A typical inbox is filled with a seemingly endless list of emails. The following four tips may help increase email productivity.

1. Folders and Labels

Creating folders and labels to categorize emails will not only make searching for emails a much easier task but will also keep the inbox more organized. In terms of how it affects the inbox, the folders physically move the emails out of the inbox into its designated folder’s location, whereas labeling an email keeps it in the inbox with the name of the label attached onto the email.

2. Smart Labels
Offered by one of Gmail’s “labs” found under the Settings tab, the Smart Labels tool helps to classify emails. Bulk emails refer to mass promotional offers, and Notification emails are those that are directly sent to the user, whereas Forum emails are those that are sent to a group. Instead of taking the time to organize your inbox, Smart Labels will perform the job immediately, saving that time for other tasks that need to be accomplished.

3. Flag Important Emails

Tools such as the “star icon” and the “yellow marker” help with keeping track of important emails by marking and categorizing them. Starring and marking emails can show that an email is important, to help with finding crucial pieces of information in a time crunch. Both icons can be accessed on the home inbox page next to each email or in a drop-down menu in the individual email when it is opened.

4. Combine school and personal inboxes

Managing two email accounts may become a difficult task, especially with the influx of emails that each account receives everyday. One way to facilitate this time-consuming chore is to combine the school and personal email inbox into one joint inbox. The task of combining inboxes can be done by simply changing the settings of one of your accounts.

This piece was originally published in the pages of the Winged Post on Nov. 8, 2013