Gmail hacks: 15 ways to unlock Gmail inbox productivity

Going through your daily mail can feel like a never-ending maze. You open one email after another, but you never reach inbox zero. Why? You need better Gmail management, and we're here to help you make that happen.

In this article, we share 15 Gmail hacks to help you master Gmail inbox productivity. No matter how full your inbox is, you can achieve inbox zero with this list.

Gmail hacks: Inbox mastery

Here are a few Gmail tips to help you master your inbox and make it work on your terms.

1. Customize labels and filters

It’s tough to be truly productive in a chaotic inbox. If you want to manage your mail better, you need to use Gmail's filters and labels.

Benefits of labels

When you create labels, you’re able to organize your messages and group them based on priority level. For instance, you could create a labeled folder for each of your customers or prospects, and choose whether you want their emails to show up in your Primary inbox or in a separate, less visible destination.

And the best part is you can customize each label according to your needs. Whether you want to group emails by project, client, or urgency is up to you, but it’s all possible through Gmail's sidebar. You can even create a spam folder, and throw all of your unwanted emails in there.

Benefits of filters

Filters save you the hassle of searching through hundreds of emails to find the one you want. Think of filters like rules that tell emails what labels to receive and where to go in your inbox without you having to do any of the heavy lifting.

If you’re organizing your Gmail inbox for the first time and this is your go-around with filters, start by typing in the names of the most common people you communicate with or maybe by a project’s title, and create a filter that’ll send all of those past (and future) conversations to a folder specifically for those people or projects. Simply repeat this process until your inbox is organized.

2. Display the unread message icon

Do you want to know how many unread messages you have without opening your inbox every time? There's an easy hack here: enable your unread message icon through your Gmail advanced settings on a desktop.

Once you do that, you'll always know the number of unread messages you have by glancing at the Gmail icon in the header of your browser tab.

3. Activate priority inbox

Did you know that you can bring your priority messages to the top with minimal effort? All you have to do is go through Gmail's settings and choose Priority Inbox from Inbox Type. Once you do that, Gmail will organize your messages into groups to help you get to them faster. For instance, it'll move all the starred messages to the top and leave all the spam mail down the list.

As a bonus, you can customize the groups in your priority inbox according to your needs. For example, you can move all past and incoming messages from a certain client to the top.

Gmail hacks: Efficiency boosters

Let's move on to the inbox efficiency boosters that will win you some time back.

4. Learn keyboard shortcuts

Learning keyboard shortcuts is well worth your time; you’ll fly through your Gmail messages at lightning speed. Without lifting a finger or making a click, you'll be able to compose new emails, parse through your messages, and quickly sort your inbox.

Here are some common Gmail keyboard shortcuts you can use:

C to compose a new email
E to archive unimportant messages
K to go to new messages
J to scroll down to old messages
A to reply to all
R to reply individually

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Gmail hacks: 15 ways to unlock Gmail inbox productivity

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