Friday, October 30, 2026
In today's issue
The news: Gmail's AI Inbox is rolling out
Tool: Make, and what its free plan covers
Watch: Adam Grant on the habits of original thinkers
Try this: Sketch one weekly task as three boxes
Good morning {{first_name|friend}},
A quiet business runs better on small systems than on willpower. Set one up once and it keeps working on the days you don't feel like talking to anyone.
Today is about one of those systems, and about a change in how your emails get read.
Quiet Win: the news
Gmail's "AI Inbox" is rolling out to paid Workspace users.
This Week in Email (Oct 21) reports that AI Inbox proactively scans incoming mail and builds a running briefing of deadlines and status updates. It began rolling out to Rapid Release Workspace domains on Oct 12 and reaches Scheduled Release domains on Oct 26. For now it's U.S./English-only.
If you sell through email, clear and specific writing matters even more now. A summary of a vague email is still vague, so put the ask, the price and the deadline in your first sentence.
Tool of the day
Make
Problem: you repeat the same busywork every week (send a file, log a sale, welcome a buyer) and it drains the hours you need for real work.
Agitate: willpower does not scale. On quiet days the backlog still sits there waiting for you to reply.
Solution: Make connects your apps visually so a form answer can add a sheet row and send the right resource without a meeting or a call.
Free tier: Free plan includes 1,000 credits per month. Most actions use 1 credit (checked on Make’s pricing FAQ today).
Watch
The surprising habits of original thinkers
Adam Grant · TED · 15 min
Organizational psychologist Adam Grant on how originals often procrastinate a little, doubt their ideas, and still act. It's reassuring if your best work happens slowly and quietly.
Try this today (10 minutes)
Write down one task you repeat every week, such as sending a file, welcoming a buyer, or logging a sale. Sketch it as three boxes: trigger → action → result. That's your first Make scenario. The sketch takes 10 minutes; build it this weekend on the free plan.
Hit reply
If a robot could take one weekly task off your plate tomorrow, which one would you hand over? Hit Reply and tell me.
Quietly sovereign,
Sterling
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