236. Tech Tools: Tech Tools: Zeroing in on Your Email Communication

Summary

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Think Fast, Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

Episode 236: Tech Tools - Zeroing in on Your Email Communication
Host: Matt Abrahams | Guest: Rahul Vora (Founder & CEO, Superhuman)
Date: October 16, 2025

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Overview

In this Tech Tools miniseries episode, host Matt Abrahams sits down with Rahul Vora, founder and CEO of Superhuman, to explore how technology—specifically optimized email tools—can vastly enhance your professional productivity and communication. Focusing on the Inbox Zero philosophy and actionable strategies for taming overwhelming email, the conversation unpacks best practices for managing written communication. Rahul shares practical advice, personal philosophies, and the origin story behind Superhuman, ending with his own communication role models and productivity hacks.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Inbox Zero Philosophy

[01:18–04:18]

• Definition:
  Rahul explains Inbox Zero as “the idea that you should regularly, let’s say once per day, get to the point where there are no emails left in your inbox.”

• Benefits:

  • Reduces anxiety about hidden, urgent tasks
  • Empowers immediate response to critical emails
  • Saves time by avoiding repeatedly checking and marking emails as unread
  • Quote:
    • “If you’ve gone through everything in your inbox, you have no anxiety about what dangers or horrors might lurk beneath.” — Rahul Vora [01:36]

• Three Practical Tactics:

  1. Split Inbox:
     • Use tools (like Superhuman) to separate emails by type—team, VIPs, tools—so that urgent or important emails aren’t buried.
     • Quote:
       • “The urgent buries the important...with split inbox, you can actually create separate inboxes for your team, your VIPs, your most used tools, or anything else.” — Rahul Vora [02:01]
  2. Archive, Don’t Mark Unread:
     • Treat your inbox as an actionable to-do list; archive items when done, rather than juggling unread statuses.
     • Quote:
       • “If your inbox itself is your to-do list, you avoid this weird archaic ritual...” — Rahul Vora [03:02]
  3. Snooze Emails:
     • For tasks you can’t address now, “snooze” them to reappear at a better time, rather than letting them clutter your list.
     • Quote:
       • “[It’s] as crazy as carrying all of your material possessions in your backpack. Simply snooze them to when they should come back.” — Rahul Vora [03:56]

• Host’s Experience:

  • Matt reflects on his own email anxiety and confirms that these methods “really fundamentally changed my life.” [04:18]

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2. Superhuman’s Elevator Pitch

[05:02–05:50]

• Structure (per Matt’s MBA teaching):
  • “What if you could get through your inbox twice as fast as before, follow up on time every time, and respond faster to the things that really matter so that you never drop the ball, you never miss great opportunities, and you save four hours or more every single week?” — Rahul Vora [05:13]
• Innovation:
  • Superhuman leverages AI so every email could arrive with a draft reply ready for you.
  • Quote:
    • “Imagine waking up to an inbox where every email already has a draft reply. You would simply edit, then send. Sometimes, you wouldn’t even edit.” — Rahul Vora [05:39]

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3. Origin of Superhuman

[05:54–07:27]

• Personal Catalyst:
  • Rahul’s moment of inspiration came during a productive Uber commute, realizing “the real magic...was not about getting from A to B. It was about time—being able to do other things.” [06:34]
• Problem Identification:
  • Email is, after sleep, where professionals spend most of their time—3 hours/day on average.
  • “There are roughly 1 billion professionals in the world and on average we spend three hours a day reading and writing email...north of 1 trillion hours every single year.” — Rahul Vora [07:17]

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4. Admired Communicator

[09:15–10:18]

• Paul Graham (Y Combinator):
  • Cited for clear, concise, persuasive writing.
  • Rahul highlights Graham’s methodical rewriting as inspiration for Superhuman’s own writing culture.
  • Suggests reading “Writing, Briefly” (2005) by Paul Graham.
  • Quote:
    • “He wrote every single sentence at least a dozen times. Some he wrote two or three dozen times. And as a designer, as a craftsperson, that really spoke to me.” — Rahul Vora [09:44]

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5. Productivity & Communication Hack

[10:46–11:34]

• Transcendental Meditation:

  • Rahul practices twice daily, emphasizing improvements in creativity, focus, calmness, and communication clarity.
  • Quote:
    • “Initially, I simply felt happier, and then later the effects became more profound. I’m now more creative. I can stay focused for much longer, and I’m much calmer and clearer when I am communicating in a very intentional way.” — Rahul Vora [11:12]

• Host’s Reflection:

  • Matt also meditates and “can espouse how it absolutely helps you focus, gives you energy, and really can reinvigorate you...”

