Make Gmail Your Productivity Center – Part 4

This is the final part of my multi-part post detailing various features you can use to improve your productivity by using Gmail. If you haven’t read the previous parts, you may want to start at the beginning.

So in the previous parts of this series, I’ve talked about using filters and labels to organize mail, using canned responses to automate repetitive emails, using GMail as a central hub for all of your various email accounts, a little bit about keyboard shortcuts and I told you to enable a whole lot of options in the Labs section which will enhance the Gmail experience.

Since I left you with a lot of functionality but not a whole lot about how to use that functionality, that’s what I’m going to cover next. Let me preface this with something, though. I’m one of those guys who likes to use the keyboard as much as possible. I’m pretty handy with the mouse but if I’m doing to use a system a lot over a long period of time I like to learn how to use it efficiently with the keyboard. One reason I do this is because it makes me feel cool, like I’m sort of awesome hacker or something. You may not have that fantasy, but I do. Anyway, the other reason is that I find it really helps minimize neck and back pain due to reaching and moving too much with the mouse. That being said, maybe you don’t want to use the keyboard. I personally find it faster, but if that’s not a priority for you or you find you manage ok with the mouse, all of your tools are there at your disposal. I don’t really need to tell you how to use them. If you want to know more about the keyboard thing, though, this section is for you.

Gmail was designed with the keyboard user in mind, and you can do almost everything that way. There are a lot of shortcuts available and you’ll have a special tab which lists them if you enabled the custom keyboard shortcuts in Labs. if you didn’t, you can still find them here. So yeah, you can just look there or I’ve stuck them down below in a more ordered format.

Help:
? to bring up shortcut help window, which provides a command list. This is the most important thing you can learn.

Search:
/ to move focus to the search box

Email:
c to compose a new email
o to open a conversation
u to go back to thread list
k for newer conversation
j for older conversation
x to select a conversation
s to star a conversation
m to ignore a conversation
! to report as spam
# to send to trash
p for previous message
n for next message
r for reply
a for reply to all
f to forward
g + i to go to the inbox
g + s to go to starred conversations
g + t to go to sent messages
g + d to go to drafts
g + a to go to all mail
g + c to go to contacts
* + a to select all conversations
* + n to deselect all conversations
* + r to select read conversations
* + u to select unread conversations
* + s to select starred conversations
* + t to select unstarred conversations
Shift + n to update conversation
z to undo last action
. to open more actions menu
Shift + i to mark as read
Shift + u to mark as unread
e to archive
v to open move to menu

Labels:
g + l to bring up label navigation window
l to open labels as menu
y to remove a label
] to remove label and go to previous conversation
[ to remove label and go to next conversation

Tasks:
Shift + t while viewing an email/conversation to add the conversation as a task
g + k to bring up the Tasks window

Google Docs:
g + w to create a blank Google document – I can’t seem to find a way to open a document from the contents of an email without clicking the button on the right

So yeah, there you are. Those are your keyboard shortcuts. What I did to learn this stuff is just made frequent use of the help overlay bye typing ‘?’ and forced myself to do everything with the keyboard until I had it down. Yes, it takes up some time. All of this stuff does, but once you’ve got it all set up in the way you want it, your system is running smoothly and your skills are sharp, it will really enable you to get a lot more done in much less time. Remember to make frequent use of labels, because these really help you find things. I like to keep my inbox as empty as possible by archiving the vast majority of my mail but applying stars and labels in order to find things when I need them again. It really does work better than having to wade through a massive inbox. It’s a great feeling to be able to open up a clean and ordered workspace rather than one that’s cluttered and disorganized and doesn’t really work for your needs.

This is the last post in this series, so please let me know if you’ve found it helpful. This probably isn’t my last time writing about Gmail, as I use it do often. I’m also planning some posts around Google Docs, some of Google’s other tools, and various browsers and extensions which help me get things done quickly. Stick around mindreap if you’d like to see what’s coming. Why not just subscribe now?

