When a lot of letters from different addressees are sent to e-mail, then over time it becomes difficult among these letters to find the right ones from the old ones received, if required. In this case, it is very convenient to sort letters by categories (folders or other “labels”). In this article I will show you how to do this using the example of GMail mail.
As an example. You often receive a letter in your mail from the same addresses, which you have to contact from time to time.
Yes, if something happens, you can try to find these letters by searching. This is easy to do, but you may not always be able to find it. It is more convenient when letters are sorted into the necessary folders immediately upon receipt, or you yourself manually put them into these folders. That is, you can configure filters in mail so that letters from certain addresses are immediately folded into the necessary folders.
This is easy to do. Let's consider below how to create shortcuts in GMail and how to bind the necessary letters to them manually and automatically.
It is in GMail mail that folders are called "Labels". In principle, it is so, because the letters are all added up in the "All mail" section, and these same folders are links to the necessary letters.
Creating shortcuts (folders) in GMail
To create a shortcut, click on the corresponding link at the very bottom of the list of folders (inbox, sent, spam, etc.) on the left:
In the window that opens, you need to enter the name of the shortcut in the top line and click “Create”.
If you have already created several shortcuts, then you can specify under which of them in the list the new shortcut you are creating will be located by checking the item “Place shortcut under” and selecting the desired one there.
That's it, the label has been created. Example:
Distribution of letters according to the necessary labels in GMail
You can distribute letters to the desired labels in GMail either manually or set up automatic mode. Automatic sorting of letters by labels is the setting of filters in your mail, i.e. creation of special conditions, depending on which the actions you need will be performed with incoming letters.
Manual distribution of letters
When you need to transfer one or more letters to one of the created shortcuts, then it is enough to mark these letters in the inbox, and then select the shortcut for transfer by clicking “Move to”.
The same can be done by opening the letter for reading first.
Automatic distribution of letters
You can set up special filters with conditions so that, for example, letters coming from certain addresses to your mail will immediately go to the desired folder. Let's take a look at how to do this in Gmail.
To do this, in the mail settings there is a special section “Filters and Blocked Addresses”, where you can create a new filter or change the old one. But you don't have to go into the settings when you want to create a filter with the simplest condition (so that letters from certain addresses arrive in the right folder) and for this we do the following:
Everything. Thus, by setting up filters, you can easily distribute letters to the desired labels without your participation.
Configuring and Deleting Created Shortcuts
You can always change any of the created shortcuts or delete it.
To open the shortcut settings, click on the arrow to the right of it:
Through the appeared context menu, you can:
Also, the ability to customize shortcuts (except for changing the color) is available in the general section “Settings” of GMail, on the “Shortcuts” tab.
Conclusion
To make it even more convenient to work with Gmail mail, I recommend using the ability to sort letters by folders (i.e. labels) in Gmail, take this into account.
If you are subscribed to various mailings or have an active business correspondence and want incoming letters to be automatically sorted into folders, then this article is for you. In it I will tell you how to set up a mailbox for automatic sorting incoming messages without your participation.
With a large number of incoming messages, there is a desire to sort them into "shelves", i.e. in separate folders. In terms of Gmail, this means assigning the same label to emails with certain common characteristics (sender's address, text in the subject, attachments, etc.). How to do it?
Filter creation
- We go into our mailbox.
- In the search bar, click the arrow on the right. A window appears in which you must enter the search criteria for messages. For example, we will find all letters that came from the address [email protected]... To do this, in the "From" field, we will indicate this address.
You can specify the recipient's address, the content of the text as the selection criteria, impose restrictions on the size and date of the letter, and combine parameters. - To make sure that your request is correct, click the "Search mail" button.
- If you see emails that you want to move to a separate folder, click Create Filter Based on This Request.
- At the next stage, specify where the letters will be located .. And immediately apply this action to the corresponding incoming messages. To do this, set the flags as shown in the figure below, select a shortcut and press the "Create filter" button.
- All letters that were sent from the address have moved from the "Inbox" folder to the "Mailings - site" folder (they were assigned the label "Mailings / site").
Now all such letters will be automatically filtered and placed in the required folder. Now you do not need to search your inbox for the next mailing list for a long time. It already lies in the place reserved for it.
