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Focus Queue

Your inbox is full of hidden to-dos. Someone asks you to review a document. A client needs a proposal by Friday. A teammate is waiting on your approval. The Focus Queue surfaces these buried action items so nothing falls through the cracks.

From Email to Action​

FlowMail's AI reads your emails and extracts the things you actually need to do. Instead of scanning every message yourself, you get a clean list of next actions — each one linked back to the email it came from.

Behind the scenes, every action item is part of a plan. Most items start as simple, single-step actions. But when an item turns out to be more involved, FlowMail can break it down into sub-steps — so you're never staring at a vague to-do wondering where to start.

Task Types​

Inspired by Getting Things Done (GTD), every item in the Focus Queue has a clear type that tells you what kind of action is needed:

  • Compose — Write a reply. This is the most common email action and the one most likely to pile up.
  • Action — Do something specific that isn't email-related (review a document, update a spreadsheet, make a phone call).
  • Research — You can't act yet because you need more information. Investigate or clarify first.
  • Waiting — You've delegated this or you're blocked on someone else. Check back later.
  • Schedule — Create a calendar event or coordinate a meeting time.
  • Delegate — Forward to someone better suited to handle it. The item moves to your Waiting queue so you remember to follow up.
  • Remember — Review or save something for future reference. Not every email needs a reply — sometimes you just need to absorb the information.
  • Ask — FlowMail needs your input before it can proceed. Clarify your intent so the AI can take the right next step.

The Clarify Step​

Each item has a text input where you decide what needs to happen. This is the GTD "clarify" step — the moment where a vague obligation becomes a concrete next action. Instead of staring at "Re: Q3 Planning" and wondering what to do, you write "Send revised timeline to Jordan by Thursday."

Priority Bands​

Items are organized into priority bands based on how confident FlowMail is that they need your attention right now:

  • Urgent — High confidence this needs action now
  • High — Likely important, handle today
  • Normal — Lower confidence — review when you have time

FlowMail scores each item by how much context it has and how clearly the action is defined. As you clarify items and the AI learns your patterns, the scores get sharper.

Feedback That Teaches​

When you dismiss an item, FlowMail asks why:

  • Not actionable — This wasn't really a to-do
  • Wrong card — The item was assigned to the wrong context

This feedback is recorded as a plan correction and feeds directly into FlowMail's learning system, so the AI gets better at extracting the right actions over time.

Agent Approval Items​

When the AI agent needs your sign-off on a sensitive action — like sending an email or creating a plan — it creates an approval item in the Focus Queue. You see exactly what the agent wants to do and can approve, reject, or modify the action before it proceeds.

Approval items work just like other Focus Queue tasks: they're prioritized, linked to the originating plan, and feed into the learning system when you provide feedback.

Quick-Add​

Need to add a task manually? The quick-add widget lets you create items on the fly without leaving the Focus Queue. Each one becomes a lightweight plan that fits right into the same priority system as everything else.