Gmail Tips And Tricks You Didn’t Know About

Do you use your Gmail in the most optimized way? Are you sure? Go through our list of best Gmail tips and tricks and see how many of them you’re aware of, and what tips you’ve never heard of.

With this article, we are aiming to share the lesser-known Gmail tips and tricks that are not as widespread out there. However, if you’d like to go through a list of every common Gmail trick, have a look at our How To Organize Gmail guide. There we talk about such features as undo send, desktop notifications, creating your own email templates, and more.

If you’d like to learn even more tips, read our article on Organizing Google Drive and Your Home Office to boost your productivity.

Gmail Tip #1: Easy way to unsubscribe

If you open your Gmail inbox one day and realize that there are more newsletters and promo emails than actual relevant stuff, you might need to unsubscribe from a few spam mailings. However, if you don’t have enough time and your task planner is full of other tasks, to fish them out one by one, know that there is a better way!

Go to your mailbox, type the word “unsubscribe” in the Gmail search bar, and you will see a list of all emails that contain the unsubscribe link.

Gmail Tip #2: Auto CC and BCC

There are scenarios where you need to always CC or BCC someone to the email chain.

For example, if you are discussing a project with a client that your assistant is helping you with. If we have to manually add someone to the email, what ends up happening is that we forget to do that, messing up the email thread and creating additional inconveniences to the work process.

To avoid that, set up your Gmail to automatically CC or BCC someone based on the rules you specified in the settings.

Tip: Another cool way to add someone to a conversation is to type “+” and their name somewhere in the email’s body, and they will be looped in.

Gmail Tip #3: OOO Auto Reply

We’re used to setting up auto-replies for corporate mailboxes in Outlook, but not many know that there’s the same feature in Gmail.

Press the Settings icon – General – scroll down to Out-of-office AutoReply.

Gmail Tip #4: Signature

To make your Gmail account even more professional, you can add a custom signature to automatically show up at the bottom of your emails.

Settings – General – Signature.

Gmail Tip #5: Send and archive

Did you know you can send and archive an email at the same time? That way, your mailbox will stay organized and clutter-free.

As opposed to a deleted email, an archived one can be accessed should you need it later.

Go to Settings – General – Send and Archive button.

Once activated, you will see an additional blue Send button which you should choose for emails that you’ll need to send and archive.

Gmail Trick #6: Schedule send

This tip will keep your time more organized. You don’t have to send emails the moment you’ve written them.

When you’re ready, click on the left part of the send button with a little arrow and choose Schedule send. In addition, you can also use weekly schedule planner free which will also help you with time organization.

You’ll be given a few popular options and below is an opportunity to set a fully custom send time:

Why would you schedule emails and not send them right away?

Scheduling emails is a great feature when you don’t want to appear intrusive and email someone at odd hours. For example, an email coming through at 11 pm may come across as disrespectful (even if you don’t expect an immediate response) or can disturb someone’s private time.

Also, some companies frown upon sending messages and emails outside of working hours, so if you’re catching up on work early in the morning or late at night, you can still respect the company’s policy and get the job done.

Lastly, if you send an important email on Friday evening (or any evening really), it is likely that by the time the other party opens their mailbox, your email will be buried under spam and other conversations. Afterward, you can make time in your time management tool to figure it all out.

If you know that someone starts their working day at 9 am every day, you can schedule the email to come through at 9:15 when they’ve already settled down a bit, check their weekly schedule maker and had their morning coffee.

Gmail Trick #7: Mute conversations

If you find yourself stuck in a conversation that is just a bit too active and irrelevant for you at the moment, but you can’t avoid being on the recipient list, – mute it and regain your peace once again!

Click on the conversation you wish to no longer see, click More, and choose Mute. All emails from this conversation will then automatically go to Archive.

Gmail Tip #8: Tasks

Google has its native task feature called Tasks that you can easily access through your inbox. It is located on the right side of your emails list:

And you can easily create new tasks and mark them complete to stay organized. Of course it is much more convenient to use remote employee management software if you e.g. set tasks for a team, but in this context it is also a very useful option.

