I am so excited with a new lab I discovered in my Gmail Account. This one lab cuts the email I see in my email box immensely and quickly.
If you have Gmail, go to the gear at the top and click on labs. Scroll down to SmartLabels to enable.
Instead of filtering out each email list or newsletter you have, which takes a lot of time to set up, this lab creates three categories automatically:
- Bulk (which is newsletters, promos, etc.)
- Notification (twitter, facebook, blockbuster, bill notifications, etc.)
- Forums (Yahoo and Google Groups)
Now your email is labeled so you know right away the more important email.
I go one step further as I don’t even want to see these in my in box. So I created filters:
- Check an email with one of the labels. Let’s start with Notification. Then go to the pull down menu More actions and pick filter messages like these.
- Erase anything in the from: space. Under Category pick notification.
- Click next step.
- Check Skip the Inbox (archive it). Check Also apply filter to the conversations below.
- Create filter.
With these types of messages filtered out, I can get through my email much quicker. My clients, family and friends have first priority.
When I have a break and want to look at one of the categories, I click on the label and the messages pop up.
If you find something that doesn’t belong in your new categories, click Not (bulk, notification, forum) at the top and it will be filtered correctly next time. But, so far I have been very impressed.