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Notable Quotes

• “Inbox Zero is the idea that you should regularly, let's say once per day, get to the point where there are no emails left in your inbox and the benefits of doing so are huge.” — Rahul Vora [01:28]
• “If unread emails are your to do list, that's the old fashioned way.” — Rahul Vora [02:49]
• “What if you could get through your inbox twice as fast as before...so that you never drop the ball, you never miss great opportunities, and you save four hours or more every single week?” — Rahul Vora [05:13]
• “It was about time—being able to do other things.” — Rahul Vora [06:34]
• “And in fact there are roughly 1 billion professionals in the world and on average we spend three hours a day reading and writing email. So that's 3 billion hours every single day or north of 1 trillion hours every single year.” — Rahul Vora [07:17]
• “He wrote every single sentence at least a dozen times. Some he wrote two or three dozen times.” — Rahul Vora [09:44]
• “The single practice that has had the biggest impact on my own productivity, my own communication, is meditation, and specifically Transcendental meditation.” — Rahul Vora [10:46]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |--------------------------------------------|:-------------:| | Introduction & Inbox Zero philosophy | 01:18–04:18 | | Superhuman elevator pitch | 05:02–05:50 | | Origin story of Superhuman | 05:54–07:27 | | Admired communicator (Paul Graham) | 09:15–10:18 | | Productivity hack (Transcendental Meditation)| 10:46–11:34 |

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Tone and Takeaways

Throughout the episode, both Matt and Rahul emphasize clear, intentional communication and the psychological relief that comes from structure and good tech tools. Rahul's explanations are accessible, personable, and deeply practical. The episode strikes a balance between actionable advice and storytelling, including memorable personal examples and recommended resources.

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For more insights and resources, visit fastersmarter.io.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign this Tech Tools miniseries is brought to you by Prezi, the presentation tool that makes your ideas easy to follow, hard to forget, and faster than ever to create. With Prezi AI, the best investment is in the tools of one's own trade. At Think Fast, Talk Smart, we're taking this quote by Benjamin Franklin, the famous US Inventor and founding father, very seriously. As you know, our show strives to share tips and techniques to help you hone and and improve your communication and careers. These practices and approaches can be augmented with tools and technology. I'm Matt Abrahams. I teach Strategic communication at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Welcome to this Tech Tools miniseries of Think Fast Talk Smart, the podcast. In this multi part miniseries we'll introduce you to tools we use at Think Fast Talk Smart to help us be better at our spoken and written communication and you'll learn best practices from the founders who created them. Taken. We hope these communication tools will help you find new ways to think fast and talk smart. I am super excited today to speak with Rahul Vora, who is the founder and CEO of Superhuman. Rahul, welcome. Thanks for joining me. I'm excited for our conversation.

[B]

Absolutely. Thank you for having me. And good to see you again.

[A]

I know you're a big proponent of Inbox Zero. For those who don't know what that is, can you share what is the Inbox Zero philosophy and why are you so fond of it?

[B]

