Then, you can create a filter in that main account that looks for all incoming messages where the “To:” field contains your other addresses. If you have multiple email accounts with totally separate addresses, you should set them all up to redirect to the one Gmail account you’ll be checking most often. But you can extend this concept to easily manage ALL of your daily email quickly and efficiently, without needing to switch between tabs, or browsers or use bloated pieces of software. On the surface, this trick might seem only useful for sorting emails by sender, or perhaps a specific subject line. You can quickly scan through the list of labels on the side of your screen and check the number of unread emails in each of your inboxes. Gmail automatically displays the number of unread emails next to each label, even though those emails aren’t in the main inbox. Or a “notifications” inbox.Īnd you don’t have to worry about missing an email that ends up in one of these inboxes. You can setup multiple filters that all use this label, so you could have several email address that are all automatically streamlined into one “Executives” inbox. Create a new label if one doesn’t exist already. Then, choose a corresponding label as a name for this inbox. Put his or her email address in the “from:” field and click the “next step »” button.Ĭheck the box next to “Skip the Inbox (Archive It)”, and check the box next to “Apply the label:”. Go to your Gmail account and click “Create a Filter” (at the top, next to the search box). Creating Separate Inboxes Using Filtersįor a simple example, let’s say you want to create an inbox for all of the emails that your boss sends to you, so they don’t get lost in the shuffle (although maybe you want them to…?) And thanks to Gmail’s filters and labels, this is remarkably simple.Ī note: creating Gmail filters is a very user-specific process and I definitely encourage you to play around with them to create your own email nirvana.
You can banish an email into the archive and it will disappear from your inbox, but it’s still there when you need to look for it later.Ī fantastic way to cut down on clutter and manage your email more effectively is to make your archive behave like a series of individual, separate inboxes. In essence, the archive is like a less-naggy version of the inbox – out of sight, out of mind.
The archive is searchable by default, and emails in the archive can still be marked as read/unread, without affecting the unread count for your main inbox. Emails that are banished to the archive no longer reside in the inbox, but are still stored indefinitely.
And trash is - well - the trash.īut the archive is like limbo. Spam emails are deleted automatically every 30 days, so that’s not really a long term solution for storing email.
Anything that isn’t in the inbox is either archived, spam or trash. The main flaw with modern email systems is that there is only one inbox, but we use our email accounts for so many different things.Ĭommunicating with coworkers, managing to-do lists, keeping in touch, tracking receipts & shipments, receiving social media updates, archiving memories, following blogs… how can all of that be managed from one place!?īy default, Gmail wants you to have one inbox. You try to keep your life as organized as possible, but your inbox is a mess. You get tugged in a million directions every day.