are you an email hoarder? Do you keep almost all your emails in case you need them? it can be overwhelming without a visual reminder. Gmail has a way to add colored labels to your incoming email, so you know right away what needs to happen with those messages. When you color the gmail code, the color attracts your eyes and helps you quickly identify the items by their category. the colors give you clues and ask you to stay on top of things. let’s take a look at how you can colorize the gmail code.
add tags
1. To get started, you need to add tags to your gmail account. Look under the “compose” button on the left side of the screen and scroll down until you find the “more” button.
2. click that button and keep scrolling if necessary to find “create new tag”.
3. type a name for your category. think of things that are a regular part of your life or work that need your attention. click “create”.
4. you’ll want to create as many of them as you can think of right now because the tags must exist before the filters are applied.
add filters
5. Once you’ve created your categories and tags, you can apply the tags to specific emails by clicking the dropdown arrow at the bottom of the search bar.
type the address or copy and paste it into the “from” field. you can add other criteria that an email from this sender must contain to require the filter. For example, I included the word invoice so that every email I receive from this company doesn’t have the label, just the ones that are receipts for items I purchased.
6. when finished, click to create the filter.
7. another box will appear to finish creating the filter. click next to “apply the tag” and all the categories you created will appear. choose the one you want and click “create filter”.
8. If you want the same filter to apply to emails you have already received, click the checkbox which will tell gmail to attach you to all matching conversations.
add color
9. To color the gmail code, click the three dots next to the category and hover over the arrow next to “label color”.
10. choose the color of your label.
11. you can also use a limited number of other custom colors. there is no way to add rgb or hex color codes. however, it is possible to create different color combinations. for example, the colored dot at the bottom of the image above is dark blue with yellow text.
12. the image below shows how it looks in your inbox after adding the color.
13. these categories can also be organized into folders by nesting the tag below a different one. now the email will have two labels.
14. you can see what that looks like in the inbox image below.
gmail will now automatically apply those filters to all your incoming messages. it can take time to adjust to get the most out of it. For example, if you buy something from a new vendor, you’ll need to add the “receipts” filter to the sender’s email address.
You may not want to tag all emails. if you check every one of them, it’s just a new, more colorful version of email clutter. Adding color-coded labels will also help you spot emails going to your promotions box rather than the main inbox where they may belong. colored labels will help them stand out.
image credit: last color code