How to Triage and Clean Up an Overwhelming Inbox with Copilot

Open Outlook and find the Copilot button

Open Outlook on whichever device you prefer. If you're on the web, sign in at outlook.com or your work's Microsoft 365 sign-in page. If you're on a computer, open the new Outlook for Windows or Outlook for Mac. The new Outlook has a cleaner ribbon at the top and a more obvious Copilot button.

Look for a button labeled Copilot with a small four-pane colorful icon, usually near the top-right of the screen. Clicking it opens a chat-style panel on the right-hand side. On mobile, the Copilot entry point is sometimes tucked inside an Apps or Tools menu — tap your profile icon to find it.

Next step ↓

Ask Copilot to summarize your unread emails

Now you're in the Copilot panel. At the bottom is a text box where you type a request. Press Enter or click the send arrow.

Copilot scans your unread mail and returns a short summary grouped by sender or topic — for example, "3 from your manager, 2 from a client, 14 newsletters". You'll see this as a few bulleted points inside the Copilot panel, not as new emails in your inbox. The summary updates each time you ask, so you can re-run it after cleaning up.

If the text box is labeled differently on your version — "Message Copilot" or behind a chat icon — that's fine, the behavior is the same. On mobile, the panel usually takes the full screen. If nothing appears after 15 seconds, refresh and try once more — Copilot occasionally needs a moment to load on first use.

Next step ↓

Spot the emails that actually need a reply

This is the heart of the triage. Stay in the Copilot panel and ask a follow-up question that filters the summary down to what really matters. Copilot ranks using signals like who sent it, urgency words in the subject line, and time-sensitive phrases such as "by Friday" or "ASAP".

You should now see a much shorter list — usually three to five emails Copilot considers the most important. Each one comes with a short reason next to it, like "from your manager, mentions a deadline" or "client waiting on a quote". This is the list you'll actually act on today.

If the list is too long, be more specific. If it's too short, ask for more. Vague requests give vague results — the more you tell Copilot about what "important" means to you, the better the ranking.

Next step ↓

Draft replies in your own tone

Open the first email that needs a reply. Look inside the message for a Copilot button — usually labeled Draft a reply or shown as a small Copilot icon near the reply arrow. Click it. A reply window opens with Copilot's suggested text already filled in.

Read the draft carefully. Copilot usually matches the tone of the original email and pulls in useful context from the thread, but it can still sound stiff or miss a personal detail. Edit the draft to add anything specific, soften the tone, or remove anything you'd rather not say.

If the "Draft a reply" button isn't there, look for it inside the ⋯ menu near the reply arrow, or right-click the email. On older Outlook versions this feature may not exist — work from the Copilot summary and write the reply yourself.

Important: Copilot never sends anything without you pressing Send.

Next step ↓

Sweep the noise: archive, delete, unsubscribe

Now for the easy wins. Ask Copilot to list the newsletters, automated notifications and marketing emails sitting in your inbox. It pulls them out into a single view, so you can see the noise without scrolling through real mail.

Go through the list. For each item, either archive it (moves it out of the inbox but keeps it searchable), delete it, or, if it's a recurring sender you don't want, look for the unsubscribe link Copilot usually highlights. Most legitimate newsletters include a one-click unsubscribe at the bottom of the email.

If unsubscribe links aren't showing, your reading pane may be hiding them — open one email in its own window and look at the very bottom. Copilot sometimes surfaces the unsubscribe link directly inside its panel so you don't have to open each one.

Next step ↓

Set up an ongoing triage habit

Make this a five-minute daily habit. Tomorrow morning, before opening any individual email, open Copilot and ask for a fresh summary. Spend two minutes reading the priority list, then reply, archive or delete each item before moving on. The big weekly panic becomes a small daily check-in.

If your work generates a flood of mail, ask Copilot to build a simple Outlook rule — for example, moving every email from your manager into a folder called Priority and flagging it. Copilot can create these without any coding.

If the rule option isn't available on your version, set up Outlook rules manually: Settings → Mail → Rules. Copilot will suggest what to add, and you confirm and save each one.