Gmail Tips: 9 Easy Tricks And Tools To Keep Your Inbox Under Control

Earlier this week, Gmail posted a few tips for "powering through hundreds of messages." They're helpful for sure, but we wanted to share some of our other favorites that help us deal with the endless flood.

While Gmail's Priority Inbox is surprisingly good at figuring out what's important, we recommend setting up a few quick filters, labels and tools of your own for even more control. It might take a bit more time, but these 9 tips will help you whip your inbox into shape, stay organized and cut down on email clutter.

If we missed any of your favorites, share them in the comments below, or upload them using the "Add a Slide" tool!

If you found these tips helpful, you might also like our 21 essential Gmail tricks.

 

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Get Organized With Labels

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Once you get a taste of labels, you'll never want to go back to using folders. Gmail's labels function like tags, so something that's both important and related to family can be labeled as such. This saves you from having to throw it into a complicated tree of folders and remember later where you put it. To start, set some up for finances, family, friends, events, bills and social networking updates. Add colors to the labels to make it easier to browse your email at a glance.

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Once you get a taste of labels, you'll never want to go back to using folders. Gmail's labels function like tags, so something that's both important and related to family can be labeled as such. This saves you from having to throw it into a complicated tree of folders and remember later where you put it. To start, set some up for finances, family, friends, events, bills and social networking updates. Add colors to the labels to make it easier to browse your email at a glance.

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Dogma said on 6 Friday 2011 am31 9:00 am: Because perhaps you don't want friends and family knocking on your virtual door every five minutes while working.

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Comments

[Max Shaw]

04:45 PM on 05/06/2011

I like the option that screens my emails after midnight so if Im drunk, I have to answer stupid math questions and if I get then wrong, it wont send them. I wish FB had the same feature.

[Peb]

06:56 AM on 05/06/2011

Gmail may have more features - but its less user friendly. Yahoo is better in that regard.

More like Dos vs. Windows.

[Ted Tillery]

06:11 AM on 05/06/2011

I agree with gh0st, gmail is the best web mail service ever. I couldn't live without it. Unfortunately I could spend a week deleting those old emails still hanging in my inbox from 2007,8,9,10

[GraniteSkyline]

12:44 AM on 05/06/2011

Its email, not brain surgery--it shouldn't be THAT overwhelming.

[lilylee86]

09:56 PM on 05/05/2011

Gmail Trick...that seems interesting..
Joyfax Server

[EriCSN Chang]

09:14 PM on 05/05/2011

Google Talk chatting feature is very important!
Why disabling it!?

[Dogma]

09:00 AM on 05/06/2011

Because perhaps you don't want friends and family knocking on your virtual door every five minutes while working.

[EriCSN Chang]

09:12 AM on 05/06/2011

You can add "busy" on status...

[Michael J Broderick]

07:52 PM on 05/05/2011

Links would be great...the directions given are useless....where do I find "labs" in gmail????

[nootrope]

08:02 PM on 05/05/2011

It's in the settings icon that looks like a little gear in the upper right hand corner.

[EriCSN Chang]

09:16 PM on 05/05/2011

You can also find it like a tab in settings named "labs"

[jflorish]

07:29 PM on 05/05/2011

I still think that the best webmails are yahoo and aol, both have great spam filters. I think most webmails today are pretty close to all being the same though, except hotmail which has terrible spam protection. The best way to get rid of spam though is just create a garbage email account that you use just for online shopping, messageboards, etc.... that way your main email remains private.

[EriCSN Chang]

09:18 PM on 05/05/2011

Yahoo? Great spam filters? LOL
Did you ever use gmail before? Try it! :P

[jflorish]

06:29 PM on 05/06/2011

I have both yahoo and aol webmails today. Both spam filters are really good, actually aol is probably the best spam filter I've seen. I don't need any others (but hotmail is really bad with spam for some reason).

[lido1302]

06:40 PM on 05/05/2011

G-Mail can also be setup as a POP3 account so that you can use it through Outlook, etc.

[Mort]

01:57 AM on 05/06/2011

That's how I use Gmail. I love their spam filter, but online access is a pain. I like having access to my mail and contacts whether I'm connected or not.

[themissingelf]

06:15 PM on 05/05/2011

Install Active Inbox - you'll never look back :)

[athal7]

06:05 PM on 05/05/2011

I used to use all of these tricks, but recently have found Priority Inbox to be much more useful!

[Michael Hawthorne]

04:58 PM on 05/05/2011

Seems to me that labels are only useful when you have them on all your e-mails. I haven't found a way to view just e-mails without a label.

[Laura Norvig]

06:29 PM on 05/05/2011

Everything that doesn't have a label will just be in your inbox. If you want the emails that *do* have labels to *not* be in your inbox, you can "move" them (gmails nod to the fact that labels are similar to folders). Either use the "Move" command when you are first labeling something or, if they are being automatically labeled, be sure you check the option "remove from inbox" when setting up the filter. Or, you can "uncheck" the "inbox" label after an email comes in. Many ways to handle this.

[Laura Norvig]

07:15 PM on 05/05/2011

I also layer the service Other In Box on top of gmail which helps filter stuff semi-automatically. Works quite well. There is also a Firefox extension called "Better Gmail" that is supposed to be really good.

[Laura Norvig]

12:46 PM on 05/06/2011

Also, one more thing, if you want to view "All Mail" (both inbox and labeled) go to https://mail.google.com/mail/#all

[Cyrus Karbassiyoon]

04:47 PM on 05/05/2011

Creating filters is frustrating; it doesn't scale well. Once you have filters in place, you still have to click on several labels and click on each email.

I've built a product http://popyn.com that automatically filters many sites and then generates one easy to read daily summary. The goal being that the summary replaces all the emails you receive that are notifications (deals/follower and friend requests/comments/etc). Check it out if you get a chance.

[Eddy333]

03:40 PM on 05/05/2011

All well and good if you want Big Brother handling and storing all your written communications.

Jeez, having them track your web searches is bad enough...

[Ramon Moreno]

05:55 PM on 05/05/2011

You're right, you'd better get out of here.

[Protocolor]

06:52 PM on 05/05/2011

And off the web entirely!

Back to invisible ink and cassette tapes that self-destruct when played.

[Eddy333]

09:59 AM on 05/06/2011

Yeah, because making anonymous comments on huffpo is the same as using software that analyzes and harvests data from your "private" correspondence in order to sell it to spammers, advertises and who knows who else.

Don't be naive

[jflorish]

07:27 PM on 05/05/2011

You could always choose not to use internet, not to use phone, and put 12 to 18 foot walls around your place. I'm sure no one will ever find you that way :)

[Eddy333]

09:48 AM on 05/06/2011

Obviously you don't know much about internet and browser security, so, please, save it for someone who cares

[Bub]

02:41 PM on 05/05/2011

While in gmail, I use google voice. Calls in the U.S. are free.

If you have an Iphone or Ipad touch, you can down load google voice, then down load talkatone. Then use talkatone to make free calls from your mobilt device. Quality is not as good as, say, skype, but it's free. Nice.