Labeling and filtering Gmail

Skelli posted "10 tips for managing email effectively" at Daily Blog Tips on 11/5/07. Before I expand on one of those tips, here are the 10 good tips that were listed:

1. Handle you domain email with Gmail
2. Create useful labels and folders to keep you organized
3. Process emails in batches
4. Read it, answer it
5. Keep it short
6. Keep it sweet
7. Re-read once
8. Build an address-book for networking
9. Use bridging emails
10. Create a dedicated signature

Now I would like to expand on tip # 2. I find it much easier to create filters and let the filters help sort out what is important and what isn't. Call me lazy, but I don't really like sorting through hundreds of emails in my Inbox and labeling them individually. I use Gmail, so the following instructions apply specifically to Gmail. However other types of email accounts could be handled in a similar manner. The "Create a Filter" option is about in the middle of the Gmail page just to the right of the "Search the Web" button.

As an example, I have several filters for my affiliate merchants. I have my Gmail set up so that those affiliates which are automatically posted through RSS feeds are tagged with "Affils - auto" and then automatically archived. When I see I have new emails in my "Affils - auto" folder, I know I don't have to look at them right away because they are already taken care of through the RSS feeds.

I have another filter which archives and sends emails to the "Affils - active" label. These are the ones I need to check soon to see if there are some time-sensitive specials I need to post. Others filter out those affiliates that have been declined, or whose programs are ending soon. With that filtering system I know immediately which affiliate emails I have to check soon, and which can wait until I have more time, and which I can ignore completely.

Since there is no limit to the number of filters and labels that can be set up, your imagination is the only limit as to how to use them to sort out important versus not-so-important emails. Plus, if you have an old client or former friend (or ex) that you no longer want to ever respond to, you can set the filter to automatically delete the email. Then you won't even know it came in. How handy is that!

While I'm on the subject of handy features, there might be a category where you know you don't have to check each individual email, but you still want to keep them for possible future reference. such as my "Affils - auto" label. In that case you can simply click on the label, click on "Select all" and then "Mark all as read." Then the label shows you have no new emails, but you will be able to tell if new ones come in later. Another "how handy is that!" Now we're getting things done in a hurry!

When you get an email from a new account or client, you can simply set up a new filter and set it to the label which best applies. As long as you automatically archive all those for which you set up filters, your inbox will usually be empty except for new ones which don't have a filter yet. And your emails will be sorted into categories so you know immediately which need to be looked at, and how many there are in that category.

If you have certain clients from whom you receive a large number of emails that should be looked at immediately, you can set up a filter and label for that one client. Or group several together into a label you know you should check soon. Remember, your imagination is the limit.

For my original post on helping keep you inbox empty, see "Organize your email and/or gmail."