GTD Gmail: Inbox Zero and Optimized Email Workflow Dan Silvestre

I’m going to tell you about my gtd gmail system and how I use it in everyday life.

makes email processing a breeze – getting to your inbox to zero in less than 5 minutes, while keeping important tasks and to-dos in view.

email is the demon of the knowledge economy. if you don’t have a management system in place, it can be the ultimate time waster, hurting productivity.

according to a carleton university study, people spend a third of their time in the office, and half of their time working from home, reading and responding to emails. but 30% of that time, emails are neither urgent nor important.

Each week, the “typical” knowledge worker spends nearly 12 hours processing email at work plus a little over 5 hours from home. that’s a total of 17 hours, a third of your workweek.

Using this productivity system, your gmail will double as an inbox as well as your task manager. you can save all conversations that require action (a reply, a reminder, or a task) while still zeroing your inbox.

that’s why I just call it gtd gmail.

configuring your email system

here is everything we are going to cover in this post:

First, I’ll show you how I process my daily work with the gtd gmail inbox email workflow.

If you want to copy my frame, I’ll show you how to set it up in less than 15 minutes with step-by-step instructions and screenshots.

then we’ll go over filters (just the essentials!) and folders so that your gmail gtd only shows the truly important emails.

After that, it’s time to build the main framework using simple productivity tricks like keyboard shortcuts, auto-advance, and many others.

Once everything is set up the way you want it, it’s time for the first cleaning of your inbox. trimming your gmail gtd will allow you to find emails faster.

Lastly, I’ll offer additional tips on how you can stop getting so many emails in the first place.

Let’s get started!

do things email organization

I got the original idea for the gtd gmail system from Andreas Klinger. I based the main framework on your approach and then built it using productivity tricks while simplifying other parts.

this is what my gtd gmail inbox looks like:

Why do I love this framework so much?

because it allows you to have:

• inbox zero: on the left side, easy to manage and quick to clean
• gtd gmail: your to-dos and references on the right hand side, helping you get things done
• to-dos in the first box: all the items I need to take action on are at the top, so which is easier to grab and use my effective to-do list format
• referenced in the second box: these are items I need to review regularly, several times a day; I remove them when I no longer need them
• 0 plugins: you can create this framework using only the standard gmail functions

I find gmail’s tab system extremely complicated (I hate it so much I’d rather have no system at all) and the quick fix most people use (setting up hundreds of filters) is far from ideal.

The great thing about this is that it’s hard to lose the big picture with this setup. It takes less than 15 minutes to set up, but saves you hours a day!

Ever since I’ve been using this system, I cringe when I look at other email inboxes, even “clean” ones.

let’s start with the email workflow I use to process daily work using the gtd gmail system.

gtd gmail workflow

An email from your boss about a project you’re working on? should take action on it.

Sent an email to a colleague and expect a reply? you need to track it.

A plane ticket to a conference you’re attending? you should check it later.

These are the three main options in the gtd gmail workflow:

Think of every email you receive as something you need to take action on, track or refer to later.

we are going to use a productivity trick called touch-it-once. this means that once you open a conversation you immediately decide what to do with it. don’t procrastinate and get back to it. you touch it once and go to the next. the gtd gmail system incorporates this trick using yes or no questions:

Here’s how to manage your daily work using this system:

1. an email arrives
2. handle the ones you can instantly
3. the others mark as “pending”
4. if you need to quickly find an email, mark it as “delegated” (I call it “reference”, more on that later)
5. if you need to track or know when you replied, mark them as “waiting for reply”
6. you archive all emails
7. now you have a zero left inbox
8. all the important ones in the boxes special the right ones

This workflow helps you make decisions and quickly get to inbox zero.

remember the principle of touch it once: keep going to the next. Whenever I have an email I really don’t want to handle, I use the 2 minute rule to stop procrastinating and do things instead.

let’s move on to part two: setting up your gtd gmail inbox.

gtd gmail integration: step by step guide

Now that you know how to process incoming email, we’re ready to set up your own gtd gmail inbox.

once again, all you need to do is enable some standard gmail features.

