The Email Apocalypse: My Journey to Inbox Redemption Part1 of 2

The Email Apocalypse: My Journey to Inbox Redemption

Hi, I've just released my first podcast for AI Prmptengineer—on Spotify it is the sister podcast for this blog series and will provide a space where real people like you and me explore how artificial intelligence can make life a little easier… or at least a lot less messy. So come and join me... First of all sorry, it's not the best as i'm new to this but I assure my love for AI and my belief that I have to help people embrace AI is very real. So please listen and hope you learn something from it - much love... so lets dive in ! ( Everyone says that ! I couldn't resist)

Let me start with a confession: I have 12,000 unread emails. Yep, you read that right. And no, that’s not my record. I’ve hit 20,000 unread emails before. Sometimes, just to share the chaos, I’ll send a screenshot of my inbox to a friend. Nothing like a little digital disaster to brighten someone else’s day, right?

Except, it’s not funny. It’s a real problem. And every time I think about fixing it, my brain says, “No big deal, Joey. This’ll only take a couple of weeks of deleting and organizing.” Spoiler alert: It is a big deal, and no, I’m not doing a blanket deletion. Oh no. I plan to go through every single email.

When Mailstrom Saved (and Then Lost) Me

A few years ago, I stumbled upon an app called Mailstrom. Brilliant name, isn’t it? A play on “maelstrom,” as in chaos and turmoil, which perfectly describes my inbox. The first time I used it, it was like magic. My inbox was squeaky clean, and I felt like I had conquered the world.

But then life happened. Months later, I canceled my subscription, convinced I had everything under control. I didn’t. The chaos came back, and when I tried Mailstrom again, it just didn’t work for me anymore. Worse, I think I lost some important emails in the process. That was the last straw. I abandoned ship and went back to my tried-and-true method: ignoring the problem until it got so bad I couldn’t look at it anymore.

Let’s just say, this is not a sustainable strategy.

My Email History Is My Life History

My iCloud email account is ancient. I’m talking 2003—22 years of emails. Births, deaths, marriages—it’s all in there. And sure, I’ve changed aliases over the years (thanks, marriage name change), but the inbox itself? A disaster zone.

And it’s not just email. My to-do list? A wreck. My calendar? Don’t even get me started.

Enter AI—The Big Fix (or So I Thought)

Here’s the dream: AI sweeps in like a superhero and fixes my inbox, my to-do list, my life.

I even have a plan. I’ll write an automation in n8n, and boom—problem solved. Except, most automations are designed for Gmail, and my main email is iCloud.

My AI mentor even gave me some code to classify my emails. Maybe he felt sorry for me. Maybe my 12,000 unread emails gave him secondhand anxiety. Either way, he handed me a solution. And me? I’ve done absolutely nothing with it. Three weeks and counting.

Too Many Emails, Too Many Problems

Here’s a breakdown of my email chaos:

• Gmail: Where I keep YouTube subscriptions, Chrome profiles, and passwords. Google is basically my brain at this point.

• iCloud: My primary email, tied to everything—Apple ID, Mac, iPhone, iPad.

• Outlook: Corporate emails, businesses, side hustles—you name it.

And now, many things I sign up for require a “work email.” So, I thought, “Why not set up one with my name?” Turns out, I let my domain expire. Now, some random person owns it and wants a fortune to sell it back.

So, I bought a new domain with my middle initial squeezed in. It’s fine. But one day, when I’m rich, I’m buying the original. Mark my words.

The Plan (and the Reality Check)

I need an executive assistant. Or at least a virtual one. But since that’s expensive, I decided to handle it myself.

Here’s the plan:

1. Buy a domain name (done).

2. Connect it to a new Gmail account.

3. Port over bookmarks, passwords, and YouTube subscriptions.

4. Set up an automation to organize emails.

Sounds simple, right? Wrong.

• Hours moving everything to Gmail? Check.

• Realizing YouTube wants $30 to transfer subscriptions? Fine, take my money.

• Needing a place to run the automation? Luckily, I bought a VPS on Black Friday.

Setting up the VPS turned into a whole new project. Installing Python, Node.js, and PostgreSQL (which, by the way, I had to Google). Once that’s done, I still need to build the automation—or borrow someone else’s—and then migrate 12,000+ unread emails. Oh, and let’s not forget the “important” emails I’ve already read.

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The Execution (Double Dose Reality Check)

It’s very, very challenging! - Double VERY. While I’ve written multiple applications, my ADHD brain is good at starting new things (sometimes finishing them is an issue). Fixing something so big and so complex is tough. After setting up, let’s call it

“the environment” — the domain and soon-to-be centralized email hub in Gmail — migrating all my YouTube subscriptions (no easy feat) and getting ready to cancel my personal Gmail subscription and move everything under the new business

profile, another roadblock emerged. Stop, do not pass Go. Google will only allow me to use Google Deep Research on a personal Gmail profile. Well, goddarn it! Google Deep Research is one of the key players in my AI world. So, we definitely won’t

be touching that. And if that’s the case, why even bother trying to unify my YouTube subscriptions under one profile? The battle for email nirvana continues, and it’s a battle I intend to win with my AI lieutenants!

The saga continues in Part 2—maybe even Part 3—of this post.

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Wrapping It All Up ( For now)

So here I am. My inbox is chaos. My plans are ambitious. But I’m learning, one small step at a time.

If you’re like me—juggling too many emails, tools, and not enough time—stick around. Together, we’ll explore how to use AI to make life better. Not perfect, not magical, but manageable.

Thanks for reading, and remember: The tsunami IS coming. (you saw what happened with DeepSeek) Are you ready?

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