Streamlining your google inbox

I just sent this email to our staff, but i think it has general appeal. Learn how to keep your inbox to 30 items or less.

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In your google settings i've found a few cool options...

you can add a "send and archive" button... which is cool, if customers reply, it comes back to the inbox... it's a great way to keep your inbox tidy. 

you can add more star types also, which is a great way to use stars as a priority system. 

It is definitely my preference that everyone only keeps TODO items in their inbox. and archive everything else. You can always search by name. 


Morning, Lunch and Afternoon Email Tasks 

  1. Delete any junk
  2. Quickly read any notification/ticket emails, and archive them if _nothing_to_do_ 
  3. review the remaining emails, and "star" the priority emails. 
  4. any items which are low priority "rainy day" to do or reference items, reply if necessary and move to a label called "TODO - low priority"
  5. if there are any "5 minute jobs" and no "urgent" tickets, then do the quick jobs first to get them out of your list. 


If you take the approach above, you should only have < 30 emails in your inbox. and the most important ones will be clear. 

this email is an example of one which you should ready and immediately archive. 

If you find your inbox is distracting, close inbox for 2 hours at a time, but make sure you check it every 2 hours for priority items. 


Other tips

  • change the inbox to the "priority" inbox mode
  • try the Cozy mode, and a nicer theme 
  • disable the contacts list on the left, whenever you send a new email it will search for the contacts anyway, and you can click 
  • disable chat/mail notifications
  • hide the chat contacts list on the bottom left using the bottom left chat icon
  • change icons to text
Hope that helps you all. 

Posted: Wednesday 26 June 2013

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