Your inbox isn’t a problem. It’s a symptom.
The real problem is that you’re making 40+ micro-decisions every morning before you’ve done a single thing that matters.
I spent a weekend building something that handles all of it. Here’s the workflow — and the free JSON.
Every founder I know has the same morning ritual. Open Gmail. Skim 30 emails. Mentally sort them. Archive half. Forget the other half. Repeat tomorrow.
That’s not inbox management. That’s reactive noise. And it’s costing you 30-45 minutes a day that you think is “just checking email.”
I built a system that reads every incoming email, decides what it is, and takes action — without me touching it.
Gmail fires a trigger the moment a new email lands
Gemini reads the email and classifies it: Promotions, Social, Personal, Sales, Recruitment, or Receipts
Gmail label gets applied automatically — inbox stays clean
Personal email? A draft reply gets created, ready for you to review and send
Sales email? Auto-reply goes out immediately
Social email? Logged to a Google Sheet so nothing gets lost
Receipt? Confirmation sent. Done.
Zero manual sorting. Zero missed follow-ups. Zero cognitive overhead.
Gmail OAuth — Go to Google Cloud Console, create a project, enable the Gmail API, and generate OAuth 2.0 credentials. You’ll paste the client ID and secret into n8n’s Gmail credential.
Gemini API key — Head to aistudio.google.com, sign in, and hit “Get API key.” Free tier is enough to run this.
Google Sheets ID — Open any Google Sheet, copy the long string from the URL between
/d/and/edit. That’s your Sheet ID. Only needed if you want the social logging node.
Download the JSON file from the link below
Open n8n, click “Add workflow,” then hit “Import from file”
Drop in the JSON
Connect your Gmail OAuth credential to the Gmail trigger and draft nodes
Paste your Gemini API key into the AI node
Add your Google Sheets ID to the logging node (skip this if you don’t need it)
Hit Activate — it runs on every new email from here
Takes about 15 minutes if your credentials are ready.
Download the full n8n workflow JSON here:
Import it, connect your credentials, and it’s live. No paid tools required beyond what you already use.
ApexQuant goes out every Tuesday to founders and agency owners who actually build with AI. Not lurkers — people with credit cards and implementation intent.
The numbers: 23,800 subscribers. 30% open rate. 150+ clicks last issue. 62% US audience.
One sponsor slot per issue. If that’s interesting, email me: nefro992@gmail.com
One more thing
Free workflows like this one are public — always will be.
But if you want the advanced vault — multi-step orchestration, lead enrichment pipelines, client delivery systems — that’s paid.
The builders in there are using these stacks to run lean agencies and charge more for less time. Worth it if you’re serious.
Reply to this email and tell me what you’re building. First month on me.
— Patrick
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