david j. garcia

These five simple, relatively unknown tips could each individually make your email life better. Together, there’s no stopping them (or you).

1) Quit worrying about periods! You can use period placement to filter your inbox, but spammers aren’t the only ones who occasionally misplace punctuation. Instead, add something like +spam or +mailinglist between your username and @gmail.com and filter that (username+label@gmail.com) instead. Real people won’t accidentally add “+spam” into your address like they might with a period.

2) Go here and enable Mouse Gestures (for me, it’s the sixth option). Now a “right click with right flick” sends you to the next older message. Searching for those little “< Newer” and “Older >” links, lining up your mouse, and clicking is so last month. Check out the other Labs options when you have time. I also use Signature Tweaks, Quick Links, and Forgotten Attachment Detector.

3) Download Chrome, even if you only use it for email–the hype about faster web applications is fully justified. Instead of click->”loading”->read, it’s now click->read. That little change has revolutionized how I navigate my email.

4) Hit the “Archive and go to next” key. Enable keyboard shortcuts, then press “[" to archive the current message and go to the next oldest without returning to the inbox. It's a much faster way to clean out your inbox. I don't usually use keyboard shortcuts, but this one's well worth it. (Yes, "]” goes to the next newest if you prefer). Bonus: Use this in Chrome (with Mouse Gestures to skip emails you’re not ready to archive yet) and the process is blazingly fast.

5) Finally, if you have a cellphone data plan, get Gmail for Mobile. You don’t need a smartphone, and it does almost everything Gmail does. This one tip could be the difference between a clean Inbox and staying perpetually behind.*

*WARNING: Use of Gmail for Mobile may be addictive, leading to obsessive email checking, excess productivity, or increased risk of short-term helpmyphoneisgonehelp paralysis.