Google Tips: Labels – Keep it organized.
A very powerful tool that many seem to overlook is Gmail’s labels. The feature its self is very simple. Its shares a similar function to the ‘folder’ system you’ll find in many other email services. You add a label to an email which then gives you access to it quickly in the future. The labels are linked to on the main interface within Gmail and can be searched directly through Gmail’s search feature. One of the biggest additions to labels, over the standard folder, is the option to add multiple labels to a single email. Below you’ll find a quick how to and some basics tips I use in my every day Gmailing life.
How To:
Creating labels-
First you must realize that the drop down menu above the mail is your best friend. You can do almost anything from this menu, including creating a new label or adding an email to an existing label. To create your first label, check the box next to the email you’d like to label. From the drop down menu select “New Label…”. Type the label name in the pop-up and press OK. You’ll now notice a green box on the left below your contacts which contains your labels. To view the emails within that label, simple click the link.
Adding labels to emails-
Again the drop down menu is your friend. Simply check the email you wish to label, and select the label from the drop down menu. What you may notice is that by checking multiple emails, you can add them all to the same label in one click. You can also add labels to emails as you’re viewing them. Again from the drop down menu select the label you wish to apply.
Removing labels from emails-
Removing labels are done through the same process you add them. You can remove labels by checking them from your inbox and removing it from the drop down menu or the same process while viewing the email. There is also a third option. When viewing the contents of a label, there is is a new button to the left of the drop down menu which removes the label from a selected email.
Tips:
Create many labels-
It wasn’t until recently that I noticed how beneficial a large selection of labels can be. For almost 3 years I had a handful of labels, all of them very vague. Now my label list consists of 30+ and each has a very specific title. Each person I communicate with on a regular basis has their own label. Specific topics of conversation have their own label. I have a label for my family, three for work, a few for different types of bills, one for each website I manage, one for ‘to do’, and a label for anything else you can think of. The biggest key to labels is USE THEM! If you create a label, make sure you attach the corresponding emails or else its pointless.
Obviously each individuals inbox is slightly different and calls for a different set up of labels. During my quest to find the perfect set up of labels I’ve had as little as 7 labels, and as many as 45. Just like there is too few labels, there is also too many. I noticed as I went above 30 it was hard to label the emails accurately. Each person will have to experiment with their emailing needs. Some basic labels are a good place to start, but don’t be scared to create label if you see a developing trend.
Add multiple labels to one email-
In many instances you’ll have an email that fits into multiple labels. Instead of fighting the flow of traffic, Google has made it easy on you by allowing emails to contain multiple labels. For example; A client sent me an email last week. He wanted me to send him some information and he was also inviting me to play golf in a few weeks. I labeled his email with his personal label, the label for his company, one for golf, and the last label was my ‘to do’. The email has a reason to be in each of those labels, and if I feel it doesn’t meet those needs in the future, its easy to remove it – Once I have sent him the information, I’ll remove the email from ‘to do’.
Make it a habit to use the labels-
There is no point in creating labels if you don’t use them. If you only add half of your bosses emails to his/her label, it will be inefficient to look for a specific email under that label. Half of the time it wont be there and you’ll have to use the search feature anyways. When you add filtering to your arsenal, labeling is even that much easier. As you’ll find in future articles, filters allow you to pre label emails as they enter your inbox. If you give labels an honest effort, they will greatly improve you efficiency within Gmail.
Labels alone are a powerful tool but as my future articles will show you, you can acquire the help of filters, forwarding, archiving, and etc to make your inbox an efficiency monster!