It’s a moment in everyone’s career that deserves a celebration.
no, it’s not a promotion or a great presentation for the executive team, although those are also good things.
It’s the moment when your gmail account hits inbox zero, the business phenomenon where your inbox stays empty or as empty as possible.
learn how to use gmail to its full potential.
Sure, you could risk archiving all your messages (not recommended) and starting from scratch, but without proper organization tips from gmail, your inbox will be filled with new and unread messages . before you know it.
gmail organization tips: why it’s so important
How many emails would you say you receive per day?
According to a report from a tech market research firm, the average worker will send or receive 140 business emails per day by 2018. In a typical eight-hour workday, that’s more than 17 emails per hour, or one email almost every four. minutes.
Consider any personal or spam email that could also go to your work account, and that number could easily exceed 200 emails per day. imagine how much more productive you could be if you didn’t have to waste time sifting through all those emails to determine which ones are the most important and require an immediate response.
5 gmail organization tips to help you achieve zero inbox
It may seem like an impossible challenge and it may take some time to adjust, but organizing your gmail account will help you reduce stress and better manage your time and priorities.
Here are five easy gmail organization tips you can use to get to inbox zero and be more productive in the workplace.
1. select your layout to organize gmail
The first step in organizing your gmail is to select your preferred layout.
When you open your inbox, click the gear symbol in the top right corner and select “settings”. then, at the top of the settings window, click the “inbox” tab. From here, Gmail offers you five layout options for your inbox.
- default: This is the standard format that organizes your gmail by date an email is received. In this view, you can select different categories in which your emails are placed. they appear as tabs at the top of the screen and can be helpful in determining which of your emails is likely to be more important.
- important first: in this view, gmail tries to predict which emails are the most important (marked with a yellow marker) and displays those messages in a top inbox. your less important messages are displayed in a lower inbox at the bottom of your screen.
- Unread First: This view is similar to the first important option, however , your top inbox includes messages you haven’t opened yet, while your bottom inbox would include everything else.
- featured first: your first featured view also splits your inbox in two fields and shows only the emails you have starred in the top view. everything else appears in the second view below.
- priority inbox: is like a combination of all views. Gmail uses predictive analytics to determine which emails you’re most likely to engage with based on past actions. then put those emails in the top view.
Finding a layout that works for you will help keep your gmail organized.
2. add a preview pane to organize gmail
gmail’s default view only shows the sender, subject line, and a little bit of preview text before the row runs out of space. in most cases, you’ll need to open the email to determine if it’s really worth reading.
You can save time and organize your gmail by adding a preview panel. click on the gear symbol and on “settings” in the drop down menu. then select “labs” from the tabs that appear. scroll down to the “preview panel” and click enable. save your changes and then you will have the option to preview each email that arrives.
3. create custom labels and folders to organize gmail
On the left side of your inbox, you’ll see a list of labels that you can add emails to to help keep your inbox organized. but did you know you can also create custom labels in this area?
If you select one or more messages, you can click the button at the top of your inbox that looks like a checkout tag. this allows you to assign those messages to predefined labels that gmail uses to keep your inbox organized.
You can also create custom tags in this area by selecting “create new”. You even have the option to nest tags within other tags, similar to creating subfolders when saving files to your hard drive.
You even have the option to color code your labels to better distinguish priority. for example, you can select red for a tag called vip where you file all messages from your boss.
Once you create a tag, you’ll notice it adds a folder to the list on the left of your inbox and adds the name of the tag next to the subject line. now when you archive this message, it will be moved to that specific folder.
By customizing your options, you make it easy to organize your gmail folders and keep your inbox clean.
4. create filters to organize gmail
After creating custom labels, you can apply filters to messages to send certain emails directly to your folders and keep them out of your general inbox.
for example, if you know that every Friday you will receive an internal communications bulletin that you really don’t have time to read, you can use filters to send that message to a specific folder where you can refer to it, or delete it , later.
After selecting the email(s) you want to filter, click the “more” button at the top of your inbox and select “filter messages like this” from the drop-down menu. From there, you can select to filter messages by sender, subject line, keywords, and attachments, among other things. After selecting your criteria, click “create filter with this search” and select the action you want this filter to perform, such as assign to a custom folder or label, and bypass the inbox. When you’re done, click “create filter”.
It’s important to note that you can also select to have this filter applied to all conversations that match the criteria, so you don’t have to create individual filters for each one.
5. use the send and archive function to organize gmail
Now that you’ve organized your gmail inbox to automatically archive certain emails into custom folders, you can really clean up your inbox by archive messages at the same time you send replies.
To enable this feature, click the gear icon and click “settings” in the dropdown menu. scroll down and select the option “show” send & file button in response.” save your changes.
Now when you reply to a message, you will have two delivery options. one is a traditional send and the other will send the message and automatically send the email chain to the all mail archive. if you assigned a label to the message, it will go to that specific folder. if someone replies to your sent email, the conversation will automatically return to your inbox.
Enabling this feature is a quick and efficient way to declutter your inbox and keep your gmail organized.
following these gmail organization tips can make inbox zero possible
Inbox zero won’t just be an elusive dream if you follow these simple gmail organization tips.
but as with any shortcut, you need to find a system that works for you. If one of these methods makes it difficult for you to find archived messages or keep track of important conversations, try something else. Once you find procedures that make sense for your daily routine, your inbox will be a well-oiled machine.
increase your productivity in gmail
Most people understand how to use the basics of their gmail inbox, but what about the essential tips and tricks that could make your life easier, your job more efficient and your interactions more successful? ? We’ve rounded up eleven tricks that exist both within Gmail and through external Google Chrome extensions, which will show you how to best use Gmail. These tricks will allow you to improve your inbox, save time and scale your business. click the photo below to learn how to use gmail.
