We’re all need email for work. Many of us use the usual programs such as Outlook, Mail, Lotus or even Thunderbird. Each of these programs has its Advantages and disadvantages.
Gmail
I, for one prefer the online solution for email, namely GMail or Google Mail. Sure there’s Yahoo’s mail, Hotmail and others. But I enjoy using Gmail’s Labs and its extensions features. Customizing how I use my online email and appearance. I make full use the stars, filters and labels to get organized.
STARS
The “Stars” in Gmail is similar to “flags” in most of the other emailing softwares, applications out there. I “Starred” the items that needs to be followed up. The best thing about gmail is that you’re able to search all your starred items.
NOTE: There’s a new feature in LABS for custom “Stars” that changes the star icon to other kinds of icons.
Tasks List
That’s one way to use “stars” in your gmail, but another feature in gmail that’s pretty ingenious is be able to add that into your “Task” list. The Task list is your ToDo list by the way. No need to retype the header for the task. As long as its in the header of your email, a quick click on the menu, you’re able to add it as a task.
Task list is a feature that really saves you time retyping everything again. And all this is automatically added to your Google calendar. But that’s another part that I’ll be explaining in the near future.
Labels
On the left side of the page you’ll be able to see some colored coded labels. If you mainly use Gmail as your work email like I do,
you’d appreciate what Google has done to simplify how you view you emails. Imaging getting hundreds of emails from your clients and having no way to sort them out. This is one feature that most emailing application lacks. Being able to sort things out visually does save you plenty of time. I created filters to arrange where my mails go to in which color to what category.
For example, I use red to
label all my emails from work, yellow for task or “todo”, green are personal emails and so on. I have 14 different labels and customized colors to help me see which emails belong where. For those emails without a label I can quickly add a label or decide to delete them permanently quickly.
NOTE: There’s a new feature in LABS for labels that allows you to create your own custom colors.
Filters
My favorite feature in gmail is filters. Why you ask? Have you ever tried looking for a file/document that was send from someone 6 months ago? How about 3 years ago? After that, try organizing them so that you know where those files are with just a click?
I used to use filters to organize my emails from who and what company so I can keep track of all my client’s emails. But now I use it to manage my companies emails. For example, imagine having companies or activities that are very specific. Keeping track of 3 years of pictures attached by email by a friend. All you have to do is filter his email address, which contains attachments. From there filters would have lists all the emails with attachments. This allows you to select the emails that you want to set aside.
Labs
Labs in gmail is an experimental feature or features that has yet to be a standard part of the gmail experience. Best to try some of it and see which ones you would like to use.
Labs Features
I personally activated “OFFLINE” gmail so that I can access my emails even when I don’t have internet access, I’m still able to check my emails that I have previously sync on my computer. I recommend trying the features that you like.
Check out’s lab’s What’s new features here.
If you want to know more, check out google’s 10 reasons.
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