Work & OperationsDone with n8n
Handle routine email tasks and follow-up reminders with a personal assistant
Author built an n8n personal assistant that handles about 70% of routine email tasks and sends reminders for tasks waiting on others, after fixing early quirks.
- What They Did
- The author built an n8n workflow where a webhook feeds an OpenAI GPT-4 node that routes requests to email, calendar, or task branches. Gmail nodes find unread mail, and the model drafts short replies or flags NEEDS_HUMAN_REVIEW. It labels emails, sends urgent ones to Slack, and tracks tasks waiting on others, sending follow-up reminders and escalating.
- How It Went
- The author says it handles about 70% of routine email tasks, rising to about 80% after two months of tweaking. Early versions emailed the author's mom about dinner plans and tried to schedule meetings at 2 AM.
- Worth Knowing
- Add safety checks such as no sends between 10 PM and 8 AM, approval for keyword emails, and webhook authentication. The author budgets $20-30/month for API calls.
Try it yourself with n8n
Build an n8n personal assistant for my email at [email address] that sorts incoming mail, drafts replies for [routine types, e.g. scheduling, receipts, simple questions], and tracks emails where I'm waiting on someone. It should send me a reminder after [number] days of no reply. Have it save drafts only and never send any email without showing me the text first; you're done when it handles a week of sample emails correctly.