I have had a gmail account for years. I currently have a personal account and a work account. I remember being tickled that I could link the two, having emails from one account forwarded to the other. I enjoy the ability of the search feature to find "that email" from months ago, just by remembering who sent it and some word that would be in the email. Honestly, this feature has come in handy many times!
But, this week I spent some time watching videos and reading articles about special features of gmail; it seems that gmail has more to offer that I had realized.
Here are my top four ways to make gmail serve me better as a busy teacher/mom/wife:
(1) Creating to do lists on gmail:
By emailing yourself (most likely from your phone), you can use your email account as your revolving to do list. Put "TODO:" in the subject line of the email and then creating a filter, when you open gmail, you can choose TODO from the left sidebar list ... and TAH DAH ... your reminders are listed all together in an organized list. (The filter helps separate the TODOs from the rest of your email to avoid overlooking a buried TODO!)
Here is a video about how to set this up:
Or, here is a different method to use gmail as a to do list.
I often email myself reminders, but on days when I get a lot of emails, sometimes my reminder gets buried deep in my inbox and (of course) I forget all about it until I finally reach the message in my inbox. I've done the key word in the subject line before, but I never thought to create a filter to funnel those to do emails into one particular place. Genius!
(2) Add a PLUS sign to your email address to filter unwanted emails:
You're at a store and they ask for your email, but you don't want to give your email address. Give it as youremailaddress+STORE@gmail.com and then when you receive your first email, click MORE > FILTER EMAILS LIKE THIS ... then, in the "TO" field, enter +STORE (or whatever you put after the plus sign) and click CREATE FILTER WITH THIS SEARCH. You can even filter emails to go directly to trash!
Click here and scroll to #3 to read about how to set this up.
I was just complaining the other day how my inbox is full of commercials - emails from Michaels Craft Store, Home Depot, Groupon, and the like. The next time I have to give out my email to a store or business, I am going to try out this PLUS method of filtering emails.
Did you even know you could access your inbox when you were OFFline? Seriously. Accessing mail that is reaching me over the internet without using the internet. What?!? Don't believe me? Watch this video:
(4) Quick Links:
For. The. Love.
How many times have you had that one email that you continually referred to or regularly had to look for because the information in that one email was so relevant to what you were working on at the time? How frustrated did you get, constantly having to search for that one email? Well, there's a way to be more efficient: gmail quick links. This feature is almost as great as disposable diapers. Almost.
Here's a video to show you how to set this up:
Here's a video to show you how to set this up:
It's crazy how much I am learning about gmail. I already thought it was great for email ... but - holey moley - I've only discovered just a fraction of the benefits having a gmail account! It's a start, though, right? Baby steps. Learn a little. Use new skills. Learn a little more. Discover even more. The cycle of learning is forever, right? Keep on learning .. and if you find something super cool that gmail can do, feel free to share your discovery with me by posting a comment!
Another cool Google perk? Custom search engines. You can read more about CSEs on this post.
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