A few Gmail inbox tips
Thru kind courtesy of J Duffy – with a million thanks!
Is email overload your biggest technological problem? For many people, it is. If you're a
Gmail user, there are two very simple tricks to better filtering of your email and regaining
control of your inbox, and they've been around so long that no one really talks about them
anymore. That's a shame, because plenty of Gmail users still don't about them.
Periods
The first trick is to use periods in your Gmail address. Gmail doesn't differentiate between a
valid Gmail address and the same address with periods inserted in it. For example, if your
email address is talkingNY@gmail.com, messages sent to talking.NY@gmail.com and
talk.ing.NY@gmail.com will both end up in your inbox.
Likewise, if you initially set up your Gmail address as Name.Surname@gmail.com, all mail
sent to the same address without a period (NameSurname@gmail.com) will still reach you.
The concept, then, is to give out an alternate email addresses with a period or periods in them
for different purposes and then filter those messages into different folders. For example, you
might give out the NameSurname email address to your friends, but use Name.Surname for
business acquaintances, or confirmation emails from online shopping, or newsletter lists and
listservs.
You don't need to do anything to start using the new address(es), but you do have to set up
the filters if you want the messages to skip your inbox and go directly to another folder.
To set up the filter, follow these steps:
1. From the cog icon in the upper right, go to Settings.
2. Select Filters.
3. Select Create a new filter (it's at the bottom).
4. In the "to" field, enter the Gmail address with the periods.
5. Select "create filter with this search."
6. If you want incoming messages for that address to go directly into a designated folder,
select the options "Apply the label" and "Skip the Inbox." You must apply both filters, or
else the mail will go to the new folder and your regular inbox.
7. Hit "Create filter" to save your changes.
Say you've started giving out the new email address, but you haven't set up the filters yet
because you procrastinated on that step. It's okay. It happens. Gmail has one more powerful
option that can help. It shows up just to the right of the "Create filter" save button, where
you'll see, "Also apply filter to X matching conversations. That option will sweep all the
relevant mail to the new folder right away, helping you clean up your inbox instantly.
Use the Plus Sign
The second trick is nearly the same as the first, but it uses a plus sign followed by a word,
rather than periods.
If your address is talkingNY@gmail.com, any messages sent to
talkingNY+work@gmail.com will still reach you, as will mail sent to
talkingNY+LinkedInSpam@gmail.com.
Gmail users familiar with this trick often leverage it when they sign up for new online
services. Say, for example, you sign up for a lot of fitness app accounts. Instead of using a
unique name for each account, just append +fitness or +RunningApps to the end of your
Gmail name when you enroll.
As you start using your new +Word email addresses, be sure to create filters using the steps
listed above, substituting the + addresses in step 4, of course.
