Email Efficiency Tips

If you want to impress the boss, it helps to make yourself look as impressive as possible. One way to do this is to be especially engaged and responsive in your email practices… and to accomplish this, it helps to keep your inbox organized and managed.

Listed below are some simple tips that you can use to show off how professional you are with your emails as you use Gmail.

Accomplish Inbox Zero

A clean inbox suggests that you are organized… organized enough to make sure you aren’t distracted by old messages and only work with new information. One way you can maintain this image is by immediately archiving any thread you have replied to.

• In your Settings, access See all settings.
• This will bring you to the General tab. Scroll down until you see the Send and Archive section.
• There, you’ll find the option to Show “Send & Archive” button in reply. Select that option, and make sure you Save Changes at the very bottom of the list.

This unlocks the capability to simultaneously reply to an email and immediately archive it, keeping old messages from piling up.

Send Canned Responses via Templates

Let’s face it: there are some emails that you find yourself sending over and over again. Creating templated drafts can speed up the process considerably.

• In your Settings, access See all settings.
• Navigate to the Advanced tab and, under Templates, select Enable.
• Save changes, then start a new email.
• Draft the email you so frequently send once again and click the three-dot menu to find your Templates. 
• In that menu, you’ll see the option to Save draft as template and then Save as new template. Make sure you give it a name you can identify easily.
• To use your new template, all you need to do is click the three-dot menu at the bottom of your draft and, under Templates, click on the appropriate option.

By doing so, you can easily and accurately send the same message over and over again at record speed, terminating the need to retype the entire thing each time.

Remind Yourself to Respond Later

You probably have a few newsletters or other emails that, while still critical, aren’t necessarily delivered at an opportune time for you to read them. Did you know that you can effectively resend it to yourself, specifying a better time for it to be delivered again, freshly unread?

• Hover your mouse over the email you want to push, and you’ll see four icons appear on the right side. Click the one that looks like a clock, the snooze icon.
• You’ll be presented with a menu of potential times to re-receive that email, as well as the option to Pick date & time.
• The email will then disappear from your inbox until the set time, when it will reappear as though it was just sent.

While we aren’t endorsing procrastination, we are supporting any efforts you make to give something the attention it deserves if the time isn’t right when you receive it.

Color-Code Your Organization

Gmail also features Labels, a means of helping differentiate between certain messages, whether it’s the pay stub that HR sent you or coming from one of the accounts under your purview.

• In the left sidebar, access More and select Create new label. Give it a name that will tell you what it is.
• Click the three-dot menu next to your new label and select your preferred color under Label color.
• Then, in the search bar, click the arrow labelled Show search options. Fill out the appropriate fields to determine which messages will be assigned to your new label. Click Create filter and then Apply the label. Select the appropriate one and click Create filter.

With this completed, all emails that meet your defined conditions will be accessible from a clearly labelled list of emails.

Try out these tips and see how impressed your boss is at your efficiency in your email communications! For more IT help, reach out to Macro Systems at 703-359-9211.