Customizing your Gmail account may sound like something far down on your to-do list, but the truth is there are plenty of features that can save you a lot of time and a potential headache. Here are some tools that can help:
1. Filters, filters and filters
Sifting through a massive number of emails that don’t pertain to you can eat up a lot of your day. If you can’t commit to unsubscribing but want them out of your inbox, you’re in luck. You can set a filter to automatically move irrelevant emails into a separate folder on your account. These filters can be tailored to match certain criteria such as senders, subjects and more. That way you can still access them but only if you want to.
2. Undo send
The newest Gmail feature allows you to undo sent messages. This one comes in handy, especially in the workplace. Sometimes we act mindlessly and hit “reply all” or cc someone who is not supposed to be cc’d. The undo feature will let you undo an email up to 30 seconds after you hit send. The control switch is under settings. You’ll know the feature is enabled because after you send an email a yellow bar should appear asking if you would like to undo.
3. Canned responses
Canned responses allow you to compose a regularly used response and send it out with the click of a button. If you find yourself doing a lot of repetitive typing this might come in handy. These pre-written messages can save you the time you spent writing out something as simple as “That time works for me” or “Sounds good.” Plus, it saves them for future use.
4. Mass unsubscribe
Face it, we all get promotional emails we didn’t ask for and don’t want. Instead of constant scrolling to find the small font, “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of the page, Gmail has made it easy for you. This feature should be at the top of your messages, and allows you to mass subscribe from certain brands, social networks discussion boards, etc. with the click of a button.
5. Scheduling emails
Oftentimes we find ourselves working late into the night and sometimes into the morning. By installing Boomerang, a Gmail plug-in, you can schedule your emails to go out automatically. Just choose a specific time to send the message like 9:00 a.m. or 4:45 p.m. or something more general like “next Friday.” Boomerang makes planning easy.
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