This is how it works:

• use multiple inboxes
• special stars to filter the types of actions needed
• multiple inboxes match special stars using search
• apply filters to avoid repetitive tasks

#1 adding multiple inboxes

click the gear icon at the top of your inbox and go to settings > laboratories.

now search for “multiple inboxes” and enable it.

now has a new menu called “multiple inboxes”. click on it and choose the layout on the right side:

#2 using special stars

go to settings > general. scroll down until you find “stars”.

should look like this:

now you have to choose the stars you want to use in your gtd gmail. you need one star per inbox category you want to have on the right.

for example:

• orange question mark for urgent to-dos
• yellow question mark for normal to-dos
• purple question mark for emails waiting for a response
• blue star for reference emails you need to find quickly

I recommend using no more than 3 categories (out of a maximum of 5). it will force you to group the emails and make it easier to remember. sometimes less is more.

here are some examples:

• To Do: Organize by level of importance using 3 inboxes, one for each level (tip: red star for urgent, orange for important, and yellow for normal)
• Awaiting Reply: Emails you sent and haven’t been answered
• Follow-up: Emails you need to reply to
• delegate: tasks you passed on to your team
• reference: emails you will need frequently in the next few days, such as tickets flight or meetings

It’s time to decide the categories and special stars that you will use in your gtd gmail. once you’re ready, continue to the next step.

#3 matches inboxes to stars

It’s time to link each inbox to its corresponding star. click “multiple inboxes” again.

add filter rules to categories in your inbox. I only have two categories, this is what it looks like:

If you hover your mouse over the stars in the general settings, it shows you their name.

here is an ordered list of all the names:

• has:yellow-star
• has:orange-star
• has:red-star
• has:purple-star
• has:blue-star
• has:green-star
• has:red-bang
• has:orange-guillemet
• has:yellow-bang
• has:green-check
• has:blue-info
• has:purple-question

You can also use multiple stars for an inbox just by adding or, and basically any of the other operators you can use in gmail.

for example:

You want to have urgency levels on your to-dos but you only have one inbox. Using the example above, it’s a red star for urgent, orange for important, and yellow for normal.

This is what you should type in the search query:

has:yellow-star or has:orange-star or has:red-star

this will filter out all emails with any of those stars in your to-do inbox.

However, if you use a lot of mobile devices, I recommend using the normal yellow star for all of them, as it’s the only star you can use. unfortunately, none of the other functions will work.

#4 final tweaks: use the inbox layout

The last step of your gtd gmail is to remove all of gmail’s fancy default features, like “inbox tabs”.

go to settings > input tray and change the input tray type to “default”. uncheck all categories manually if necessary.

make sure to also disable any settings related to priority, important emails or filters:

and now for the final step, you need to change your inbox layout to “compact”.

click the cogwheel again and choose compact under “display density”:

and voila! you have completed all the steps to convert your inbox to a gtd gmail.

click reload and watch the magic happen 😉

great! it’s time to move on to the next section, setting up labels and filters so that your gmail gtd only shows the most important emails.

gtd folder structure

There are two main reasons why I use tags:

1. keep all unimportant emails away from my inbox, so I don’t need to read them right away
2. make it easier to search if I’m looking for a specific email. for example: if I’m looking for a plane ticket, I know I have to look in “file cabinet”

You know best which labels you need, based on the type of work you do and the emails you receive.

if you get a lot of reports (weekly, team updates, etc.) and you don’t need to take action on them right away (just read them), you might want to set a label for that.

o you need a tag to have all the emails related to your projects, so it’s easy to find a specific email/project using search (I used this in my previous work).

but don’t overcomplicate it and start creating 589 tags. groups related emails into a single label: all projects under “projects” instead of one label per project.

don’t use more than 5 tags: it will simplify your life (a lesson I learned through learned minimalism).

This is how I segment mine:

• newsletters: email lists I subscribe to and like to read, go straight here (if you want to pick some awesome newsletters, here are my recommendations)
• people: all emails from friends and family
• growth hacking: a specific newsletter I subscribe to that shares the most amazing content about growth hacking
• sales: paypal sales emails for my products
• filer: purchase receipts – uber, amazon , paypal, etc. -, and other important documents – flights, domain registrations, taxes – go here

discover your categories. remember: everything that is not urgent should go directly into a tag.

a sneaky hack for your gtd gmail

OK, now we need to match the filters to their tags.

First, here’s what not to do:

many people use search operators, in this case, or- in filters, with a very long query to match a tag. why is this terrible?

1. every time you want to add an email, you have to do it manually
2. slows down your email client

Since this isn’t the most efficient way to do it, you know it’s not the gtd gmail way 😉

here’s a little gmail “secret” that i like to call “email brothers”: you can add a plus sign and any word before the @ sign and messages will still come to your main email.

using dan+hello@gmail.com is exactly the same as dan@gmail.com.

but if this trick doesn’t change anything, why should you use it? because it will make setting and maintaining filters very easy. like this:

Whenever I sign up for an email newsletter, I make sure to add “+growth” after my email id. then this filter takes care of the rest, bypassing the gtd gmail inbox and putting the email directly into a folder.