Quick filter creation
Let's say you have a new business partner. He wrote you several letters that are in your Inbox. You decided to create a separate folder for them. To quickly create a filter, you need to do the following.
- Open the letter.
- Click the arrow next to the "Reply" button and select "Filter similar letters".
- The standard search parameters window will open. Then follow the steps described above.
How do I change the filter parameters?
If the folder that you configured to collect letters that meet certain criteria includes other letters besides the necessary ones, change the filter. Go to "Settings" - "Filters" and click "Change". The familiar search settings window will open. Refine your request. For example, for mailings, you can specify a word that always appears in the subject line.
How do I remove a filter?
If the filter is no longer needed, it can be removed through the "Settings" - "Filters" section. Go there and select "Delete".
Export, import of filters
If you have several accounts on Gmail, it is possible to transfer filters between mailboxes. How to do it? First, you should save the filter settings in a file, i.e. export. After that, go to another mailbox and there to unload (import) the settings from the file.
Export Filters
- Check the filters you want to transfer.
- Press the "Export" button. The file mailFilters.xml will be created and must be saved.
Importing files
- Go to the "Settings" - "Filters" section.
- Click Import Filters.
- Click the Select File button.
- Select the file with filters - mailFilters.xml.
- Specify the filters you want to transfer. If you need to immediately apply the filter, check the "Apply new filters to existing messages" box.
- Click the Create Filters button. If successful, filters will appear in the settings.
Filters are a very convenient and powerful tool with which you can customize automatic sorting of letters... Try using filters and you can't do without them anymore.
By default, the last 30 messages are displayed in the current folder. To see previous emails, click More letters(under the list of letters).
You can change the number of letters on the page in the settings:
In a three-pane interface, all emails are displayed in the current folder. Scroll down to read previously received emails.
Highlight letters
You can perform various actions with the highlighted letters:
- mark as read
- move to another folder
- set the label
- mark as spam
- pin to the top of the list
- delete
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Hold down the Ctrl key while selecting letters in the three-pane interface. To select all letters on the page, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + A.
Read the text of the letter in the list of letters
Browse emails by category
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Messages from personal e-mails are displayed on the Communication tab.
Pin the email to the top of the list
To keep an important letter in sight, pin it to the top of the list. To do this, select the letter and click the Pin button.
A pinned letter is highlighted on the left with a yellow stripe and is shown first in all folders. For example, an incoming email will also be displayed in the Sent Items folder. New letters are shown under pinned.
Note. If you see sent or old emails instead of new ones in your Inbox, check to see if there are any pinned emails.
Mark email as read or unread
To mark an email as read, click the icon to the left of the email subject.
To mark an email as unread, click the icon to the left of the email subject.
To mark all messages in a folder as read, click on the icon to the right of the folder name and confirm the action:
Page elements are displayed incorrectly
Old letters in the list are displayed above new ones
Such letters are pinned at the top of the list. Pinned letters are highlighted with a yellow stripe to the left of the letter line.
To unpin a message, select it and click the Unpin button.
When all letters are unpinned, the yellow bar to the left of them will disappear. Unfiled emails are automatically sorted by the date they were received.
No buttons above the list of letters
Buttons are displayed when you start working with specific emails. Select at least one letter in the list and the buttons will appear.
Email (email) for many years it remains indispensable and one of the most effective tools for personal communication and work. It is convenient to store and forward not only text messages in the email format, but also various types of documents, reminders of events. In addition, many email services and email programs (such as Outlook) make it easy to turn emails into tasks or events, turning your email into a real mobile office that is always with you.
The only problem is that after a month or two of intensive use of e-mail, the average mailbox turns into a kind of closet - you know for sure that it has everything, but you cannot find anything. In any case, within an acceptable time frame.
For you, I've prepared some great tips for clearing your inbox and organizing your email correspondence. I warn you right away - some of the things I will say about require a little tinkering with the settings of the mail client or e-mail box first. However, this is a very small price to pay for a lot of time that you will save in the end.
Configuring the mail sorting rule in Outlook - even a beginner can figure it out
Use email filters and rules
Currently, there is probably not a single mail service or mail program left where it would be impossible to configure the rules for filtering incoming messages. Using email rules is the number one thing when it comes to organizing your email comfortably. By taking fifteen minutes of your time, you can create a foundation that will save you from the chaos that is happening in the standard Inbox for years to come.
