A Practical Guide to a Tidy Gmail Inbox
Is your Gmail inbox feeling unruly, overwhelming, or just plain frustrating? Whether you're managing it solo or with a team, it's easy to feel like you're losing the battle.
In this video, I'll walk you through the practical, no-nonsense methods I use for myself and my clients to create a tidy, manageable inbox. Forget the stress of "inbox zero", this is about building a sustainable system that works for your brain and your business.
We'll cover my favorite quick and dirty tips, including:
✅ Using Labels (not folders!) to categorize your mail.
✅ Leveraging the powerful Search and Mass Actions to quickly clean up thousands of emails.
✅ Setting up automated Filters to sort your mail before you even see it.
✅ Creating Templated Replies to save you time.
✅ A deep dive into Multiple Inbox setups to build your perfect command center.
By the end, you'll have a toolkit to approach your inbox with more ease and a lot less stress.
Transcript below!
Resources I mentioned:
Link mentioned: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7190?sjid=17269248557448850973-NC
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00:00 Hey, welcome back. Uhm, I am Ellie and I talk about all things techie. Uhm, one of the things I want to talk to you about, and it's a question I get a lot from my clients, is about how to tackle an unruly inbox.
00:15 How to make it not feel so overwhelming, so frickin' frustrating. Uhm, if the inbox is just for you. And you're the only one having to manage it, but also if you have a team all in one inbox, those, both of those can feel equally challenging and frustrating.
00:29 So I want to walk you through some options. Alright, so here we are in today's inbox. My very own inbox.
00:35 Uh, so, some things I want to show you about how to manage an inbox so it doesn't feel super duper overwhelming.
00:43 The first thing is, is there's no, well, inbox zero. I used to chase inbox zero. Um, now I just try to have a handful of important messages and keep it fairly tidy, but if you're trying to chase inbox zero, you're going to spend a lot more time on your inbox than you probably should Today I'm going to
01:05 show you some ways. I keep my own inbox feeling tidy and not overwhelming Um, but also some ways that I do the same for my clients that are a little bit different that I do it for myself Because all of us have different brains, different teams, and I don't believe in a one-size-fits-all approach.
01:23 So let's start with like the basics basics. Um, the first thing is having some folders. I have folders for my accounting, for accounts that I've signed up for, um, lots of subfolders for client work and archived client work.
01:39 I have collaboration projects, uh, fan mail. That's what I call people who reply to my newsletter, um, learning projects, um, old projects.
01:51 So things that, you know, we're not working on anymore, um, passive income, which I probably could archive. But a lot of this stuff has things that I'm an affiliate for really, um, personal stuff that may not be related to my business whatsoever and stuff for my team.
02:07 So those, creating those folders is super easy. You create a label. So they don't actually call them folders in Gmail.
02:14 They call them labels and you can create a label that says anything and categorize for anything you want. And you can even nest them and create sub labels for anything you want.
02:25 Categories that I really recommend would be for your accounting, um, these accounts and subscriptions you've signed up for, um, clients, uh, contractors, um, if you are a product based business, suppliers, those kinds of things.
02:41 Um, somewhere for your newsletters and things to sign up that you've signed up for to go. Um, and those kinds, that's, that's all kind of the types of categories that you should be thinking of.
02:52 Again, there's no one size fits all approach for this, but you really should be thinking about those kinds of things.
02:57 Maybe appointments that are booked with you. Um, really break it down in what works for your business and your brain, but you should have some of those broad categories.
03:08 Okay. Okay, so, say you would like have an inbox that isn't quite like this one right here. We have, we have 15 emails, but if you have hundreds of emails in your inbox, thousands of emails in your inbox, and you're looking to tidy it up, this is where the search features are really, really useful.
03:28 So I can go in under search and I can search for anything that is within one year. Or I can say anything that's older than a year.
03:38 I can search for specific types of folders I have. Uhm, so I'm going to actually, I'm just going to start over here.
03:46 So I'm going to search for anything that says, uhm, let's say order. And maybe I want it to be. Maybe older than a year.
03:58 And it will show me all of those emails. And if I want, I can go ahead and mass select all of them.
