How to save 4 hours a year ... for $8k

Dear indies, I need your advice 👋

While analyzing my own workflow, I found a surprisingly simple way to save time by slightly modifying Gmail notifications.

What I changed:

• Gmail notifications don’t disappear

• They include a “Mark as read” button

This means I don’t have to open Gmail just to clear messages.
Based on my rough calculations, this saves me up to ~4 hours per year just from fewer context switches.

Sounds small, but it felt very noticeable in daily work.

The problem 😬

To do this properly with the Gmail API, Google requires CASA verification because of the gmail.modify scope.
As far as I understand, this is a third-party security audit that costs around $8,000, which is… a lot for a tiny productivity tool.

My question to you

Is this kind of micro-product actually interesting to anyone else, or is this just a “me problem”?

If people find it useful, I’ll build a version without Gmail API constraints.
If not — I’ll probably drop it.

Would really appreciate your honest thoughts 🙏
Thanks in advance!