10 Hidden Gmail Productivity Hacks Will Give You Chills
Custom Shortcuts
Everyone loves a great shortcut! They can be excellent time savers, helping you get more work done in a shorter period of time.
But, sometimes, your application of choice doesn’t have a preset shortcut for your favorite actions, and Gmail’s no exception. But, the brains behind the service have your needs in mind, because they added a way for you to create custom shortcuts inside Gmail. Now, the power to work more efficiently is in your hands.
Just go to Settings > Labs > Custom Keyboard Shortcuts to get started.
Send Text Messages
Did you know that your email account can send out free text messages directly from the compose button? Sending text messages is very straightforward and easy to use.
If the recipient has T-Mobile they likely use “@t-mobile.com.” you compose a new message and compose the message using the person’s 10-digit number plus their SMS gateway address. For example if their number is (555) 555-55555 then compose the gmail message to: 5555555555@t-mobile.com
Gmail is undoubtedly the world’s best free email platform that everyone should definitely start using. If you are a busy person however, Gmail can help streamline your email management process and save you time, something that will be of great benefit to you. Nevertheless, these are processes that have to be deliberate as they will take some setting up to implement. Here are 5 Gmail tips you can start using to improve your productivity.
1. The undo send feature
Have you ever wondered the number of people who’ve lost potential business because of a mistake in one or more of their emails. I can’t guess the actual number but what I can guess is it should be humongous. One thing I think we can both agree on is that, everyone makes mistakes and as they say, “To err is human.” Nevertheless, the developers behind the Gmail mailbox understand this fundamental fact which explains why they introduced the undo feature. The undo feature will simply allow you to revoke your email before it is sent to the recipient’s mailbox helping you save face. To enable this feature, here are the steps you can follow;
- Click the gear icon on the top right corner of your mailbox
- Visit the settings section.
- Find the feature labelled undo send and choosing your own preferred cancellation period
- Saving the settings.
This is a tip that would easily qualify to be in the Gmail tips hall of fame for it’s convenience. You should make use of it.
Connect Emails to Tasks
Sometimes, emails require actions. When that happens, it’s nice to have a convenient way to connect the message to a to-do list.
Gmail lets you do just that by associating an email with a Google Task activity, creating a convenient list that sits at the bottom of your screen.
Learn more about the tasks feature and how to connect messages to your to-do list here: Google Tasks
6. Consolidate Your Emai
2. Use all your email accounts from Gmail
This is one of the best blessings Gmail has afforded me. Back in the day before I fully understood the power of Gmail, I would have to cycle between my four mail accounts, something that was focus draining and massively time consuming. In short, it was an overwhelming experience. But with Gmail, the story is different. The fact of the matter is that you can access and manage all your emails from your Gmail mailbox. In fact, you can even send and receive those emails. And if you are looking for the ‘it’ tip. I believe that this is one of the best Gmail tips you will ever get. This feature might be a little complex with a lot of steps involved but I’ll give the very basic ones that will make everything simpler for you. Here is what you do.
- Once again, click on the gear icon.
- After the gear icon, visit the ‘settings tab.’
- Click the tab labelled ‘Forwarding and POP’
- Go on ‘add forwarding address.’
After the fourth address, I believe everything will become much easier for you to figure out.
3. Keyboard Shortcuts
If you are very time sensitive and annoyed of following definite steps using a mouse just to get to a certain point, then you should make use of keyboard shortcuts as they will save you an aweful lot of time. This again is one of those Gmail tips that will would easily enter into the Gmail hall of fame. Before I give you some of the most popular shortcuts, it’s important for you to know that these shortcuts are not always accessible, you have to be proactive and activate them beforehand. How is this done, you may ask? First, take a cue from the above tip and visit the settings tab. In the ‘settings tab’, look for a tab labelled General settings and click on it. In the ‘General Settings’ tab, you find another tab labelled Keyboard shortcuts. After you’ve enabled them, you can them start making use of them. Some popular shortcuts include the use of ctrl + h, ctrl, shift + o. I won’t tell you what these do, just try them out and see the magic for yourself. Nevertheless, if you want to see your possibilities and the full list of the keyboard shortcuts, you could just press ‘Shift+/’
4. Make use of Grammarly
I know keeping up with Grammar, especially when writing emails can be a farce. But even though it is a farce, there are no excuses, you really have to present your emails professionally or risk facing some major implications that may damage your reputation. To prevent such things from happening, Gmail took a proactive step to make life easier for everyone. They introduced Gmail extensions, Grammarly in particular. If you are not familiar with Grammarly, I’ll start by telling you that it is one of the most excellent proofing tools available on the web today and yes, it is better than everything else you know. But that’s not the only thing that is awesome about it! It has a wonderful free version that I’d classify as decent. To access and use Grammarly on your Gmail, you only need to get the Chrome browser(who doesn’t use anyway!) and install Grammarly as an extension.
5. Make use of IFTTT Recipes
Hands down, these receipts are one of the best things on Gmail. IFTTT is simply short for, If This Then That. These receipts are known for being able to connect and link two distinct services to enable a task to be performed in a simple manner. Okay, getting away from theory for a bit, here is how IFTTT recipes work. If you have a Dropbox account and prefer all images from every email to be saved to that Dropbox account, you can create a custom IFTTT recipe to help you automate that process such that everytime an email that contains an image is sent, the image will be extracted and stored directly into your Dropbox. I think it’s clear that making use of IFTTT recipes can greatly increase and improve your productivity.
Bonus Tip: Use Labels
Being organized is the pinnacle of productivity and Gmail allows you to do just that. How is this done? The answer is simple, you can use labels to arrange your mail and keep your inbox minimalistic. To add a new label, you just have to click on the more icon and everything else will flow from there. Make sure you make use of this Gmail tip to decrease the clutter.
If you know of any other cool and awesome Gmail tips for productivity, please feel free to share them with us, we’d greatly appreciate it. For now, you can make use of these ones.
