How I Do Gmail

Posted By Matt on Jul 29, 2013 | 0 comments

I try to be humble about most things in life, but email isn’t one of those. I’ll just say it. I consider myself in the 99th percentile of efficient Gmail users. It seems like I talk to a handful of people each month who either don’t reply because “it got lost in my inbox” or hate how much spam they get and it’s not worth digging out. “I can’t do inbox zero, there’s too much to deal with” they say.

Here’s how I run my Gmail inbox. I don’t do inbox zero, it’s more like inbox seven. But Gmail is lovely in that it can be both correspondence and task list. Items can be prioritized with colors or stars so that nothing falls through.

Things to know:

• I don’t use the new “tabbed inbox.” It isn’t necessary, because after a few weeks of inbox seven everything you get is interesting and important.
• You’re required to turn off your social media notifications. The only exception is if you DON’T ever go to Facebook/Twitter, and you frequently get direct messages, you can leave those notifications on. Social media notifications will suffocate your efforts to clean up.
• One important thing to understand about Gmail is that, by default, all of your emails are labeled. When you receive an email, it is labeled “inbox.” Your default view is the inbox. If you hit archive, the “inbox” label is removed. The email is still there, waiting to be searched for, it just disappears from your inbox.
• The search box at the top searches everything except spam and trash. You can search those, if you like, by typing “in:trash” or “in:spam” before your search query.

Step 1: Respond to critical emails you’re aware of.

You should have done this already, but if not, do it now.

Step 2: Archive everything.

The biggest barrier, and the hardest thing to do is step 1. Archive everything that was sent before today. Seriously. Besides, if your inbox is bloated, you won’t even remember what you just archived.

To do this, click the checkbox that looks like this:

A message will pop up that says:

Then click archive:

Step 3: Go to the options and change 2 things

First click settings:

In the “General” tab scroll to Keyboard Shortcuts and make sure they are on.

Now click the “Labs” tab and enable “auto-advance.”

Now go back to the “general” tab and set “Auto-advance” to “Go to the previous conversation.”

This is the secret to Gmail.

Here are your new best friends. We will cover them later so don’t bother memorizing them now.

• “c” composes a new email.
• “Tab” then “enter” sends the email you’re currently writing. Bam BAM it’s sent.
• “r” replies to the current email.
• # (shift + 3) delete the email you’re reading
• “j” takes you to the next email
• “k” takes you to the previous email
• “e” archives
• “l” (little L) opens the label menu. Start typing and it will autocomplete.

Step 4: Return to your inbox and click the first message. It falls in one of 5 categories:

Requires a reply, and I know the answer.

So you reply right away. Then hit “e” to archive it because it’s free and maybe you’ll wish you could look at it later. Now that email is gone from your inbox.

Requires a reply, but I need some time.

Hit “j” to take you to the next message. You’ll see this email again next time you’re in Gmail.

Information that I need to remember later

If it’s critical that you do something at a specific time or date, put it on your calendar and hit “e” to archive. If it is not time sensitive but you still need to remember it, just hit “j” to go the next message, because next time you see your inbox you’ll notice this message and be reminded.

Informational that I can delete/archive.

Read it, learn, then hit “#” (shift + 3) to delete or “e” to archive.

Spam / Marketing that I don’t want.

Find the unsubscribe button and click it. I know you think this is annoying, but it is so worth it. Most senders respect your unsub request. Then hit “#”. If you keep getting mail from spammers and unsubscribing just doesn’t cut it, Gmail’s spam button is your friend. If you do this to every spam message you get for a week, you’ll save hours of your life. It will take you only a few seconds.

Step 5: Profit.

Your new workflow ensures that you won’t be embarrassed by forgetting to reply to people. After a few days of unsubscribing, you’ll be amazed at how much faster it is to get through your inbox. By having a clutter free inbox, you know that anything in the inbox needs to be dealt with.  How’s that for straightforward?

Other Notes:

Labeling is awesome. Hit “l” to mark your currently viewed email with a label. You can also set up filters so that emails arrive in your inbox with labels or colors if you want. They’ll also be labeled “inbox” so that you notice them, but once you hit “e” the inbox label will be removed and you won’t see it again. But don’t worry, it’s always there.

You can get some sweet add-ons for Gmail, like Rapportive and Boomerang, but for the average user, these aren’t necessary. Learn to manage your inbox first, then try them out. Rapportive shows you detailed info about the people you’re contacting. Boomerang lets you “boomerang” messages that you don’t want to deal with; they’ll disappear for a few days and come back later. It can also keep track of emails you send. For example, if you don’t get a reply within two days it will notify you.

Gmail is (sadly) only my personal email. We use MS Exchange at work and while I tried for a few days to use Gmail as my client, it didn’t work out because of the reliance on Outlook as a calendar manager. I’ve figured out how to boss Outlook around too, now, but still. I’ll write about that in another post.

Happy Gmailing.