AI-Era Information Workflow
Memo to Email to GPT

The first step in information management is capture. Meeting comments, commute insights, reading notes -- recording these without loss is the foundation.

3 Capture principles:

• Speed first -- use a tool that starts in 0.4 seconds
• Quantity over quality -- organize later, write now
• Add one line of context -- write "why I noted this"

Reasons to use email as your information hub:

• Universal: Accessible on all platforms and devices
• Searchable: Gmail and Outlook search are extremely powerful
• Persistent: Emails are typically stored for 10+ years
• Structured: Auto-organized by subject, date, and labels
• Exportable: Text can be transferred anywhere

Memos sent via Simple Memo accumulate in your inbox. No vendor lock-in -- access anytime, anywhere.

Feeding accumulated memos to GPT enables:

• Summarization: Auto-generate weekly reports from a week's notes
• Classification: Auto-sort scattered memos by category
• Analysis: Identify behavioral trends from memo patterns
• Action items: Auto-generate todo lists from notes
• Content creation: Generate blog posts or reports from memo fragments

Use this prompt for weekly reflection by feeding a week of memos to GPT. Copy emails labeled "Memo" from your inbox for the past week and paste them with the following prompt.

Prompt example:

"Below are my notes from this week. Please organize them from 3 perspectives: (1) key achievements and progress, (2) recurring themes or patterns, (3) tasks and ideas to carry over to next week. Please summarize as concise bullet points."

The key is specifying "3 perspectives." Letting GPT freely summarize tends to produce verbose output; limiting perspectives yields actionable results.

Use this when expanding fragmented memos into fuller ideas, especially for brainstorming records and insight notes.

Prompt example:

"Below are fragmented ideas noted at different times. Are there common themes between these notes, or combinations that could form new ideas? Please explain each possibility concretely."

Humans struggle to find connections between notes, but GPT excels at pattern recognition. It can discover unexpected links across a month of scattered notes.

Convert rough meeting notes captured via Simple Memo into structured minutes.

Prompt example:

"Below are rough meeting notes. Please create meeting minutes in this format: [Meeting Name] [Date/Time] [Attendees (infer from notes)] [Agenda & Decisions] [Action Items (assignee, deadline)] [Unresolved Items]. Mark uncertain information as [To Confirm]."

Including "[To Confirm]" in the instruction prevents GPT from filling gaps with guesses. Avoiding hallucinated information and explicitly flagging uncertainties is critical for professional use.

Effective prompts share three common principles:

• Specify output format: "As bullet points," "in table format," "from 3 perspectives" -- explicit formatting prevents verbose prose
• Handle uncertainty explicitly: "Don't guess," "mark unknowns as [To Confirm]" -- the most important technique for preventing hallucination in professional settings
• Provide context: Adding "These are sales team weekly meeting notes" dramatically improves GPT output accuracy

Understanding theory is one thing; daily practice is what matters. Here is the concrete workflow for integrating Memo-to-Email-to-AI into your daily routine.

Morning (Capture Preparation):

• Place Simple Memo in the most accessible position on your home screen
• During commute: instantly memo insights, ad ideas, podcast takeaways
• Follow "1 memo = 1 topic" strictly. Keep it short. Add one line of context

During the Day (Capture Execution):

• Memo notable meeting remarks ("Tanaka: said Q3 budget needs revision")
• Capture useful Slack/chat information (even just URLs)
• Note lunch conversation ideas
• All memos auto-accumulate in your email inbox via Simple Memo

Evening (AI Processing):

• Open Gmail "Memo" label, select and copy all today's notes
• Paste into GPT with an "organize today's notes" prompt
• Review GPT output and create tomorrow's task list
• Star important memos in Gmail for retention

Weekend (Weekly Review):

• Feed a week of memos to GPT for auto-generated weekly report
• Have GPT analyze "recurring themes" to objectively view your interests
• Use GPT output as reference material for next week's planning

The Memo-to-Email-to-GPT workflow extends far beyond basic reviews.

• Reading note synthesis: Memo interesting passages while reading via Simple Memo. After finishing, GPT generates "book summary + my key highlights"
• Customer interview analysis: Accumulate sales meeting notes, then GPT extracts "issues customers repeatedly mention" -- directly feeds proposal creation
• Learning reinforcement: Feed study notes to GPT asking "what areas show weak understanding" to identify review priorities
• Diary auto-analysis: Feed daily emotion/event notes to GPT at month-end to objectively view emotional patterns and behavioral trends