Library/Leak 04

Owner's inbox and message triage

The owner personally reads, sorts, and responds to messages that follow repeatable patterns.

AutomateAutomateManual workA · 24–72 hours

How you know you have it

“Walk me through your first hour. What's in the inbox, and how do you decide what to touch?”

What kind of leak it is

Both a time leak and a touch leak

Does it need your judgment?

Usually not — this is mechanical.

A mechanical touch is an automation candidate: nothing is being decided, so a machine or a rule can hold it.

How to measure it

time per triage session × sessions per day × working days per year

Annualized the same way everywhere: duration × frequency × people × 52.

Typical range — illustrative

the founder's own measured result is the anchor: 3 hrs/week, about 150 hrs/yr

An order of magnitude to prime your eye, not a statistic and not a claim about anyone's result. The only number that matters is the one you measure.

The move — Automate

Filters, three-folder triage, canned responses, drafted replies.

Where it lands in a Time P&L

Manual work

How long a fix takes

A · 24–72 hours

What to do about it

Tools that fix this

And across everything

On paper

This category and the other nineteen on one page, to tick off against a normal week: The 20 Time Leaks.