Are you struggling to keep your Gmail inbox under control?
Well, in this video I'm sharing seven proven tips to reach inbox zero and stay there and be sure to watch to the very end because I have some Gmail shortcuts you don't want to miss.
Hello everyone.
Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.
Gmail tip 1
So tip number one has to do with making use of effective labels.
Now, often we view labels here within Gmail as a type of folder, and that's one way of thinking about it.
For example, I've got a label here called Action Required where I can put specific emails and then just go and focus on these particular messages.
But labels are actually a lot more powerful than folders because you don't have to necessarily move things from your inbox.
You can make the messages and the emails that you see here that much more relevant.
So for example, maybe there is a couple of emails here that I want to address a little later on.
I'm going to select these three.
If I come up to the very top, you might be prone to moving those emails somewhere else, but let's be honest, sometimes when we move things over here, they either get lost or we simply forget to go back and check on them.
Well, to the right is actually the labels icon, and by selecting this I can say that yes, I want to apply the action required label.
You can actually apply multiple labels at once if you like.
And I'm going to select Apply.
Now those emails stand out, even if I deselect them here from the top, those emails really stand out and I can zero in on the messages that I like.
And when I want to address one of these emails, let me open up this message here.
Once I've either downloaded or read or replied to this message, I can come up to the top and quickly remove that label just by selecting this X.
And now it's gone back to a regular message.
But let's continue with tip number two because we actually haven't removed anything from our inbox yet.
We've only made a few messages that much easier to read.
Gmail tip 2
Tip number two is all about using the snooze feature, which can be a great way to quickly tame your inbox and reduce the number of messages that are staring back at you.
Now, here from your inbox, you can snooze any message without even having to open it.
So maybe I'm excited to read about these updates.
I just don't want to do it now, and I don't want this message cluttering everything else that I'm looking at.
So I'm going to come over here to the right hand side.
I'm going to select snooze, and it's going to give me the option.
How far in advance do I want to snooze this message?
Now for those who may not be familiar with these snooze functionality, whatever date I select in the future, it is going to immediately remove it here from my inbox, keep it in a bit of a holding pattern, and then return it to the top of my inbox depending on the date and time that I select.
Now we have a couple of defaults here later today, tomorrow, this weekend and next week.
I find that nine times out of 10, I'm selecting one of these four options.
But if I want to push it out even further or pick a particular date and time, I can come down to the bottom, select this.
I get a full calendar.
I can change the date, I can change the time and then select save.
Now where does it go?
It's gone from my inbox.
What if I do want to address that message before it automatically returns to me?
Well, here on the left hand side, you can see that we can go into our snoozed area.
So this is going to show all of the messages which you have snoozed, and on the right hand side, you can see that it's given a bit of an orange color date.
That's telling us when it is expected to come back to our inbox.
Now we can change that here.
If we come over and select that snooze icon, we can not only change the snooze time if we want, but we can also snooze it, which will send it directly back to our inbox.
Now just before we continue, I want to remind you, if you're looking for ways to simplify your day and get organized with Google, why not subscribe right here to the Simpletivity channel?
Each week I bring you new tips so you can get more out of Google Apps and other Google Friendly products.
Click subscribe below so you can take advantage of a more simplified day.
Gmail tip 3
Now, speaking of keeping our inbox clean and removing unwanted messages, you're going to want to make sure that you take advantage of tip number three, and that is archiving your messages.
Now, my rule of thumb is that whenever I have finished replying to a message or reading a message and getting the information that I need from it, I hit the archive button because I don't want it to remain here within my inbox.
If you are in the habit of replying or reading and allowing read messages to stay here in your inbox, you are bound to let something slip or just make things look that much more chaotic as you're trying to determine, do I still need to come back to this message even though it's been read?
Do I need to open it up that many more times than necessary?
But if we archive our messages, we can still go back and find them.
We can retrieve them whenever we like.
So for example, I'm going to open up this message again and let's say that I have just finished replying to it.
As soon as I'm done, I'm going to select Archive.
It is removed from my inbox, but it's not gone for good.
If we come over here on the left hand side and select more and then come down to all mail, we will find all of our messages including those in the inbox, but also those that have been archived.
