Happy Monday! Just wanted to start off by saying that this post has been a long time coming. It must be the New Year that has me motivated to finally do this tutorial, who knows. Not complaining though!
Being organized, I’m sure, is pretty high on everyone’s list – mine included. I can’t even begin to tell y’all how many times I would lose track of my emails because I wasn’t organized. Not only that, I would miss crucial emails that were time sensitive and when you’re, for example, job hunting or trying to meet a deadline, this is a lifesaver. So I want to show y’all how I declutter my Gmail and how you can do it too in 3 easy steps.
If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or reach out to me on Twitter.
Ready? Let’s go!
1.Create a label
You know how in Outlook Mail, you can create folders in your inbox? Well, think of folders as your labels in Gmail. This way you can easily access the emails you need by going into your label folder. What I like about Gmail is that it lets you color code them so that they don’t all look the same, it differentiates from each other. You can also create a sub-label within the label, so think of it like a sub folder within the folder. First, go to Settings.
When you color code a label it will show up at the top of the email like this:
You can also drag and drop a label onto an email (that doesn’t have a label) whether the email is sitting in the inbox, or if you have it open.
2. Create a filter
Now, this is where the magic happens. Filtering out emails is key so that you don’t miss any important emails and you won’t get lost in a sea of emails. The filter feature will allow you to automate your inbox to automatically place your filtered emails into your folders (labels) as they come trickling in. How neat is that? It does all the work for you without you having to do anything.
Select any email in your inbox and open it.
You don’t really have to type anything in unless you need to.
For this filter, I chose “Shopping”, which is at the bottom of my labels.
3. Organize the top tabs
There are 5 tabs in Gmail: Primary/Social/Promotions/Updates/Forums
You can choose which order you want them in and you can also hide the ones you don’t need. ‘Forums’ is one that I don’t need so I hide it. I like that Gmail pretty much categorizes your emails and puts them in each tab as they come in.
One thing I’ll add is that filters are heaven sent because sometimes I would unsubscribe from a list and I would still get those damn emails. I made a filter and chose the action “Delete it” when it comes in, so I never have to see it again, ha!
That pretty much does it. I figured these out on my own as I used Gmail over the years and I learned how to organize everything simply and it was a time/life saver. If you know of any other tips feel free to share in the comments below!
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