04:05 And then I can reorganize them. I can me. Maybe move them to say unread. I can move them to a specific label.
04:14 Uhm, I can delete them all. doing this is really helpful to be able to tidy up quickly. So if you know that you have a bunch of spammy emails from one specific person, you can do that.
04:27 You can delete them all at once. You can move them move everything to a folder for a specific type of thing.
04:32 So maybe it's all of your appointments you're looking to move to a specific folder. You can do that really quickly by selecting them all and adding a label, uhm, and moving them all into a folder.
04:48 So the search feature is really robust. You can also, if I do this, I can go ahead and create a filter.
04:57 So maybe I want them always to go into a folder before I've even seen them. So I can say appointments, create a filter, skip the inbox or apply it directly to a specific label.
05:10 So maybe I want those all to go into client work and there we go. You could also say you want to immediately archive it or that you want to delete it immediately.
05:24 Now, if you're getting something that you want it to delete immediately, you probably should just unsubscribe. It's going to be easier and better for the environment, but you could just delete it.
05:35 Maybe you're getting somebody that you can't get rid of. You can just delete it. Um, you can categorize it in these categories.
05:43 I don't really personally use these, but I think they are more useful for people who are using their inbox personally and not professionally.
05:50 Um, you can also apply this filter to matching conversations. Once that's done, that are similar and it will start using like learning what those are.
06:00 Um, you can also set anything to, and this is a really useful one for what we're going to look at here shortly.
06:07 You could ask it to star any relevant conversations. So I have a filter set up that anything that is an order to my shop immediately gets starred.
06:16 And that is useful for the multiple inbox setup that I have in my own business. Uhm, you could also, and this will go because we're headed here next, you can also have it send any emails that you receive a specific template and it will automatically reply with that.
06:34 So, if I get an email that with, about an appointment, I can have it immediately reply with one of my templated emails.
06:45 so let's take a look at templated emails, I think, and then we're going to go and talk about multiple inboxes.
06:52 And these are just some of my quick and dirty tips for this. There is so much you can do in here, but I don't want to overwhelm you.
06:59 So these are my favorite quick and dirty tips. Let's talk now about templated emails. So if you go to compose an email.
07:06 And you can see, if I go into this, I can click this little three dots and see my templates. I can insert a template, delete any existing templates I have, or update and overwrite any templates I have.
07:23 But let's say, for example, somebody has, uhm, been on my podcast recently. I'm I want to send them this email that says, hi, and my templates aren't designed to go automatically.
07:34 So, cause I like to put their names. Um, thank you for joining me over on my YouTube. Um, here are the links and images if you'd like to share them.
07:42 So here's the link to the video. Here's a link to the podcast blog images. I'll be sharing over on social soon, or maybe I would have said on such and such date.
07:54 So that's really useful to use. I have quite a lot of these in my business. Um, some of them now exist in mostly function out of my client relationship management software, Dubsado.
08:09 but it's really useful to use these when I can. So I have templates for when somebody has done a power hour with me or when they've left me a testimonial.
08:18 Um, that was in the wrong place, but it's easy enough to fix And so if they've left me a review, I like to, to go ahead and send them a little bit of a gift.
08:28 And this is one of the ways they do it, especially if they're over in the UK and Ireland, this is the one that tend to get.
08:33 Um, and so I would unhighlight this and then I would quickly put in the link to their gift voucher, um, and send it to the right person.
08:45 So I can show you so many more tips. Um, but let's talk a little bit about, about multiple inboxes. So you can see in here, I have important starred and everything else.
08:54 So orders go in here. Um, when they are starting, like I said, I have that rule or that filter set up so that when I have an order to my online shop for power hours or toolkits, they automatically go here for me and my team to deal with.
09:08 I have everything else. This is stuff that mostly our newsletter, orders and those kinds of things. So it means that when I'm, when I'm in deep work mode, I can literally just collapse that.
09:22 I don't get overwhelmed by all my newsletters and all the fun things that I eventually do want to get around to reading.
09:26 I love these creators, um, but I can't always look at them. So I close that and I can say, okay, these are the client, these are the actionable things that I need to reply to.