Here are just a few ideas on what I would suggest you do first:
- Create folders in your mailbox for typical correspondence, for example: "bank statements", "letters from online stores", "family", "mailings" and set up the simplest rule - so that letters from certain addressees fall strictly into their folders. This way you will always know how important a message has been sent to you - the main thing is not to forget to update the address lists.
- Set the priority for different email addresses, such as high for boss emails and low for social media notifications. This will allow you to note the main tasks for yourself by barely opening your mailbox and not waste your time on trifles.
- Use spam filters. Some programs and mail services have settings for the "spam level", some have a list of "stop words" (for example, exclude letters with the word "acquaintances") - in principle, it is enough to configure all this once and the flow of spam to your email will be significantly reduced ...
Don't be afraid to delete unwanted messages
Ideally, e-mail messages should not be stored in the mailbox at all - save the necessary attachments from the letter, add the sender to the address book, do not be too lazy to process a new letter (advice in advice: do not reply to the letter as soon as it arrives by email - you better pay time at the end or beginning of the working day, in order to view all received letters at once and immediately give an answer to each of them), mark a new task in the calendar and that's it - after that the letter can be safely deleted.
Remember the last time you had to rummage through your inbox looking for one of the old emails that you were looking for? Email address that you didn't save at the time? Attached document not saved? Anything else like that? Yes, as a rule, email older than 3 days completely loses its relevance, so there is no point in storing the entire "binder" of emails in recent years.
Email autoresponder and reply email templates
There is a rather impressive "layer" of emails that we have to send over and over again - commercial offers, price requests, reports. For all these typical operations, you need to create templates in which you will need to enter only the sender's address and other "operational" data. Yes, you first have to spend half an hour of precious time creating them. But each of these time-saving templates will pay off, most likely on the same business day. Appreciate your time!
By the way, it would not hurt to set up your personal answering machine. I believe that if the person who wrote you a message receives in response a short letter with the rules of your work and a couple of phone numbers by which it is convenient to contact you, nothing bad will happen.
The simpler the better
It is usually not rational to manage with one "Inbox" folder in a mail program. But creating a bunch of folders (and some of them still have a bunch of folders!) Is also not worth it - remember, you want to make it easier for yourself to process e-mail, and not create a store of read messages to which you will never return.
Usually a dozen folders should be enough for everyone. If you're creating an eleventh, ask yourself: is this really the best way to organize your inbox?
Email should be fast
The advantage of e-mail is speed and efficiency, so when you write an answer, be quick and quick - email should not turn into a project for you. Value your time and the time of the recipient of the message - no two or three page texts that take two hours to write. Otherwise, by sending this letter, you risk seeing a couple more messages from the same sender in your "inbox" 🙂
If there is additional information that needs to be reported - use attachments, if you need more information for the answer - just write. Composing the perfect email takes no more than 5 minutes in time, and its content should not be more than 3 paragraphs.
Email is not a to-do list or a calendar of events
I will repeat it again, because it is really important - the task of the e-mail is to provide you with up-to-date information, and the task of the mailbox or mail program is to provide convenient access to new e-mails. And that is all!
Simply put, Email is for you a source of ideas and events for scheduling tasks and making appointments, not a repository of everything and everyone (including tasks, meetings, pictures and collections of fresh jokes ... (for February last year, of course)). Plan, act and get rid of the junk right away - that's the key to success.
Hammer on mailing lists and turn off notifications
No, I really came across a couple of times worthy newsletters that carried useful information. But in 99% of cases, all these countless incoming messages just wasted my time and immediately flew to the "trash" folder ... to fly back to the "inbox" the next day. People are so structured (in the sense of being lazy) that it is easier for them to press the "delete" button than to find a way to unsubscribe from the annoying mailing list once and for all (at least by placing it on a spam list). But this is exactly what you need to do - set aside 15 minutes, find all unnecessary sources of incoming information (Vasya Ivanov (who is this?) Posted a new photo on Facebook ...) and just tightly hammer your email from them.
If you use social networks, immediately disable email notifications about new friends, messages, comments, etc. in the settings. trash. You will not need it anyway, and your endless second presses on "delete" will immediately stop merging into endless hours and days.