Inbox Zero is the idea that you should regularly, let's say once per day, get to the point where there are no emails left in your inbox and the benefits of doing so are huge. Number one, if you've gone through everything in your inbox, you have no anxiety about what dangers or horrors might lurk beneath. If you come across anything that's on fire or which is particularly important, then number two, you are now empowered to actually deal with it. And number three, it saves you quite a lot of time because you avoid the trap of constantly peeking into emails and then marking them as unread. Now I realize that a lot of folks listening might be thinking, oh boy, that sounds great, but I just get too much email or gee, I can't do that. So I'll share just three of the ways that Inbox Zero can be made so much easier and which Superhuman in particular can help you do so? So number one, use Superhuman to split your inbox. I actually get an email every six to 10 seconds. It's completely nuts. And what that means is the urgent buries the important we don't reply to our team. We miss emails from our VIPs and we don't see important notifications from tools like Notion or Figma or Google Docs, whatever it is you're running your business on now, with split Inbox, you can actually create separate inboxes for your team, your VIPs, your most used tools, or anything else. So even when your inbox is overflowing, you can still hit inbox zero where it matters most. So that's number one, split inbox. Number two don't mark as unread archive. Instead, there are two ways of organizing an inbox. You can let your inbox grow infinitely and treat all of the unread emails as the list of things to do. Or you can archive emails when they're done and see the inbox itself as the list of things to do. And it turns out to be way faster to do the latter. If unread emails are your to do list, that's the old fashioned way. You then have to meticulously maintain the unread status. Let's say you receive an intriguing email. You can't help but open it. Now you have to mark it as in read. But wait, there's one more thing you want to check. So you open it again and then once again you have to mark it as in read. If your inbox itself is your to do list, you avoid this weird archaic ritual because you simply archive emails when they're done, they disappear from your inbox and they're easily found via search. All you see are the list of things yet to do and the end of the list is plainly in sight because you're staying on top of it. And then number three, if you can't do it today, snooze it to when you can do it. You don't need to look at the whole list every day or even tomorrow. Some things you can look at in a few days and other things you can look at in a few weeks. So instead of carrying the full list of things to do in your inbox, which is as crazy as carrying all of your material possessions in your backpack, simply snooze them to when they should come back. So those are the three ways to hit inbox zero and why you should.

[A]

Do it, I experience a lot of inbox anxiety and knowing I have a lot in my inbox, wondering what's in there. The approaches you've just mentioned to inbox zero have really fundamentally changed my life. I use snooze all the time. I prioritize when I want to see them again, I archive versus carry them around. Psychologically, I am a better person. I feel it, and those around me feel it. I encourage everybody to try it. You can experiment with it and see. Some of our listeners might not know what Superhuman is. Can you share what your product does using the elevator pitch structure that I teach my MBA students? So it's finishing these sentences, what if you could so that, for example. And that's not all, of course.

[B]

And by the way, I love this structure. As soon as I saw it, I immediately shared it with my team. I. I was so proud of what I'd written for this podcast. So I think we'll be using it internally from now on. But here we go. What if you could get through your inbox twice as fast as before, follow up on time every time, and respond faster to the things that really matter so that you never drop the ball, you never miss great opportunities, and you save four hours or more every single week? For example, our customers split their inbox into the streams of work that matter most, so they can immediately focus on what needs their attention. And that's not all. We're reinventing the future of productivity with AI. Imagine waking up to an inbox where every email already has a draft reply. You would simply edit, then send. Sometimes you wouldn't even edit.

[A]

Can you share what led you to go down this path of creating Superhuman?

[B]

When I started Superhuman, I wanted to solve the biggest possible problem. And email is a way bigger problem than most people actually realize. It hit me just after I sold my last company, which was called rapportive, to LinkedIn. I was commuting from work, which was in Mountain View at the time, to where I lived in San Francisco. It's about one hour, but this was 2014, and both Uber and Lyft were having their heyday. So I was in the back of an Uber. And on this trip, I finished some documents. I cleared out my email, I checked my calendar for tomorrow. I made dinner reservations for that evening. I even called my mother. I was simultaneously being a productive employee, a proactive boyfriend, and a present son. And I realized that the real magic of Uber or Lyft was not commuting. It was not about getting from A to B. It was about time, being able to do other things. So I asked myself the question, where do we spend all of our time? And Matt, I'm going to ask you a question. Can you guess the one thing that professionals spend the most time doing? And I warn you in advance, this is a trick question. Well, so I was going to say.

[A]

Email, but I guess my second bet would be being in meetings close and close.

[B]

It is actually sleep. It is sleeping and I have no idea how to fix sleep. But after sleep it is of course email. And in fact There are roughly 1 billion professionals in the world and on average we spend three hours a day reading and writing email. So that's 3 billion hours every single day or north of 1 trillion hours every single year.