I never have to update the filter, I just have to remember to add that part (I have it on autocomplete).

here are 3 ideas on how you can use this nifty trick:

• filter friendly email: add “+friends” when you email a friend and it will go to a tag once they reply. or give them vip status instead by setting your filter to mark these messages as important and top priority
• divide work and staff: if you use your account for mail personal and work email, you can add “+work” to your gmail address for any work-related conversation
• to-do lists: add “+everything” and it can be emailed email tasks, which is useful if you’re on your phone and don’t have the gmail gtd. then, it is a matter of choosing the option to highlight that email in the filters

let’s move on to configuring your filters.

creating tags, filters and matches: step by step guide

To create a new tag, go to the left sidebar. then click more > categories > create new tag. this will appear:

Enter a name for your label and click create.

gmail sorts tags alphabetically, so if you want a specific order, you can use the trick I use: add “#” and a number before the name. for example: “projects #1”.

Now, to create some filters you need to navigate to Settings > Filters and Blocked Addresses. Scroll all the way down and click “Create a new filter”. It should show you this:

basically what gmail will do is use a search to filter out specific types of emails. to move an email to a label without pressing your gmail gtd, you need to check “skip inbox (archive it)” and also “apply label” and choose the correct one from the dropdown:

Repeat this process for all the labels and filters you need to set up.

gtd gmail advanced features

set up our gtd gmail inbox and create a couple of matching tags and filters.

For the final step of our gtd gmail, we’re going to cover features for advanced users, such as keyboard shortcuts (default or custom), email auto-advance, send and archive, and undo send.

While they don’t need to be configured to use your gtd gmail, they will help you optimize repetitive tasks and save a few clicks each time (which translates to a lot of clicks over time). ).

keyboard shortcuts #1: default

If you like productivity, you probably already use keyboard shortcuts in other applications, like excel or chrome.

A couple of key commands can save you thousands of clicks over time, especially on tasks you do over and over again.

go to settings > Generally, search for “keyboard shortcuts” and activate the button:

You have enabled default shortcuts for gmail. it’s time to learn them using this list.

for our gtd gmail, the most important ones are:

• c to compose
• e to archive
• # to delete
• r to reply
• a to reply to all
• s for star
• / for search

but if you’d rather set up your own custom keyboard shortcuts, we’ll need to enable another gmail lab.

keyboard shortcuts #2: custom

go to settings > labs, search for “custom keyboard shortcuts” and toggle the button to enable:

This will create a new tab in settings where you can customize your hotkeys. go to settings > keyboard shortcuts and modify the keys to your liking.

remember to make it easy to remember the gtd gmail main actions: compose, archive, delete, reply, reply all, star and search.

#3 auto-advance emails

go to settings > labs, search for “auto-advance” and toggle the button to enable:

now go to settings > In general, look for “auto-advance” and choose the option “go to the next (newer) conversation”:

and voila! after archiving an email, it will automatically go to the next email, instead of going to the inbox by default.

You just saved yourself hours a week. self-five!

#4 send and file

When you reply to an email, it stays in your inbox. what we want to do in our gtd gmail inbox is to automatically archive a conversation after we send it. Fortunately, this feature can be activated with just a few clicks.

go back to settings > Generally, search for “send and archive” and click the “show send and archive” button in response” file:

save your changes.

with this option activated, you will have an additional button when replying to an email that is in your main inbox:

Use the new blue button by default, archiving all emails that you have replied to. You will get to inbox zero a lot faster.

but don’t forget to star the email if you want to move it to the right inbox before sending!

#5 undo send

Finally, we are going to enable something in our gmail gtd that should be a default function: undo send.

sometimes we hit the submit button too quickly, by mistake, or wonder if it was a great idea 5 seconds later (at which point we frantically try to unsubmit).

step 1: configuration > in general, search for “undo send” and choose 10 seconds from the dropdown (30 if you screw up a lot):

step 2: save the changes. this will reload your gmail.

Step 3: Send an angry email to google listing 50 reasons why this should be the default.

Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of a gmail gtd!