09:36 and in the near future, um, I set up a bit of a culture in my business that I don't reply immediately.
09:44 Um, it's actually in my contract, the days that I am in the office and how quickly people can respond or expect to hear from me, which is, I believe two business days usually a much quicker than that.
09:55 Um, but just, I really want to be clear that I might be researching. What we're talking about. It might take me some time to get back to you.
10:04 I am not going to drop everything and reply all the time. I don't want to be living in my inbox.
10:10 I have boundaries around my inbox. So it also feels nice that maybe if I'm working in other tabs, but I have this tab open, I am able to just collapse them all and just be like, okay, this doesn't really exist.
10:24 My email inbox doesn't really exist. It exists right now, but I have it open because I'm going to have to refer back to it soon.
10:31 So further things you can do in multiple inboxes. So you have some quick settings in here for multiple inboxes, even inbox type.
10:40 If you want important first, unread first, start first priority, which is the one I have or multiple inboxes. If you want to have a reading pane, how much space you want to have in here.
10:51 So there's compact default and comfortable. Um, so there's quite a lot in here. So let's just take a look at what happens with these.
11:00 If I show you the different types of inbox setups, you can have default is just shows you chronologically what's come in.
11:08 Important. First, we'll show important emails first and everything else. And then that's pretty close to what I have. However, I also have that third folder in here for starred.
11:20 You can have where it just shows unread first. And then so you have unread and everything else starred first, which I don't have anything starred, but you have starred and everything else.
11:31 And then you have priority. This is how I have it set up. and I have, we'll go into the filters and customizations for that.
11:37 For that here soon, but it's important things. And again, uh, Gmail kind of knows what I consider important most of the time.
11:44 So if I'm working on conversation, important once or unimportant ones, it starts to learn those things. So it knows who my clients are, what types of emails I want to land.
11:53 And this important, and if it gets it wrong, all I have to do is simply toggle this on ticket or ticket again, and it will make sure that it goes in the right.
12:06 So if I decided that one of these newsletters was so important that I needed to hear about it all the time, or if I like this email, it's a collaboration that I've kind of been, hmm, Nahan about what I want to do next with, but I can move that into my inbox, refresh the page, and it just pops up there
12:19 and it will know that future replies back and forth between me and that individual will be important enough to put into my the top of my inbox.
12:28 You also can do multiple inboxes and we're going to talk a little bit more about this. So this is another version of very custom multiple inboxes.
12:36 So you can see I've tested this a little bit where I have important drafts, um, sales and bundles, um, and these These are all ones that I've already filed away, and then everything in my inbox.
12:49 That is, um, unmoved that I haven't filed. And so there's some pros and cons to this. One is that I have clients that feel like this is overwhelming because they can't actually collapse this inbox section and it feels a bit clunky.
13:04 Um, it will also show a lot of things. So let's go take a look at these settings. Um, in here, let's start.
13:13 Start with multiple inboxes and then we'll go a little bit further with what you can do. So under multiple inboxes, I can decide exactly, you can have five sections and you can do so many things with these, but remember that, um, let's talk about this.
13:30 You can do so many things, but remember that all of your emails will also always show up at the bottom.
13:37 any unfiled emails that you have. So you can refine these with is important or is a draft or has a yellow star.
13:47 And then you can label these however you want. You can do so much more. Um, so for example, you can say you want all emails that are from a specific person or to a specific person in a specific area.
13:58 So if you have more than one email address or any alias, yes, is set up in your inbox, which I can create a whole nother video about, but you can say all emails to that alias, get their own section.
14:08 Um, You can, um, organize them by some, or, so you can have more than one category, uhm, or words that are kind of related to each other, so secret and birthday and those kinds of things, by specific labels, so those are those folders we've set up, uhm, those same categories that we've talked about that
14:36 I don't really use about promotional. But, if you're using default, uhm, Gmail settings, they probably are already happening for you.
14:42 Uhm, if they have an attachment, or if they have YouTube, or a presentation, or any of these types of files in them.
14:50 Uhm, so there's a lot, a lot of different things you can do, but the way that I love to use it is to have these stars.
