Boost Productivity By Managing Gmail Better

The Internet has permeated our lives in a clinical, ruthless manner. No matter where we are, we need to be connected. It's reached a point where an hour away from one's email inbox can lead to complete anarchy. I, for one, feel that having a cluttered Inbox severely stresses me out. It's like a pile of work that's pending. At the same time, I also realized that I'm using one of the most feature-packed webmail services in the world. So, I came up with a system that enables me to manage my Gmail inbox really well. Along with inspiration from Inbox Zero, I have managed to keep my email at bay, and tell it who's boss inside my inbox.

And today, you get to know all about it. I basically make use of many features inherent in Gmail, along with a few tweaks, to make my Inbox look really clean and tidy. Having a clean inbox lets me focus at the task at hand. Read on to know about my email kung-fu.

• Use Labels: Labels are a really cool way to deal with emails. It's like folders taken to another level. The difference is that one email can belong to multiple emails. So, in case I have an forwarded email from an important friend, it can go to two labels, one by the name of said friend, and the other that's conveniently named "Forwards". Go to Settings > Labels to create yours.
  
• Use Filters: If you haven't done so already, set up filters in your Gmail account. Filters are a really efficient way of sending the correct email to the correct places. Make sure that only the most important email reaches your Inbox. The rest can all be neatly sorted. The best part is that Gmail lets you export/import filters. To do so, just go to Settings > Lab > Filter Import/Export > Enable. My favorite filters are listed below. Create your own by clicking "Create a Filter" near the Search Box.
1. Forwarded Emails Filter: This filter simply looks for the strings "Fwd:" or "Fw:" in an email subject and applies the label "Forwards" to matching emails. It also archives the emails.
   
2. Social Networking Filter: This filter scans the "From:" field of all incoming emails and applies the label "Social Networks" to those, which originate from, well, Social Networks. It also archives these emails.
   
In case you don't want to go through the trouble of creating these filters for yourself. You can import my filters file provided below. Play with your filters to really unleash the power of Gmail. My Filters File
• Use the "+" Operator: What do I mean by that? Well, Gmail treats both "abc@gmail.com" as well as "abc+anywordshere@gmail.com" as the same. Now do you get my point? Suppose, you are signing up for the Technokracy Feed by Email. Then, you can use the email ID "youremail+technokracy@gmail.com" and still receive the emails at "youremail@gmail.com". Once you've done this, just setup a filter to redirect all emails addressed to "youremail+technokracy@gmail.com" to the label "Technokracy".
• Spruce Up Your Inbox: They say appearances can be deceptive. Well, you wouldn't mind deception once in a while, would you? Especially if you are using the default Gmail theme and have tons of email lying unattended? It just looks plain ugly if you know what I mean. Head over to my previous post about Pimping out Gmail and read how to make the whole interface look like you want it to. Author's Recommendation: Use the Mac OS X Snow Leopard Theme with Stylish.
  
• Use Firefox Extensions: This one is specially for professionals who are neck-deep into projects and tasks, but can't be bothered about using PIMs such as Outlook. Install the GTDInbox Firefox extension and see Gmail turn into a professional power-house. NOTE: This sadly just works for Firefox so far.
• Use Gmail Labs Features: Gmail is working on some really awesome features in their Labs. So head over there and enable the following life-saving features:
  
1. Hide Read Labels<: This feature manipulates the Gmail interface to only show those labels for which you currently have unread messages. Helps to draw your attention to the latest email.
2. Multiple Inboxes: Who needs one Inbox when you can have 5? OK. So five may be overkill. But once you enable this feature, you can head over to Settings > Multiple Inbox and configure more inboxes which will show up next to, above, or below your main Inbox. This way, you can have one inbox for all mail, one for mails from your boss, and one for mails that have attachments.

I have been using all the above tweaks to blaze through my email each morning for over a year now. I am pretty sure that once configured properly, you will be able to the same for your inbox. Go ahead and play some crazy Gmail games! 

---

Tell us about your own experiences while managing emails. Click on the post headline to do so. Also, don't forget to share this with your friends by clicking the Share button below. If you really, really love my blog, subscribe to it as well.

Nothing selected

Nothing selected

Read more...

Pimp Out Your Email

Last week, I did a post on making your Desktop look good. If you missed it, read Trick Out Your Desktop To Make It roductive. On a similar, but more vain note, today I am going to talk about making Gmail look good for you. These tweaks, though more of a cosmetic kind, will make your Gmail experience nicer, and more worthwhile.

First of all, switch to Firefox. It's one of the safest browsers around, and some of the tweaks mentioned here work best on it.

• Use a theme for your Gmail inbox: If you haven't done so yet, head over to the Settings  > Themes tab and select one of the many themes available for Gmail. You can also choose your own colors by clicking Choose Your Own Colors at the bottom. If a fixed theme is not your taste, select Random.
• Install the Better Gmail 2 Firefox extension: Better Gmail 2 adds a lot of handy features to your Gmail tab in Firefox. It ad various features such as Row Highlights, Attachment Icons, Unread Count on Favicon, etc. Hit the link above to read the whole list and install it.
• Install Stylish for Firefox: Stylish is a really neat addon for Firefox. It lets you reconfigure the appearance of most websites, and theme it to appear differently. Themes can be installed from Userstyles or just right-click the Stylish icon in the status bar and select "Find Styles for this site". If you are good with CSS and Javascript, you can even code and upload it to the website (in case you do, mention it in the comments below). Mac fans can use the Snow Leopard theme here. Check out the screenshot below.
  

• Use Gmail Labs Features: If you have Gmail Labs enabled, you can simply use the Default Text Styling feature by going to Settings > Labs. After you enable it, go to Settings, scroll down and select how you want your text to appear. Do note that the style you set here will also be how your emails will appear to your recipients. So go a little easy on that shade of lavender that you love.

Incorporating these tweaks will surely help to make your Gmail experience droolworthy. In case you've always stuck to the POP/IMAP interface for Gmail because of Gmail's lacklustre default interface, maybe this will convince you to make the switch.

---

Like this post? Make sure you make your opinion heard. Click the post headline above to get commenting. You can also use the Share button below to post this page to your favorite social networks.  If you really dig this post, then Digg this post :)

Read more...