Email workflow optimization for writers

Most people treat newsletters like one giant task. That’s why they burn out or never ship at all. AI doesn’t just make writing easier. It makes workflows repeatable. Here’s how to actually use AI in 2025: 1 – Mindset Setup This is where quality starts. You get out what you ask for. - Break “write newsletter” into substeps - Build clear workflows for each phase - Ask GPT specific, detailed instructions - Treat AI like a smart partner, not magic - Know what you want before you prompt Don’t chase inspiration. Build systems. 2 – Research Phase This is your content fuel. No good output without great input. - Use Exa & Perplexity for semantic search - Pull timeless studies from PubMed - Curate best-of newsletters and case studies - Track trends via Alerts, Twitter, Google News - Auto-fetch sources into a “Research” inbox AI can’t create without context. Feed it well. 3 – Drafting Phase This is your writing engine. Clarity beats clever every time. - Define tone, length, format in your prompt - Include outlines, references, past examples Use section templates that scale: ☑︎ Mini-posts with 3 bullets + insight ☑︎ Deep Dives on 2 stories ☑︎ Quick Hits + Product Picks Prompt once. Reuse forever. 4 – Polishing Phase This is how you level up. From first draft to publish-ready. - First pass: fact-check, structure, logic - Second pass: rewrite in your voice + tone Run an AI quality checklist: ☑︎ Remove filler and “AIese” phrases ☑︎ Enforce disclaimers, tags, voice rules - Auto-generate subject line + preview text Clean copy = credibility. 5 – Publish & Iterate This is your compounder. Each issue gets easier and better. - Schedule send through your email tool - Review timing, output, and click metrics - Refine your prompts and checklist weekly - Store all assets in a “Newsletter Playbook” - Next issue: copy → paste → update → done Good newsletters don’t get written. ↳ They get built. Don’t start from scratch every week. ↳ Start from a system. That’s how pros write high-quality newsletters with AI. Want to learn more about AI? 1. Scroll to the top. 2. Click “View my newsletter.” 3. Join 400k+ free daily readers Follow Louis Shulman + Martin Crowley. ♻️ Repost to help someone ship faster with less stress.

Email isn’t going away anytime soon. You can’t outrun it — but you can outsmart it. Start with these 5 habits that actually work! They’ll save you time, sharpen your focus, and help you feel on top of your game. 𝐄 – Exit your inbox • Schedule 3–4 set times to process email (AKA batching). • Stay out of your inbox in between. • This one shift boosts focus and wins back loads of time. (You’re welcome.) 𝐌 – Mute notifications • Turn off email alerts (yes, on both desktop and phone). • Fewer dings = fewer distractions. • You’ll stop playing inbox defence and feel more in control. 𝐀 – Apply the 4 Ds • Read once, then: • Delete • Do • Delegate • Defer • Defer with intention. Use a task app. Or add a category if you write your to-dos by hand. • Decide and move on. 𝐈 – Integrate simple systems • File emails in just 1 folder! Feels counterintuitive, but it saves time. • Use rules or filters to triage and stay organised automatically. • A few smart systems = a calmer inbox. 𝐋 – Leverage AI to draft emails • Let AI write the first draft, then make it yours. • Use BLUF: start with the bottom line up front (AI helps with this!) • Clear replies, less mental load, faster responses • Try Smart Compose (Gmail) or QuickSteps (Outlook) to speed up repeat replies. 💙 Thanks for reading. 💬 What’s your favourite time-saving email tip? Share it in the comments. And save this for later.

Small business owners: Here’s a 10-minute AI win that saved me hours every week. If you’re spending time writing client emails, proposals, or marketing copy from scratch – stop. Here’s what I did instead: I built a custom GPT trained on my service details, client tone, and past winning emails. Now, I just give it a short prompt – and it spits out a tailored proposal or outreach message in seconds. No more copy-paste templates. No more mental fatigue. Just fast, clean, on-brand writing… ready to send. Here’s how you can do the same: Gather 3-5 examples of your best emails, proposals, or posts. Paste them into a new custom GPT in ChatGPT (you don’t need any coding). Add a simple instruction: “Write like this, for this kind of audience.” Test it on your next task – like drafting an intro email or social post. This 10-minute setup turned into a daily timesaver for me. I use it for: Writing cold outreach Creating newsletter content Rewriting product descriptions The best part? It sounds like me. Clients don’t even realize it’s AI-assisted. If you’re overwhelmed by marketing tasks or writing content from scratch, this is the lowest-hanging fruit. It costs almost nothing to implement and pays back instantly in time saved. And once you see the results, you’ll start asking: “What else can I automate?” The AI edge isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing less – and better. Want my exact GPT setup? Drop me a DM and I’ll send you the framework. #AIProductivity #SmallBusinessTools #QuickWin #ChatGPTTips #EntrepreneurLife #SmarterWorkflows