[A]

So what drove you to this was your own realization about your time usage and how you could help others with theirs. And it has certainly helped me in my time. We'll be right back to finish our conversation, but first we're going to take a quick break. Hi Matt here. I'm excited to share that our October newsletter is now available. Learn about five common communication mistakes people make and most importantly, how to fix them. Plus hear about ways to get involved in something exciting that we're working on to transform your communication skills and career. Find our newsletter at Think Fast Talk Smart on LinkedIn in or under resources at faster smarter IO now a word from one of our sponsors. Their support allows us to bring you quality content free of charge. This episode of Think Fast Talk Smart is brought to you by Squarespace, the all in one platform that helps you turn your ideas into a professional online presence. As someone who teaches communication, I always say that how you present yourself matters not just in person, but online too. Whether you're building a personal brand, sharing your research, or launching a new project, Squarespace gives you everything you need to communicate clearly and confidently with blueprint AI. Squarespace's intelligent Website Builder, you can create a customized, polished site in just a few steps. Plus, built in email campaigns and analytics help you engage your audience and understand what's landing. Just like feedback after a great talk. So if you're ready to craft your message and share it with confidence and head to squarespace.com thinkfast for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use the code thinkfast to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com thinkfast offer code thinkfast before we end, I'd like to ask you two questions that I'm asking everybody who's part of this miniseries. Are you ready for that?

[B]

I'm ready.

[A]

So number one, I'd love to know who is a communicator you admire and why.

[B]

I really admire Paul Graham, one of the founders of Y Combinator and in particular I love his writing style. It is clear, it is concise, it is persuasive, it is all the things I aim for when I write. And I think it was about five, maybe seven years ago, I actually saw a video of him writing. There was a particular YC startup and their whole shtick was what if you could see other people writing? This was before Google Docs and it was eye opening. He wrote every single sentence at least a dozen times. Some he wrote two or three dozen times. And as a designer, as a craftsperson, that really spoke to me. And it is exactly how I teach people to write. At Superhuman, we as a company, we take our writing very seriously. Now fortunately, he's codified all of his rules in a very short essay that he published way back in 2005, if folks are interested to check that out. It is called writing, comma, briefly. Writing briefly.

[A]

Thank you for that reference. The ability to capture ideas concisely and clearly is an art and one that you need to work on. As you've shared question number two. Beyond your tool, in some of the ideas that you've shared with us, is there one hack or shortcut that you use that helps you? So I'll share one just to give you an idea. I find that when I play music and I need to really do some intense focus, having the music play helps me focus more. Something in that vein that you use.

[B]

I would say the single practice that has had the biggest impact on my own productivity, my own communication, is meditation, and specifically Transcendental meditation. In fact, before we jumped on to record this podcast, I spent precisely 23 minutes as it was 20 minutes in the meditation itself and three minutes of physical relaxation afterwards to get ready. I now practice Transcendental meditation twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. And I'm excited to share that. It's really been life changing. Initially I simply felt happier, and then later the effects became more profound. I'm now more creative. I can stay focused for much longer, and I'm much calmer and clearer when I am communicating in a very intentional way.

[A]

As somebody who also practices meditation, I can espouse how it absolutely helps you focus, gives you energy, and really can reinvigorate you, not just in the short term, but in the long term. I appreciate you sharing that. Well, this has been fantastic. I want to give you a thank you for sharing insights beyond the tool that you provide. So thank you for that and thank you for your time.

[B]

Of course. Thank you for having me.

[A]

Thank you for joining us for one of our communication tools, episodes of Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast. Please be sure to listen to to all of the episodes in this miniseries. We appreciate Prezi's sponsorship of these episodes. This episode was produced by Katherine Reed, Ryan Campos and me, Matt Abrahams. Our music is from Floyd Wonder with special thanks to Podium podcast company. Please find us on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to subscribe and rate us. Follow us on LinkedIn, TikTok and Instagram and check out fastersmarterio for deep dive videos, English language learning content and our newsletter. Please consider our premium offering for extended Deep Thinks episodes, Ask Matt Anythings and much more at fastersmarter IO Premium. I wanted to share with you that over the past few months I've had the amazing opportunity of talking to listeners across the globe about the impact the podcast has has had on them. I love learning how people are applying the principles and concepts that we cover on the podcast and the impact that it has had on their lives. It is truly inspiring. Speaking on behalf of all of us that bring you the show, we thank you for your support. We look forward to bringing you new episodes, new techniques and deeper knowledge and we ask for your support. It takes time and effort to put this show on the air. Please keep your ideas coming and if you can, we'd love for you to join our premium. Thank you. And here's to another 200 episodes.