Gmail just turned 15 this April 1st. To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Gmail, which has become an indispensable part of most of our lives – has announced some long desired updates for its users!
Amongst all the updates the most interesting and user-savvy update has been – scheduling your emails. Previously to schedule an email, there was need of extensions and at times even new email clients. The option of scheduling is now available on the Gmail app and on its web page.
Apart from this, Gmail has also improved its Smart Compose feature with machine learning, which will help the users to construct and compose their sentences faster. It can also write the ‘subject’ of the email on its own based on the content in the email.
Read | Gmail’s 15th birthday: Gmail will stay relevant in our lives as much as it did 15 years ago
On occasion of the 15th birthday, Google’s in-house productivity expert, Laura Mae Martin, suggested a few things, to take out the most from Gmail.
> Limit and structure the time spent on email
Going through the inbox and replying to the emails has become an everyday chore for several working professionals. While doing so, most just go for the random way of reading and replying to a mail, and the go back to browse for more in the inbox.
However, Laura said, to structure it more, one should not bounce back and forth between activities.
>Never open an email more than twice
“Never touch an email more than twice” – once when you sort it based on the action that needs to be taken, and then when you need to answer it. “Make sorting, reading and answering email separate activities,” she said.
> Stop getting reminder e-mails
To save your inbox from getting swamped with reminder and similar messages, she suggested sending the person an email stating that his concern will be taken up later. This will help one get rid of all the “following up” emails.
> Do not go through every email, not all are important
Laura suggested Gmail users apply filters since not every email is important and this will help them to get rid of those messages right away.
> Make an outbox
She also advised the users to create an ‘outbox’, in which the Sent folder doesn’t count. “New emails should come into one spot and emails that are read and require action should be in a completely different spot,” she said. To address the issues she advised the users to create a new folder or label which will be able to handle the incoming emails and the read messages.