Tip:Use Bordio daily planner for all your productivity and organizing needs: calendar, tasks, waiting lists, time blocks, and notes. Manage your personal or work projects from start to finish via a single Bordio account with different time managers online and virtual planners.

Gmail Trick #9: Using Gmail when offline

Have you ever been randomly stuck with no internet connection? Or maybe heading out camping and knowing that there will be no coverage?

Well, if you still need to access Gmail but there’s no way to go online, you can now use our tip and still access it no matter what.

To do that, you’ll have to use the Chrome browser and log into your Gmail account there.

Then go to Gmail Settings – Offline – Enable offline mail.

As you tick the Enable offline mailbox, you will be able to specify how many days’ worth of emails you want to store with the three options being 7, 30, and 90 days. You can also choose to download attachments.

With offline Gmail settings activated, you will be able to work with your emails offline – open and read them, compose replies, and even hit the Send button. Emails won’t actually be sent right away but will stay in your outbox until you’re back online.

Gmail Tip #10: Snooze button

Snoozing an alarm clock is not good for you – it makes you more tired and messy in the morning. Gmail’s snooze button, however, is a much healthier alternative and a great Gmail tip. With it, you can postpone dealing with a Gmail message and get to it when you have more availability.

Select the email that you want to snooze and click the clock icon:

You’ll then be able to choose when the email should pop up in your mailbox again:

You will be able to see all snoozed emails in the Snoozed folder at the main menu.

Gmail Tip #11: Filter emails from senders

Add full stops of plus signs to your email address to filter different messages. For example, if your email is johndoe@gmail, you can change it up to john+doe@gmail and use it to sign up for newsletters or do online shopping.

Then, if you need to find something or browse through those specific emails, you’ll be able to type your custom email address and see them all as one list.

This Gmail setting might also be a good tip for security because you’ll be able to spot who is leaking your personal data. All emails will still be sent to the same inbox in your Gmail, but you’ll be able to track what companies are less inclined to keep your information safe if you start receiving random emails at some point.

Gmail Tip #12:Add a delegate

If you need to share your mailbox with someone, for example, your assistant, you don’t have to jeopardize your safety and share your password with them. Instead, go to Settings – Accounts and Import – Grant access to your account – Add another account.

As you click on it, the new window will pop up:

Here, you will be able to enter the other person’s Gmail address and send them an email to grant access.

Gmail Trick #13: Respond to email quicker with predictive writing

People that write a lot of emails know how much time they require.

Sometimes dealing with incoming emails can take most of the working day, leaving little time to actually do the work. And even if you’re not often using your Gmail account for actual correspondence, there is still no reason why you’d need to waste extra time that could be saved for something else.

Predictive writing allows one to automate this process and spend just enough time on Gmail messages without them taking over the entire day.

To activate the feature, go to Settings – General – Smart compose and choose Writing suggestions on.

When you need to write another email, Google’s AI algorithm will guess what you’re trying to say and offer suggestions.

Gmail Tip #14: Self-destruction feature

If you want to feel like an international spy or simply want to have sensitive data under control, enable the self-destruct tool on your Gmail account and set exactly how long an email will live in someone else’s mailbox.

In addition to disappearing from the mailbox, such emails come in confidential mode, meaning they can’t be copied, shared, or downloaded. And you can revoke access to the email at any time.

To use this fascinating Gmail feature, type your email as usual, and then find the lock icon on the bottom toolbar:

Next, you’ll see a pop-up window where you can choose the expiry date and be able to set a passcode to access the confidential message:

If you select the SMS passcode option, Google will send it to the recipient.

Final thoughts on Gmail tips

We hope that our Gmail tips and tricks will help you make the most of your Gmail account (or maybe multiple Gmail accounts?) and not overlook the features that can make a world of difference to your everyday and professional lives.

Don’t settle for default settings and always look for ways to elevate your experience with Gmail emails.

Just like with using multiple Gmail accounts, having too many Google Calendars can hurt your time management and productivity. If you feel like you might be suffering from calendar fatigue and struggle to keep up, do a quick revision and clean out to get rid of the calendars you don’t really use or need. Check out the How To Delete Your Google Calendar guide for details. Bordio is the best electronic planner for keeping everything managed with our digital daily planner you will always be organized.