Time to hit inbox zero for the first time.

the first cleanup of gtd gmail

just so we’re on the same page, here’s what gtd gmail is not:

If this is you (even 100 unread make me anxious), I’m going to give you an easy solution to get to inbox zero fast.

if you want this to be quick and dirty, use parkinson’s law by applying the pomodoro productivity technique (a 25 minute cycle should suffice).

Check the first two or three pages of the email and mark everything you need with your stars. these can be to-dos, emails you’re waiting for a reply to, reference emails, or anything you’ve decided to use your inboxes or stars for.

Once you’ve gone through the first few pages, click select all using the checkbox in the top left. now a bold move: confirm that you really mean the 8379 emails and click archive.

It’s okay to take a moment and mourn all your unread emails. Say a few prayers if you need to.

and once you’ve done that, look at your new gtd gmail inbox: a zero inbox on the left and your right areas filled with your actions >.

you still have all those emails in your gmail, they are just out of sight. they can be found in the “all mail” tab.

however, the two problems you might have is that:

1. clogs searching for a specific email with unwanted results
2. takes up space in gmail, making it slower

I’m going to show you two simple tricks that will reduce your emails and your space by more than 50% in less than 10 minutes.

#1 searching emails by size

click “all mail” enter this query in your search bar: “largest: 10m”.

this will reveal all emails larger than 10mb:

You can input any number you want here, but to clean it fast focus your energy on the 20% of emails that take up 80% of the space (also known as the 80/20 rule of the Pareto Principle).

#2 delete old emails using batch processing

If you’re like me, you subscribe to a lot of newsletters, groups and notifications. most of those emails are already out of date and you will never need them again. these are the ones that clog up search results.

go to “all mail” and start copying your email id just after the @. for example: “@awesomewebsite.com” or “@newsletter.awesomewebsite.com”.

now enter them in the search bar, select them all and delete them. this can be quite a tedious task, but since it requires minimal effort, you can do it at your “spare time”.

It’s time for the last part: how to stop receiving so many emails.

receive fewer emails

Although our gtd gmail is an amazing productivity system, it wouldn’t be complete without covering yourself for less email in the first place.

because: awesome gtd gmail + fewer emails = more time for you!

These are my main recommendations:

1. Unsubscribe: Anything you don’t need (newsletters, groups, mailing lists, notifications) unsubscribe right now. this reduces emails received by 80% immediately. Go away!
2. send fewer emails: well, sure! Not every email needs a response, especially if it’s going to be a “thank you!”
3. don’t reply right away: many “urgent” emails tend to resolve themselves. Raise your hand if you have a member of your team who sends a lot of these emails only to find that the issue is resolved when you talk to them. yes.
4. keep it brief: don’t write ten sentences when two are enough. try to respond to each email with three sentences. no need to say hello, thank you, or sign (they know who you are)
5. answer with affirmations: do not answer questions with another question, generating an endless chain of messages “what what time should we have the meeting?” it’s not an opportunity to reply “maybe 10 or 11 am, what do you think?” be assertive: “10 am.”

Following these 5 principles will reduce your email by over 90%.

If you work in an office and you get an email from a co-worker about a project and it takes you 10 minutes to write a response, guess what? get up and go talk to that person or wait for them to take a break.

Personal interactions beat email any day of the week. it’s easier to convey the time and make sure there are no misunderstandings.

Let’s wrap up by recapping everything we learned.

recap

You did it, what a legend!

You’ve turned your inbox into a gmail gtd, saving you thousands of hours a year. use this tense to develop skills using compound tense.

here’s everything we cover:

First of all, gtd gmail’s productivity system allows you to have a zero inbox on the left side and a task manager on the right side.

every email you receive is something you need to take action on, track or refer to later. use yes or no questions to immediately decide what to do with an email after opening it.

to transform your inbox into a gmail gtd you need:

• add multiple inboxes and select the right side of the inbox
• choose your category, special stars and combine them
• change the type of inbox to “default” and layout to “compact”
• turn off any settings regarding priority, important emails or filters
• use tags and filters to avoid repetitive tasks

For more gtd gmail advanced features, be sure to enable keyboard shortcuts (default or custom), auto-advance emails, send and archive, and unsend.

For a quick first cleanup, read the first three pages of unread email and star everything you need. then select all and click archive.

Also, if you want a deeper clean, you can search for emails that are larger than 10mb from batch delete emails by looking for the identifier after @.

finally, while gtd gmail is a great productivity system, you should also receive fewer emails. You can do this by unsubscribing from emails you don’t need, sending fewer emails, not responding right away, being brief, and responding with affirmations.