I love Gmail. And though it might not be the email choice for everyone, today I’m sharing a few free tools that work WITH my Gmail account to make email processing simple, fun, and effective.
I’ve used and loved Gmail for about 15 years now. It efficiently manages my email from multiple addresses, and I honestly look forward to reading and processing my email each day.
Details on how to get and keep your emails to zero are included in our “Emails to Zero” resource (it’s free!), and that’s linked at the bottom of this post—along with some other great resources. For now, I’ll jump into five of my favorite Gmail Tools.
Right Inbox:
- Below you can see a picture of what it puts at the bottom of my Gmail…
- I love the opportunity to send an email later.
- I can also have a reminder pop up for an email at a designated time.
- It even includes additional features I haven’t yet explored.
- Sending emails later is my favorite feature because sometimes I’m processing emails on the weekend or at random times of the day and want to keep that as my little secret. Or sometimes I want my email to land at just the right time. Right Inbox does that for me.
Inbox When Ready:
- Every time I have to shift my focus while working on a project, that costs me time.
- This tool creates a “Hide Inbox” link at the top of my Gmail. When I am working and don’t want to see any new emails pop up in my browser, I hide my inbox. This has taken the place of “Inbox Pause” for me.
- It does automatically include a footer at the bottom of each of my emails saying, “I’m using Inbox When Ready to protect my focus.” I can remove this each time or pay to have it taken off.
Gmail App:
- It loads more quickly than the native “email” app on my phone.
- Headshots linked to Google show up for contacts, which is colorful and fun.
- You can easily star, delete, or mark an email as unread with just one click.
- There is a snooze feature I use occasionally (replaces “Boomerang”).
- Plus, there is a fun picture when you get to inbox zero that says, “You’re all done.”
Unroll.Me:
- It works for Gmail or non-Gmail email addresses.
- It gives me one daily roll-up of all my subscriptions.
- It is easy to skim each morning so I keep up with any important news.
- It makes my email SO easy to process on a daily basis.
Multiple Inboxes:
- It easily lets me know which emails are processed and which ones need my attention later.
- I can put my @Immediate Action emails right below the inbox so everything important is visible from the main page.
- You can add this to your Gmail account by going to Settings, Labs, and Multiple Inboxes. Then click “enable.”
- It’s easily maintained as long as I get both homepage inboxes to zero once a week.
We’ve prepared a totally free resource to show you how some of the most productive people on the planet (David Allen, Julie Morgenstern, Merlin Mann, Michael Hyatt, John Lee Dumas, and more) manage their relationship with email–and we know you’ll love the results when you replicate their strategies. Click here or on the image below to access Eight Epiphanies for Effectively Engaging with Your Email, and consider saving it to your Evernote account! ?
QUESTION: What tools help you efficiently manage your email?
CHALLENGE: Choose one of these free tools (or another tool) and set it up to work in your email.
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Related Resources
If your email inbox is overwhelming you, we have a totally free training to help you get your emails to zero–and keep them there–in 90 minutes or less. Come sign up and experience it for yourself!
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![A well-ordered, smooth email process makes a huge impact on my life, and today I (April) am sharing a few tools I use every single day with Gmail. [Podcast 35]: Five Gmail Tools to Make Email Easier](https://learndobecome.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/EmailTools.Pinterest.LearnDoBecome-300x450.png "EmailTools.Pinterest.LearnDoBecome")
I need to know the cost!
Lo, great question–there is no cost at all for the class. We offer a free one-hour online class to go over four simple steps that anyone can use immediately to get a better handle on life, home, goals, projects, and tasks. We do offer a couple of programs during the last 10 minutes of the class for anyone who would like additional support and coaching, but there is absolutely NO pressure or requirement to buy anything. We are honestly able to offer a great free class that those who have attended have loved! We would love to have you join us for a class if it would be of interest to you! You can sign up for the class by following this link: https://learndobecome.com/step
Just looking at your notes here, and I like what Right Inbox is adding for you, but I cannot find it. Is it an Apple only app?
Sandra, great question! Right Inbox is an extension or plug-in for your web browser. April uses Chrome but it’s available for Firefox as well. Check out this website for more info: https://www.rightinbox.com/. Thanks for taking time to comment. So happy to have you as part of our community!
Thank you for the tips in this podcast, several of which I have started using with good results. I’d like to mention something that might save people some trouble. For a while I searched unsuccessfully for the Gmail app’s snooze feature, which is one of this podcast’s tips that I especially wanted to implement. After much frustration, I eventually learned that this feature is available only if, in Gmail’s settings, “Conversation view on” is selected; if this isn’t selected, the snooze feature isn’t available.
Thanks again for these excellent podcasts.
You are a GEM, Len!! Thank you so much for sharing that tip. I am sure it will totally save people time. Thank you for being here with us!!!!
I don’t find the gmail app for android. I find all other names. Where or how do I find?
Hi Vonda! In the Google Play store it’s called Gmail and looks like a red and white envelope. We hope this helps!
I love inbox by Gmail and have been using it since starting step. But I’m not liking the transition back to regular Gmail very well. The check Box in inbox that you check when you are done with an email come up what would be the equivalent action in the regular Gmail app? I can’t figure out what to do with my emails when I’m done with them because I don’t want to lose them. I could always go to the done folder before
Hi Sarah, great question! In regular Gmail when you remove an email from the inbox, it can be found in the All Mail folder or in a labeled folder if you’ve created a filter/label for that type of message. On the computer, you can remove from the inbox or “archive” by removing the inbox label or by clicking on the button that looks like a box with an arrow pointing down. On your phone or tablet, it will depend on your settings. Swiping left could archive or delete, again depending on your settings. We hope this is helpful. Thanks for being part of our community!
Not sure if it’s too late to ask questions regarding this podcast but I’m really bummed because Yahoo won’t let me forward my email to Gmail without paying for the privilege. Any suggestions? I have 2 Yahoo accounts with lots of folders full of stuff that I would have to sort through, and I use the email addresses for account logins so I can’t just close them down. It’s really annoying to have to have multiple email programs.
Sara, it can be so nice to have everything streamlined into one place! If you go into the settings of your Gmail account and look for “accounts and import,” you will see options to import from other providers. Perhaps that would work for you!