The eternal battle with spam ... and with laziness
So your email "security system" is set up and running like clockwork. And suddenly, after a couple of months, a new spam letter suddenly appears in the inbox. Your hand automatically reaches for the "Delete" button ... and then you stop with a volitional movement, open your spam list and add a new "lucky one" there.
The temptation to immediately remove the intruder is great, yes, but remember - once leaked, the villain will do it over and over again. Therefore, it is easier and cheaper to spend a minute of time and once and for all cut off the oxygen to a new stream of spam.
By the way, do not forget to also accurately update the "databases" of e-mail addresses, filters, folders and rules of your mailbox. Of course, no one wants to do this (laziness, laziness ...), but in order to effectively organize the processing of e-mail, you need to introduce elements of ... organization into your work 🙂
Everything in good time - especially email
Checking email is like a drug. You know that when a new letter appears, the program informs you about it, but you still press the "check email" button every five minutes - but what if the program made a mistake and did not notice the most important letter? Now I will tell you a terrible truth - we tend to overestimate our indispensability.
For this very reason, whatever happens, from how often you check your email, nothing will change (except perhaps your psychological state). In fact, all these notifications about new messages and the like. Is a powerful distraction. It is simply impossible to concentrate on work when the message “1 new letter received” is lit in the corner of the monitor.
The best way to deal with a problem is to root it out. Disable (nafig!) All notifications about new incoming letters (take my word for it - nothing bad will happen), and then set yourself a simple rule - check and process ALL email at once once a day - in the morning or in the evening. At the appointed time, you simply postpone all the cases and open your "mailer", receive all incoming messages, write all the necessary answers, mark all the necessary tasks and work on with a clear conscience.
And do not hesitate - conscience and rights will be clearer. Firstly, you will not be distracted by trifles (oh, another new message, I wonder what is there ?!), and secondly, you will have a ready-made work plan. Perhaps for the first time!
Yes, start already!
Most importantly, you've read the 9-point list on how to improve your email efficiency. You understood everything, learned it and decided that now the devil himself is not your brother, because everything is simple and clear as day. And here the most important - the tenth point, the most difficult - comes into play.
Just go ahead and do what you read above.
Yes, you get the idea.
Yes, tomorrow is a must.
But you need to start right now. There is no need for complications, find in your e-mail a dozen messages that have expired "the day before yesterday" and just delete them. It is already useless to answer them, most likely even the sender forgot about them. And it will immediately feel a little easier for you. Has it become? So the advice is working. Now let's go through the list from the very beginning.
As promised, we continue to talk about the possibilities of filtering letters in Mail.Ru Mail. In our article, we talked about how to create your own filter and shared a few situations when they will be especially useful.
Today we are talking about automatic filtering of letters and mailings. Go!
Automatic sorting of mailings
In Mail.Ru Mail, you can set up quick sorting of mailings and notifications from online stores and social networks.
To do this, go to the "Filtering rules" section in the settings. Click on the "Filter mailings" button.
A pop-up window will ask you to sort all mailings that were found in your mailbox. Arrange senders in the desired folders by dragging and dropping site names. By default, these are Inbox, Mailings, Discounts, and Spam. You can also create an additional folder.
Quick configuration of filtering rules through the list of letters
In fact, Mail.Ru has several options for quickly setting up filters for incoming messages. Let's consider each of them in detail.
The easiest option is to select several letters from specific senders and move them to the desired folder, which you can create in advance.
- To do this, select several letters on the list of letters and "drag" them into the desired folder, as shown in the picture below.
- After that, in the upper right corner, you will be prompted to automatically move letters from these recipients to the selected folder. Agree, you will not regret it.
- In the pop-up window, you need to confirm your actions and create a filtering rule. To do this, click on the "Move automatically" button.
When creating a filtering rule, you can also set other criteria for messages from these recipients, for example, mark messages as read. To do this, click on the "Configure" button, as shown in the picture above.
Creating a filtering rule using hotkeys
Also, a filtering rule can be created quickly using hotkeys. To do this, use the keyboard shortcut Shift + L on letter reading page.
You can find out the full list of hotkeys in Mail.Ru Mail by using the Shift +? Combination.
