Nothing screams “Impressive!” quite like having locked-in email practices. If you want your boss to think you’re a top-tier employee, you want to keep your email inbox organized and managed. We’re here to help you do this through your Google Workspace Gmail account.

Achieve Inbox Zero

It’s way easier to stay organized when you have a clean inbox. Old messages can be a distraction and actively get in the way of finding the information you need as you go about your day. Gmail has a function that helps with this: archiving threads. Here’s how to do it:

• 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.

What this does is give you the ability to reply to an email, then immediately archive it. This keeps your inbox clean by getting unnecessary messages out of the way.

Canned Responses Through Templates

Regardless of your job, chances are you have a certain set of “old reliable” responses that you keep going back to from time to time. You can make responses easier and faster than ever by drafting templates.

• 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.

This lets you easily and accurately send the same message over and over again. You won’t need to retype the same message, which means you’re eliminating the risk of user error, and you can do the same work in record time.

Set Reminders to Respond Later

Chances are you’re subscribed to more than a few newsletters. There are many out there that deliver excellent content, but they sometimes arrive when you’re right in the middle of doing something else. You can basically resend the email to yourself at a later time by specifying what that later time is. It will show up as unread, too, which means you’ll be tempted to open it up later. Here’s how you do it:

• 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.

Sometimes you have to get creative when you know you don’t want to miss a message, and this is one situation where a feature can be used to both put off a task and ensure you get to it at a later time when you can give it your full attention.

Organize Your Email Through Color-Coded Labels

Gmail supports the Labels feature. These can help you differentiate your various messages. For example, you can assign labels for your pay stubs, messages from certain accounts (like management), updates, and so on. Here’s how you can create new labels for your messages:

• 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.

You’re all set! All emails that meet the required conditions should be automatically filtered based on the labels.

Go ahead and try out these tips. We bet even your boss will be impressed by the increase in your productivity, reaction time, and efficiency. For more tips, be sure to keep an eye on our blog here at First Column IT.

‍