15:01 if it has a yellow star, or an orange star, or a purple star, or a green star, and you need to go set this up, you have to turn that on, uhm, but it means that you can create multiple inboxes based on different, uhm, stars that you've created, and so everything that has a yellow bang might be something
15:18 that you want somebody in the team to go and check on, and everything that has a green star might be an accounting thing that needs, and so you can create those folders based on those kinds of things, too, and so somebody can quickly just go in and go and star those and auto-fold folders everything that
15:36 it needs to be in those multiple inboxes. So that might feel a little overwhelming, and I have a client that I wanted to set this up for, and as you can see in my inbox, it's showing me in, things that I've already filed and don't really want to see, uhm, it's showing me drafts and things like that.
15:57 so pro-tip, If you're having issues setting up the multiple inboxes, but you really want to do that, you really want to have these various categories, I really recommend checking out AI, uhm, for this.
16:09 It's so good. for example, you can say, hey, I want to set up these folders, uhm, for these types of things.
16:15 I have these labels set up. It will break that down for you. and And it's given me all these labels, uhm, based on subjects, or who it's to, different files, and, uhm, labels, and that was really, really helpful for getting those five things, and then you can say, well, actually, I'm seeing things that
16:37 are already filed away, can you fix that, and it's saying, okay, things that are delivered to, and in the inbox, but not a folder, it really helped me after, like, it took me a few iterations, but eventually I got these so well fine-tuned by just asking it, and just describing what I was seeing and what
16:58 I wanted to see, and so that was a really hot tip for that. I'll put this link in the show notes, um, but the last thing I want to show you, kind of where you can see all these things in the back end after you've set them up.
17:14 So, in here, I can see all my labels and how to show or hide them. In here, I can, um, only show if they're unread.
17:22 I can kind of customize things to my heart's content in here, and so I can, um, tidy things up quite a lot if I don't want to see all of these kind of archived ones.
17:35 I can do a do these inbox things, the same ones that you can see in the quick settings. Um, you can show importance markers or not, I like mine there.
17:44 Um, I can see my accounts, so I have more than one. This is one of those things we talked about, having multiple addresses and aliases coming to one inbox.
17:53 I can see everybody that I've blocked, which is quite a lot. I've had this email a long time. I have had this business a long time and I get a lot of spam sometimes.
18:00 So these are everybody I've ever blocked. Um, the filters I've set up, I used to be on a specific team and occasionally still get email for that.
18:08 So I just have something to delete it. Um, but also, like I said, starring anything that comes in from my shop.
18:16 You can see any email forwarding you've set up. So if you want things to go specifically to another person. And on your team, you can set up filters for that, that auto forward certain things or auto forward all of your email.
18:30 There's a lot of add-ons that you can use third party tools and all those kinds of things. So those kind of beyond the scope of what we're talking about.
18:36 But if you kind of are like, Oh, what filters do I have set up? You can take, find them in here.
18:41 If you want to see, Oh, what labels do I have set up? You can tidy them up in here. But you can also do it in here and you also have all your general inbox settings in here.
18:50 So I really recommend kind of getting familiar with it. These are those stars I was talking about. Um, so you can turn those offer on, um, you can customize your signature in here like I have.
19:02 And my, we talk about this a lot, but, um, out of office responder, responders in here, I often will recommend to business owners.
19:09 Businesses that are really busy and have really busy inboxes to have this on all the time. And that means, and that means we just take off the last day.
19:18 It just goes on all the time. And that you can put in kind of FAQs and links to things in your website, booking calls, anything that you want people to have quick access to before, because they're probably emailing you and you're thinking this might solve their problem before I have to go and reply.
19:35 This is a really useful autoresponder to have. So those are my quick and dirty tips. Um, and just to summarize, we talked about setting up filters, folders, or labels, because that's what they're called here.
19:46 Um, multiple inboxes, using mass actions in here, and filters, and so you can quickly move or delete a lot of content.
19:56 Um, temporary templated replies, and also the settings in the back end that you can have. All right. I hope this has solved some of your Gmail inbox frustrations and that you feel equipped and have like you have a toolkit to advance with a little more ease and a lot cleaner of an inbox.
20:17 All right, go forth and tidy.
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