And when you go to search for a message at the top, it will always search through your archive and all mail messages as well.
So this is a great way to keep things nice and clean.
Another great way to take advantage of archiving your messages automatically, especially when you are replying to a message, is to turn on the send and archive feature.
Here, I'm about to reply to this particular message.
I don't want to have to send it first and then hit archive two different steps.
I want to archive it immediately.
Now, if you don't see this send Plus Archive as a part of your button, all you need to do is come up to settings, select, see all settings, and within the first General tab, you will see that there is a send and archive feature.
I would recommend that you turn this on show, send an archive so you can take advantage of this automatic inbox cleaning step.
Gmail tip 4
Now, the next tip for keeping your email decluttered is by bringing in some additional help.
And for this, we are going to be using an extension called SaneBox.
SaneBox is one of my favorite tools for keeping my inbox clean because it does things in the background that I could never do on my own.
In particular, SaneBox has a feature called Email Deep Clean, which you can use absolutely for free.
Email Deep Clean automatically rounds up your old unimportant emails and lets you quickly delete them so you can get to inbox zero sooner.
And yes, you can do this absolutely for free.
Just go to sanebox.com/simpletivity or click the link in the description and you can use all of the features of SaneBox.
And a bonus, you'll get a $25 credit towards a SaneBox subscription.
Once again, go to sanebox.com/simpletivity or click the link down below.
Gmail tip 5
Now while all of my tips so far have involved using a particular feature or turning on a particular setting, my next tip has to do with actually scheduling email as a part of your day.
And for that, I want to show you my daily calendar.
And you'll notice that there are two things that I have scheduled every single workday, one at the beginning and one near the end of my day.
I do my very best to deal with email and spend time with my inbox only twice per day.
First, at the very beginning of my day, I will spend a maximum, not always a full hour, but up to a maximum with email and other smaller admin tasks.
And then I will focus the rest of my day on my number one goal and the other things that I want to accomplish.
Then at the very end of my day, I will return and do some other smaller administrative tasks and return to my inbox and determine what do I need to reply to or respond to before the end of my day.
Now, of course, I don't give myself a limit as to when I can send a message.
Depending on the projects and the tasks that I'm working with, I can of course send an email whenever I need to, but to the best of my ability, I will only read or reply to messages at the very beginning and the very end of my day.
Now, for you, you may have to adjust your schedule accordingly, but at the very least, I ask you to consider creating a schedule, something like this or something that will work better for you.
Gmail tip 6
Now, the next tip on our list has to do with getting another Google app involved, but don't worry, even if you're not in Google Calendar very often, this is going to help you out.
And for this, we're going to turn on Gmail tasks.
Here within a message, let's say it's something that I need to come back to or maybe I need to work on this for the next few days.
You will see that I have the option to add it to my task list.
If I select that icon, you will see that my task window opens up and it adds that particular message to my task list.
Now here I can change the due date if I want to come back to this later this week, or I can even come here and add some notes, some things that I need to address within that message or within that conversation.
Now the reason why I like this so much is that Gmail and Google Tasks work hand in hand.
So for example, if I come to a message here and say, oh, I need to come back to this, I need to make sure that I follow up, I can go and add it to my task list right there, and it automatically shows up within Google Calendar as well.
So this is a great way to make sure that those messages that are really important stay front of mind.
Gmail tip 7
And that brings us to our final tip.
And that is by using Gmail search operators, you can save an incredible amount of time.
Now if you want to find a message, you are probably already familiar with using the search bar at the top of Gmail.
But did you know that you can search within a particular date or even with attachments?
Here are a few of my favorites.
If you want to search by a date, use the before operator with a colon and put in a specific date.
And if you want to search for only those messages that include an attachment, just put has attachment colon yes.
There are lots of these that can be very useful, and I'll leave some links to resources with more Gmail search operators.
So there you have it.
Those are my seven top Gmail tips for reaching inbox zero faster than ever before.
And I'd love to know which tip you're going to try first.
Let me know in the comments down below.
Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.
Thank you so much for watching today's video, and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.
In fact, it's very simple.
