Boosting your productivity with Gmail involves optimizing your email management and communication processes. Here's a few tips and tricks to help you make the most of Gmail:
1. Use Gmail shortcuts
Whiz through your inbox using just your keyboard with these handy shortcuts. Be sure to enable shortcuts in Gmail Settings to get started!
Useful shortcuts:
Compose an email: c
Go to the next email: j
Go to the previous email: k
Archive an email: e
Delete an email: #
View the previous message within an email thread: p
View the next message within an email thread: n
Search: /
2. Reduce junk mail with an auto-unsubscribe tool
Keep clutter to a minimum by unsubscribing to newsletters that you don't read anymore. The easiest way to do this is with a tool like UnrollMe.com or mailstorm that can search your inbox for active subscriptions and allow you to select multiple brands to unsubscribe from in one list. With a click of a few buttons, these services will complete the un-subscription process automatically and make way for more white space in your inbox!
3. Adapt your inbox to your work style, not the other way around.
Emails as Action Items: Do you use your inbox as a running to-do list, archiving messages as you take action on each?
Seek tools and techniques for sorting, prioritizing, and setting due dates for these actions so you can focus on the right actions at the right time and avoid getting overwhelmed by your to-do list.
Try add-ons like DragApp that transforms your inbox look and functionality into an Asana-type project board, allowing you to drag messages into any pile and set them in any order like cards.
Emails as Project Management: Do you use your inbox as a landing strip for communications that you then sort into separate buckets for later attention? Perhaps you're a time-blocker who spends chunks of time on each project and only wants to see project-relevant emails during that time.
Automate email sorting using filters and tags within Gmail (i.e. folders)
Color-code emails for easy visual targeting
Use "return to inbox" tools like Boomerang for Gmail to keep your inbox clear until you're ready to focus on its related project
Emails as Information: Do you primarily use your inbox for running passive updates (your team cc's you on a lot of messages) and a storage area for information you can come back to later?
Get fancy with your search terms within Gmail! You can set search parameters to a given timeframe, sender, recipient, subject line, whether the message has an attachment, and more.
To find and archive messages where you're cc'd or bcc'd, search: "in:inbox cc:me" or :in:inbox -youremail@email.com"
How do you maximize your Gmail? Let us know of any tips you've adopted to your workflow.