back to top of inbox. No more “I sent that proposal three days ago and forgot to follow up.”
I set this on every client email. My follow-up game went from sloppy to surgical.
4. Snippets
Save common responses as shortcuts. I have 23 snippets for frequent emails. Contract terms, meeting requests, pricing breakdowns, technical explanations.
Type “;meeting”, it expands to: “Happy to chat. Here are a few times that work for me this week: [calendar link]. Pick whatever works best for your schedule.”
Saves me 20+ minutes daily on repetitive typing.
5. Calendar Integration
See your calendar while reading emails. Someone suggests a meeting time, you can check availability without leaving your inbox.
Also shows you which emails are from people you have meetings with today. Context you didn’t know you needed.
The 2-Minute Rule Setup:
Here’s the exact system I use now. Takes 2 minutes to learn, saves hours per week.
The Rules:
1. If it takes less than 2 minutes, do it now. Quick response, quick archive, quick forward. Don’t defer what you can finish immediately.
2. If it takes more than 2 minutes, schedule it. Hit “H” (snooze), pick a time to deal with it. Email disappears, comes back later when you have time.
3. If you’re waiting on someone, remind yourself. Hit “M” (remind me), pick timeframe. Email comes back if they don’t respond.
4. If it’s reference material, archive immediately. Hit “E” (archive). It’s searchable. You’ll find it if you need it. Get it out of your face.
5. If it’s garbage, delete without guilt. Hit “Delete” (obviously). Most emails are garbage. Stop pretending you’ll read that newsletter later.
My exact morning routine:
9:00 AM: Open SuperHuman
9:01 AM: Start from top of inbox
9:02-9:25 AM: Process every email using 2-minute rule
9:26 AM: Inbox zero, close SuperHuman
9:27 AM: Do actual work
Repeat at 1 PM and 4 PM. Total daily email time: 75 to 90 minutes. Everything handled. Nothing lingering. Zero anxiety.
The ROI Breakdown:
SuperHuman costs $30/month. Let’s do the math.
Time saved: 2.3 hours daily (from 3.4 hours to 1.1 hours)
Value per hour: $100 (conservative estimate)
Daily value: $230
Monthly value: $4,600
Tool cost: $30/month
ROI: 15,233%
Even if your time is only worth $50/hour, you’re saving $2,300/month in value. The tool pays for itself in the first hour of the first day.
But wait, there’s more (actual more, not infomercial more):
Faster client response led to faster deals. I closed 3 deals in week 3, up from my usual 1.7 per week. Average deal size: $28K. That’s an extra $39K in one week, directly attributable to faster email response.
Can I prove causation? No. But clients specifically mentioned my responsiveness in two of those deals. “We chose you because you got back to us in an hour while the other vendor took three days.” That’s worth way more than $30/month.
Common Objections (And Real Answers):
“$30/month for email? Gmail is free.”
Gmail is free like a traffic jam is free. Sure, you’re not paying money. You’re paying time, which is worth more. If you spend even 30 extra minutes daily in Gmail vs. SuperHuman, that’s 10 hours monthly. What’s your hourly rate?
“I don’t want to learn keyboard shortcuts.”
Neither did I. First three days sucked. Day four, I was faster than I ever was in Gmail. Week two, I couldn’t imagine going back. The learning curve is real but short.
“My company uses Outlook/Gmail, I can’t switch.”
SuperHuman connects to Gmail and Outlook accounts. You’re not switching email providers. You’re switching interfaces. Your colleagues see no difference.
“What if I need a feature SuperHuman doesn’t have?”
Like what? Honestly asking. I haven’t found a missing feature that matters. If you’re heavily into Gmail add-ons or Outlook plugins, maybe this isn’t for you. For 95% of email users, SuperHuman has everything that matters and nothing that doesn’t.
Migration Guide (From Gmail to SuperHuman in 1 Hour):
Phase 1: Setup (15 minutes)
1. Sign up at superhuman.com (get $80 credit with this link)
2. Connect your Gmail or Outlook account
3. Go through onboarding tutorial (do NOT skip this, it teaches keyboard shortcuts)
4. Import your Gmail labels/folders if you want them (I didn’t, fresh start felt better)
Phase 2: Learn the Essentials (20 minutes)
Only learn these shortcuts first. Master them before learning others.
• E: Archive
• H: Snooze (comes back later)
• M: Remind me if no reply
• Cmd+K: Command menu (search for any feature)
• Cmd+Enter: Send email
• Enter: Open email
• J/K: Next/Previous email
That’s it. Seven shortcuts cover 90% of email actions.
Phase 3: Process Your Current Inbox (25 minutes)
Don’t try to clear everything. Just process the top 50 emails using the 2-minute rule. Get a feel for the speed. The rest of your inbox? Declare email bankruptcy. Select all, archive all. If it mattered, they’ll email again.
Total time investment: 1 hour. Return: 2+ hours saved daily forever.
Get Started (With $80 Credit):
Use this link to sign up for SuperHuman. You’ll get $80 in credit, which covers almost three months of service.
Try it for 30 days like I did. Track your time. If you’re not saving at least an hour daily by week three, it’s not for you. But I’d bet money you save more than that.
Your inbox shouldn’t be where your day dies. Make it a tool that works for you, not against you.
Jordan Hale
The AI Newsroom
P.S. If you want to automate everything else in your business the way SuperHuman automates email, check out the AI Business Accelerator ($97). It’s the complete system: lead automation, meeting workflows, content creation, client delivery. Everything you need to run leaner and close faster. Get the details by commenting “ACCELERATOR”