Tuesday, October 9, 2007

How I keep my Gmail Inbox at Zero

I love Gmail. It has a quick and easy to use interface, 3 free gigabytes of disk space and your one Google username and password gets you access to all of Google’s incredible array of free services (Docs, Analytics, Picasa, Groups, Blogger, etc). The only thing I dislike about Gmail is its limited ability to file emails. Everything either sits in your Inbox or your Archive folder. That does not make for a very effective system. How can I keep my mind like water, if my Gmail inbox (or Archive folder) is full of clutter? How can I get my Gmail Inbox to Zero?

Rather than folders, Gmail has the ability to “label” an e-mail. When used effectively, Gmail labels act, look and feel just like a folder! When I get an e-mail I want to save for future reference, I label it and then click the Archive button, When I get an e-mail I want to act upon later, I give it the label of @Action (@Action indicates to me that I need to follow up on this particular e-mail) and then click the Archive button. All my email now sits in my Archive folder, neatly organized with labels.

The cool thing about Gmail labels is how simple they are to use.

  • To label an e-mail, pull down the “More Actions” menu and select from an alphabetized list of labels or select “New label…” to create a new label.
  • To find all the e-mails with a specific label, click the name of the label from the alphabetized list of labels on the left side of the page.

Simple and efficient! A great way to achieve Inbox Zero with Gmail.

Don't use Gmail? Want to try it? Go to www.gmail.com and click the link to Sign up for Gmail.

No comments:

No Turn-By-Turn Voice Navigation on my iPhone 4!

A friend of mine gave me a ride home recently.   We were not sure how to get from Point A to Point B so he fired up his iPhone 4S Maps App...