Find out about some Gmail hacks that improve your productivity

Gmail is the most used email service in the world. According to statistics, about 1.8 billion people will be present users of this service in 2022, while its total market share for email providers is almost 43%.

Gmail has plenty of advantages you would be aware of as a user. These include an impressive storage capacity, advanced safety features, low maintenance, and easy customization. Most of all, it stores your emails on the cloud, allowing you to access them from any device, irrespective of location.

But despite these advantages, some Gmail hacks for productivity help you enjoy additional benefits and increased productivity. Most of these can be enabled through the service’s settings, using some tools and options.

And there’s no reason you shouldn’t, especially when it has many benefits. For instance, a hack to declutter your inbox helps you organize your emails and separate the unimportant (or spam) emails from the important ones. Creating filters is another option, as it allows you to receive all incoming mail in a single place.

But what are some hacks that are guaranteed to increase your productivity and make it easier for you to manage messages? Continue reading to find out.

Filter your messages

Do you have a client who sends you frequent messages, each having the same importance as the other? You should learn to filter your messages. Getting emails that require urgent attention mixed with those that don’t can cause inconvenience and complications. i

To enable the filter option, select the mail, click the “more” button (with the three dots), choose “filter messages like these,” and create a filter. Once you complete that step, you can send it to a particular label or create a new one with a unique name. Gmail will subsequently send all your emails to this folder.

Draft your emails in Google Docs

Instead of writing your mail directly by hitting the compose button, you could try drafting your message in Google Docs before sending them. This feature is helpful for emails requiring several people’s prior approval before being sent to a client or someone important.

Here’s how you should do it:

1. Open a Google Docs document on your computer.
2. Once you have done that, press the shift button and @ simultaneously, creating a dropdown menu.
3. Click on the email draft and write the message as you usually would, adding recipients, addresses, and cc’s.

Choose the files or documents you want to share and the people you must share them with. Preview the mail in Gmail and send it after a final glance. You get the benefits of grammar check, spelling correction, searching your contacts, etc.

Unsend an email

Everybody faces situations where they wish they could stop a message just seconds after sending it. Gmail lets you do that. Immediately after you send a mail, you receive a notification on the bottom left, giving you the option to un-send a message. Clicking on undo does the job.

A better way is to set the cancellation period, where you set the number of seconds to un-send the mail. To do that, open Gmail, and click on all settings. After selecting undo, choose the cancellation period, which varies between five to 30 seconds.

Star mails if required

Starring emails helps you identify the important messages, making it easy to remember them later. It differs from the important label because messages marked as “important” disappear once you have read them, but starred messages remain in your storage as long as required.

Use a digital filing system

A digital filing system helps you find your email attachments, cloud documents, and files in the easiest way possible. It allows you to access your files from any location, find frequently used work within a few seconds, meet deadlines, coordinate plans and ensure efficient file management.

Using Gmail hacks for productivity helps you avoid spam, declutter your inbox, and separate essential messages from unimportant ones. From drafting your emails in Google Docs to filtering your messages, several hacks are helpful.