Today a colleague texted me wanting some assistance blocking someone from emailing. I didn’t get into details, but I suspect he’s trying to “silence” an old flame. Shortly after his question, I got another text from someone else asking whether he could import non-Gmail email account into his Gmail account. I think I talked about both of these, but I want to rehash it, or expand on the subject, just in case.
One of the reasons I love Gmail for handling all of my email is because of the robust features and easiness of establishing connections.
To answer my first friend’s question, I suggested either creating a filter to automatically delete the email, or “muting” the conversation. My preference is to create a filter.
For the second question, the answer was simple. It’s the process I use to forward all messages sent to my jeff@thedroidlawyer.com account, which is hosted by a non-Google provider.
I forward all email to the droidlawyer.com host using my website’s settings (usually just an input telling the server where to forward), then I use Gmail’s “send on behalf of” feature to respond to any messages. Setting up Gmail to handle messages is really a 5 minute operation. Please let me know if you need help getting yours together.
Forwarding your mail and using filters prepares you to appropriately and effectively use Gmail to manage your messages.
Hack 1: One of the first things I suggest you do, is change your email signature. In Gmail (not the app), you can change this in the settings. Luckily,to start, it’s blank.
Hack 2: Next, I suggest you set up some filters. Note though, if you’re used to using folder in Outlook, you’re going to miss that. Gmail does not offer that feature. That’s something I do miss. That said, the labels and filters settings can get you what you need, and when combined with the outstanding search features, they work quite well.
Hack 3: Here’s a great filter trick: set your email filter to check all incoming messages for the word “unsubscribe.” You can choose to filter the messages to your junk email (my preference) or delete them automatically.
Hack 4: Creating a canned response to a lot of messages can save you time and effort.
Hack 5: Get to know your keyboard shortcuts. Shortcuts are much easier than hunting across the site trying to find the button that gets you what you need. Learn them.
With these hacks, you’re on your way to becoming a Gmail master.
[...] talked about some of these, including labels, which I love. One thing I need to enable is 2-step verification. There’s [...]