Case Study
2 to 3 hours a day in the inbox and still behind. Now about an hour, and nothing slips.
Company
Change for Life
Industry
Psychology and behaviour therapy practice
Problem
Aaron was spending 2 to 3 hours a day in his inbox and still missing things. Unpaid bills, unanswered families and staff waiting on replies all added up, and his wife ended up checking his inbox for him.
What we built
- • An AI assistant that sorts the inbox into a ranked briefing three times a day
- • Replies drafted in his own voice, ready for him to approve
- • Every job from the inbox turned into a task with a due date
- • Reminders and nudges until each job is actually done
Outcome
- ✔ Inbox time down from 2 to 3 hours a day to about an hour
- ✔ Up to 480 hours a year back
- ✔ Emails answered, bills paid, follow-ups closed
- ✔ His wife no longer has to check or remind
The Situation
Where things stood
Change for Life is a psychology practice and early intervention behaviour therapy centre in Victoria. Malini owns the clinic and leads the clinical side. Her husband and co-owner, Aaron, runs operations and finance.
A huge share of the practice ran through Aaron's inbox: bills, invoices, referrals, staff questions and families waiting on answers. In 60 days it took in about 1,600 emails, and nearly half were noise. He was spending 2 to 3 hours a day in it, and it still wasn't working.
"I used to open my email, and then I used to go like, oh God, you know, and they shut it."
Things slipped. A cleaner's bill went unpaid because nobody found the email. People waiting on a reply had to chase. So Malini started checking his inbox in the evenings, on top of her own clinical work.
"I think Aaron desperately needs it because I am monitoring his emails because he has stopped coping with his emails."
The Bottleneck
What was actually in the way
Aaron was putting in the hours. The inbox was built for someone who works through things in neat order, and Aaron's day is constant interruption. Every time he was pulled away, everything waiting for him piled higher.
- Nothing separated what needed action from what was just information
- Jobs he meant to come back to only lived in his head
- Nothing told him when someone had replied, or when a bill was due
- The only safety net was Malini, checking after hours
The cost spread well past Aaron: families waiting, staff waiting, bills at risk, and two owners spending their evenings on one inbox.
The Fix
What we built
We didn't try to make Aaron better at email. We changed how the inbox works for him, so it fits the way he actually works.
1. Guardrails first. Aaron set the rule himself: AI gets the minimum information needed for an approved task, and identifiable client information stays out. Everything runs inside the practice's own business AI account.
2. An assistant that writes like him. It studied 60 days of his email to learn his voice and the kinds of email he gets. When he corrects a draft, it learns.
3. Three short briefings a day. At 8am, noon and 5pm a notification lands on his phone with everything sorted: urgent and payment issues at the top, questions and actions next, information at the bottom, and the noise gone. He works through it, approves the drafted replies, and moves on.
4. Every job gets a home. Anything he won't do on the spot becomes a task with a due date on the practice's task board. The assistant reminds him through the day and nudges him when something is overdue. It checks his sent folder so it knows what's done, and when he's waiting on someone, it tells him when they reply, even days later.
Tool layer
- Claude (the practice's business team account): the assistant
- Gmail: the inbox it sorts and drafts into
- Trello: every task and due date
The Outcome
What changed
- ✔Inbox time down from 2 to 3 hours a day to about an hour, in three short check-ins
- ✔Up to 480 hours a year back for Aaron, about twelve working weeks
- ✔Important emails answered, so families and staff are no longer chasing
- ✔Bills and jobs tracked to a due date, with nudges until they're done
- ✔Follow-ups close themselves: he hears when someone replies
- ✔Malini no longer checks his inbox or reminds him
The Human Payoff
What it actually meant
Before, opening the inbox felt like opening a cupboard you already know is a mess.
"It's like if you open your cupboard and you see things in there, say how to fix it, and oh god, I'll do it later. Yes, it was. It was like that."
Now it's three short check-ins, and then it's done. The bigger change happened at home.
"But you don't know the best part of it. He didn't tell you. I have not reminded him about anything once."
The evenings Malini used to spend on Aaron's inbox are theirs again.
As Malini put it, laughing, early in the work:
"So they actually teach a fish to climb a tree. Jeeves is taking on a lot."
Client Feedback
"But you don't know the best part of it. He didn't tell you. I have not reminded him about anything once."
Malini · Owner
More Results