Make Gmail Your Productivity Center – Part 3

This is Part 3 of my multi-part post detailing various features you can use to improve your productivity by using Gmail. If you haven’t read the previous parts, you may want to start at the beginning.

So in the previous parts of this series, I’ve talked about using filters and labels (I noticed today that Google has made labels a more prominent feature in Gmail, which should really help highlight how important they are) to organize mail, using canned responses to automate repetitive emails, using GMail as a central hub for all of your various email accounts, a little bit about keyboard shortcuts and I briefly mentioned a few preview options in Labs which can help save some time when viewing emails.

There are some more quick and easy tools which are easily enabled within Gmail which can really make a difference when it comes to usability and productivity. A couple of these features can be found under the General tab in your settings. The signature and the personal level indicator settings may not seem like a big deal to you, and they really aren’t. They’re sort of necessary features, which is why you should enable them. Who wants to have to retype their signature or paste one on from an external file? Also, isn’t it nice to know at a glance whether or not you’re the main recipient of a message? Easy.

Some more settings which I find absolutely necessary can be found in the Labs section.

Tasks – This is a tool which works great, integrates well with the interface, and gets out of your way when you don’t need it. You can create tasks from existing emails, which is an awesome feature. You may want to upgrade to a more robust task system later, but this is a great place to start.
Message translation – If you get a a lot of emails in languages you don’t speak (I don’t) you’ll probably find it useful. I have it enabled just in case I happen to need it.
Quick links – This is a pretty great tool. I actually use it to save searches which I use a lot so I don’t have to remember exactly how I found something.
Signature tweaks – this is just a preference thing. I prefer to have my signature before quoted text and without the double dash.
Sender Time Zone – I live in the UK, but most of my contacts and work is in the US. This means that I’m often awake while other people are asleep and that I may be sending emails at times which aren’t great for other people. This option helps me keep that in mind and reply accordingly.
Quote selected text – It’s just nice to be able to highlight a chunk of text and have it clearly displayed in your response rather than having to direct someone to the appropriate part of an email. It just makes things simpler.
Navbar drag and drop – not much to say on this one. If you have the option to be able to drag things around or not, why not choose to be able to do it?
Forgotten attachment detector – Oh, I think everyone has done this a time or 2. I’ve so careful about this these days that I rarely need this option, but of course I’ve got it enabled anyway. There is nothing more embarrassing than mentioning an attachment and not including it.
Mark as Read – Before I had this button, Gmail was sort of the bane of my existence. One button and my problems are solved. I don’t always want to open an email. Sometimes you already know what’s in there, right? Well you can select a veritable cornucopia of emails and with one click of this button they’re all marked as read. Simple? I would say so. I have no idea why this is an additional option instead of a built-in part of Gmail.
Go to Label – This option enables a really nice way of navigating through your labels. Once you start using labels you’ll realize how great this is.
Create a Document – If you use Google Docs you’ll want this. I use Google Docs all of the time, and I’d argue that you should be using at least some form of cloud based office suite as well. It’s really too good to not use. Anyway, this option enabled you to do awesome things like creating a Google Document from an email conversation. Pretty cool.
Suggest more recipients – Enough said. I use this all of the time.
Search Autocomplete – Why not make search better and easier?
Inserting Images – This lets you put images in the message body of your emails, if you want to do that.
Google Calendar gadget – This is a gadget which allows you to view and manipulate calendar entries from the left sidebar within Gmail.
Google Docs gadget – Like I said before, I use Google Docs a lot. This lets you see your docs, create new ones, open them, etc. It sits on your left sidebar
Add any gadget – this is great for adding third party support. There are tons of gadgets you could add. One example is the gadget for Remember The Milk, the popular task/to do manager.

After you’ve got all of this stuff enabled, you’ll probably find that things are a whole lot more usable, but you may not know exactly how to go about using this new system you’ve created. Don’t worry. We’ll get there soon enough. Head back this way for Part 4 or stay tuned by by subscribing now.