Four stakeholders. Four different priorities. Same email sent to all. To the CFO, COO, General Counsel and Head of Sustainability. Here's what they did: Your CFO skims it and moves on. Your COO forwards it to someone junior. Your General Counsel files it with no reply. Your Head of Sustainability never opens it. But your category analysis was solid. Cost drivers mapped. Supplier risks flagged. Recommendations ready. But it landed with nobody. Here's why: Your CFO wants to know what it costs and what can be controlled. Your COO wants to know if production is at risk. Your General Counsel wants to know about regulatory exposure in the contracts. Your Head of Sustainability wants supplier sustainability compliance. Same analysis. Four completely different conversations. Now here is where most people stop. They think they just do not have the time to write four separate emails. And honestly, that is fair. You are already stretched. But once you set it up once, with AI, it is 20 minutes. Not four writing sessions. Here's how it works: STEP 1: FEED AI YOUR STAKEHOLDER EMAILS Pull emails from each person. AI reads them and builds a persona. How they think, what they care about, what language they actually respond to. STEP 2: ADD WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW Their LinkedIn profile? When do they engage? When do they go quiet? What puts them on the defensive? Essentially your observations and experience with them. That is where it goes from a generic profile to something actually useful. STEP 3: ADJUST TO YOUR WRITING STYLE Reverse step 2 and now write about yourself. Feed your emails? How you write? What phrases you use? Feed whatever you can about you, so that the message is written in your style, not AI. STEP 4: LET AI REWRITE THE MESSAGE FOR EACH PERSON Same findings. AI just frames it differently for each stakeholder. CFO gets cost and control. COO gets risk and production signals. Legal gets regulatory specifics. Sustainability gets traceability. STEP 5: REVIEW IT Read it. Change where it does not sound like you. You're sending a personal email, not an AI email. That's where you manually add the 'And', 'I realize', 'By the way' and more words that you use. Four messages. One analysis. 20 minutes. One quick thing before you hit send. Scan for that long horizontal dash (em-dashes) mid-sentence. (Or you can prompt AI to not use them in the first place) It is the biggest sign AI wrote it. Take it out and the whole tone changes. We show how to write this in our AI in Procurement program and in our certification tracks for leaders who want to build this skill across their teams. And yes, it's 20 minutes once you set it up. If you lead a procurement team and want to build this across the board, comment TEAMS to talk about how we can train your team on this. If you are working on your own skills and want to go deeper, comment CERTS and I will share about...

I write B2B emails for healthcare and tech companies. Here's my 7-step process for creating email campaigns: 1. Find the persona problem In healthcare, there are payors, clinics, employers, and multiple kinds of audiences. Don't group them together. See where they entered the customer journey, where they are in awareness, or if you had an email in place to self-segment. From there, identify the core problem based on persona. 2. Audit existing campaigns to find top performers From welcome to nurture to post-demo, your marketing and sales teams should identify what emails get high revenue, high clicks, high opens, or high conversions. 3. Have a cadence Cadence is my favorite part because you're looking at FigJam or Miro to look at that high level view of the flowchart. What emails lead to other emails. You want to see the triggers, flows, and segmentation. 4. Apply a framework Before you write your emails, you should know what kind of frameworks your're giving to your message, from problem agitate solution to attention interest desire action. 5. What story are you telling and with what techniques? This is one of the most important because there are different parts to a customer journey. You're writing to a persona to inch them closer to product awareness, getting closer to the yes, through techniques that overcome objections, if it's the cost of inaction or another strategy. 6. Segment behavioral action Segmentation is about putting the right email in front of the right audience. Segment with a purpose, to nurture and shorten the sales cycle. 7. Optimize optimize optimize Not every email you write is going to be a banger. Knowing what to optimize around the call to action, message, or overall strategy is a start. No matter what, you're always optimizing. Always figuring out how to improve your email strategy to get the most out of them. Share this if it helps!