Gmail 101: A Comprehensive Guide to Organizing Your Inbox Like a Pro

Introduction

In this article, you will learn about a comprehensive guide to organizing your inbox like a pro. Gmail 101 is an email service from Google that encourages consistent communication. You can access this service through any device at any time, and it helps business professionals and individuals to quickly respond and take action against an email. By organizing the Gmail inbox you can send, receive, delete, and prioritize your emails at a glance.

How to organize your Gmail inbox?

Choose your inbox layout

• Google offers several layouts for your inbox. So, you can choose your layout as per the requirement. The layouts are –

1. Default: When you select this layout, your inbox will be divided into numerous tabs such as – Primary, Promotions, Social, and Updates. Your messages will be automatically stored within these tabs. Also, you can manually categorize these messages as per your preferences.
2. Starred first: When you choose this layout, your inbox will be divided into two sections. They are – Starred (on the top) and Everything else (at the bottom). 
3. Important first: The inbox will split into two sections – Important (on the top) and Everything else (at bottom). 
4. Unread first: By choosing this layout, you will get two sections within your inbox – Unread and Everything else. 
5. Priority inbox: It will categorize your inbox into multiple sections like – Starred, Important and unread, Everything else, etc. 
6. Multiple inboxes: In this case, Gmail will add some additional sections to your inbox. 
7. Also, you can use Hide or show list of inboxes & labels.

To create these layouts, you should go to the Settings of Gmail. Then, you should scroll down to the Inbox type section to select the layouts.

• Set the filters for your emails

Filters keep you informed about emails from important addresses. By creating a filter, you can send an email to star, archive, automatically forward, delete, etc. For example, you can mark the emails that you get from a specific client as always important. So, learn how to do it. 

1. Next, enter your search criteria. Also, you can click Search to check whether your search criteria are working or not.
2. Click Show search options from the search box after opening Gmail.
3. Next, enter your search criteria. Also, you can click Search to check whether your search criteria are working or not. 
4. Then, choose an action that you prefer for your filter’s performance. 
5. After that, click Create filter. 

• Create labels

Labels help you to organize your emails by colors. They help you to respond quickly or mark an email as important. Also, you can create nested labels if you wish. Nested labels are like subfolders. But remember, labels are not the same as the concept of folders. When you delete a message it will be omitted from every label with those it was attached to. So, follow these steps to create a label. 

1. After opening Gmail, go to the left panel.
2. Then scroll down and click More. 
3. Next, click Create new label. 
4. Give a name for the label.
5. Finally, click Create. 

• Archive or mute emails

If you want to organize your Gmail inbox without deleting any messages, then archive or mute will be the best option for you. When you select the archive or mute option, your emails move to the All Mail label. When you archive an email, it will appear again in your inbox when someone replies to it. But when you choose to mute an email, it will never appear in your inbox, though someone replies to it. If you want to find it again, you can search the conversation. So, let’s find out how to archive and mute the emails.

To archive the emails –

1. Open Gmail and open the message you want to archive.
2. Then, click Archive from the top left.

Note: You can press e to archive an email if your keyboard shortcuts are turned on. 

To mute the emails –

1. Select or open the conversation.
2. Click More > Mute from the top. 

• Add starts for important emails

You can prioritize the critical emails by adding a star to them. It helps you to find them quickly. Gmail automatically adds an ‘Importance Marker’ (yellow arrow after the star) on those that it finds necessary. But you can manually add or delete stars in the inbox to manage your emails efficiently. It will help the Gmail algorithm to incorporate better detection for important messages. So, learn how to add stars to your emails –

1. Open your Gmail inbox.
2. Then, click on the Star on the left of the message. If your message is already opened, then click More > Add Star.
3. You can see your starred message from the Starred option of your Gmail. You will find this option from the left menu. 

Furthermore, you can use the stars of different colors or icons. You can do it with these steps –

1. Go to the Settings of Gmail and click See all settings. 
2. Next, scroll down the page and go to the Stars section.
3. Then, drag the stars between the In use and Not in use options.
4. Finally, click Save changes from the bottom.

Unsubscribe from unwanted newsletter

You receive lots of promotional emails and newsletters from businesses every day. Some of these emails may be important for you. But the rest of the emails are unnecessary. These emails consume lots of storage. Also, they cause barriers to find out important messages. So, how do I get rid of these emails?

1. Open an email from the sender that you want to unsubscribe.
2. Next, click Unsubscribe. You will find this option just beside thesender’s name.
3. Then, click Unsubscribe from the pop-up to confirm the action. But remember that you might need to click Go to website to unsubscribe the emails from some senders. 
4. Again, you can send these unsubscribed emails to the spam folder. For this, click Move to spam. But this is an optional step.

• Block spam messages

By blocking spam messages, you can protect your Gmail from any kind of cybercrime. Also, it keeps your inbox clean from unwanted message cluttering. So, if you find any spam messages in your Gmail inbox, you can block them with this process –

1. Open Gmail from your web browser. 
2. Next, open the message or check the box from the left of the message. 
3. Click Report Spam. You will find this option at the top of the page.

Furthermore, you can block the email addresses of those senders who send spam messages. So, go through these steps – 

1. Open the spam message.
2. Then, click More from the top right corner.
3. Finally, click Block [sender].

• Use the ‘Undo’ feature

Sometimes, you may not want to send an email to someone. But unfortunately, you have clicked the Send button. In that case, the Undo feature will save you from sending the message. So, you can avoid sending the email by using this method –

1. When you send a message you will find a Message sent pop-up at the bottom. Beside this pop-up, you will see the Undo and View message option.
2. So, click Undo.

Note: You must select the Undo action within 30 seconds after sending the email. 

Learn more about this feature here. 

Mute conversations

When you don’t want to get a notification from a conversation, you can mute that. So, 

1. Click More from the right of a conversation in Gmail.
2. Then, click Mute or Unmute.

Why organize the Gmail inbox?

Organizing your Gmail inbox provides numerous benefits –

• By organizing your emails, you can manage your inbox efficiently. Thus, you can focus on other tasks, enhancing your overall productivity.
• As you don’t have to put too much effort into organizing your inbox, you can easily manage your time. Hence, you can complete your email tasks within a short span.
• When you complete your scheduled tasks on time, it positively affects your communication. You can reply to your manager quickly about a sensitive issue. Also, your client doesn’t need to wait for a response.
• An organized Gmail inbox boosts your confidence. Ultimately, it will lead you toward better job satisfaction. 

Take quick automation guidance from Foresight 

Foresight provides a user-intuitive interface to create automated workflows for regular tasks. It specializes in incorporating no-code automation for Google Workspace workflows. Thus, it becomes a helpful tool that enhances the proficiency of Google Admin and users. Also, this automation tool gives you a view of data-driven insights and helps you understand the whole automation process. 

You can learn different user cases of this tool. Moreover, it has several use cases for automating your email-related tasks. For example, you may read Send Recurring Emails From Gmail With Foresight, etc. 

Conclusion

So, hopefully, you have learned how to organize your Gmail inbox like a professional. It helps you to manage your tasks within time and improve productivity. Also, you should integrate an automation platform to manage your regular tasks.

Try a 14-day free trial of this tool and test your business productivity. You can read other topics related to this one – Manage unwanted messages in Gmail, etc.