One tip to keeping organized with Google Email

I have used Google’s free email service for many years. Most of the time I have setup my desktop email program to connect to my GMail via IMAP settings. I would have to setup these programs over the years as I got new computers or when I switch to a different email application. Truthfully, having to setup the client as many times as I have has become more annoying than useful. I don’t know if it is me, or the fact that I am used to working with a dedicated desktop application since the 90s. Using a web browser to check my email was not my first choice, until recently.

I have used my web hosting company for many years to provide my email services with my personal domains. However, lately due to the shared server nature of the system there are a number of people that use those same hosting services to send spam emails. Lately this has caused issues with my contacts being able to receive emails from me as the emails go to their spam folders. So I decided it was time to bite the bullet and pay for a Google Workspace account to manage my emails and document storage. Within a week I saw a huge improvement in my emails getting to my contacts.

With this change, I decided to try out using the web browser Google apps to in order to check my email and create and edit Office documents. On a dedicated desktop application, I had already found ways to help keep myself organized with folders, rules, tags and flags. But in the Google Email web app, there is not a true concept of folders. Google stores all your email in the “All Mail” location concept and applies Labels instead to organize your email. Took me a week of testing, and I think I have finally come to figure out how to organize my email to keep me organized better.

Labels

I created a hierarchy of labels to quickly tag individual emails so that I could select that label in the tree view on the left to filter out emails I would like to find. For example, see below for one idea of a tree structure that makes sense for me so I know when to review an email in the future to apply a pseudo retention policy (yes, I worked in Records Management). I keep all my emails, and after 10 years I like to review them for deletion or move to another folder for later review. In Records Management, we learn that keeping too much information can be detrimental when it comes to litigation. On the converse, deleting information too early can be considered spoilage and garner fines.

Retention
    2033
        Some Useful Category One
        Some Useful Category Two
    2034
        Some Useful Category One
        Some Useful Category Three
    2035
    2036

Then, as I have decided I have completed any task in the email and no longer need to act upon that email I can drag the email to the Label category for the proper 10 year review to remove the email from my Inbox. The problem comes when I have a large number of emails in my Inbox that I still need to act upon in some manner. I like to keep my Inbox as clear as possible so I know what I need to work on immediately and hide the tasks I need to do later. In comes a new to me feature, “Snooze”

Snoozing emails

Took me a minute to grasp the idea of using Google’s Snooze feature in my Inbox, but once I figured it out I realized how powerful this would be to keep my Inbox clear and retain only the emails at any one time that need to be acted upon in the next day or so.

When you click the Snooze, you can choose from either a custom date range or one of the predefined ranges like Tomorrow, This weekend or Next week. I think about the email that I know I need to accomplish some task, decide when I think I will most likely need to work on the task and then choose a snooze option that is just short of that time frame.

For example, my Inbox may be related to my non-profit work that is during the week and some emails that are more personal in nature when I tend to review those more-so on the weekends. When a more personal email arrives, I first decide if it is something I need to do when I get home or if it can wait until the weekend. If it can wait, I will choose the snooze option for This Weekend (Saturday 8:00am). This will temporarily clear the email from my Inbox view and will then reappear at 8am on Saturday. The other cool part of this, is Google provides a link in the left panel tree for “Snoozed” emails, so if you think you snoozed something you need to see you can find it quickly.

Search

My biggest friend lately is the Search feature. It is very powerful and very fast at finding emails. I also love that I can include in the search parameters a Label I might have tagged the email with. The search in the Gmail web app uses similar technologies to the google.com search and applies some smart logic to help you find emails easier over time

Overall, just after 2-3 weeks of going solely to using a web browser to check my emails has been far more productive than when I was using a dedicated desktop email application.