Gmail is mainly an e-mail service for sending and receiving mail, but it is also a great free management tool that can act as an operations center to organize jobs, appointments, reminders, to take notes and much more . Unlike other programs to be installed, Gmail, working as a web app and therefore available on every PC through a browser, is very convenient as a single multifunction tool .
1) Take notes and notes
you can use Gmail as a clipboard and notepad tool by creating email without sending it to anyone.
Each new email is automatically saved in drafts and can be found using the search field.
To create categories of these notes so that you can scroll through them as needed, you can create a label.
To add a label to a new message just press the down arrow key in the lower right corner of the composition window.
Alternatively, in order not to fill up with labels, you can simply insert a hashtag or keyword in the object.
The hashtag is what is used on Twitter and Facebook, the word preceded by the # symbol.
For example, you can organize certain notes with the #appunti tag or the clipboard label.
All the work is then done by the search engine which in Gmail is powerful and precise.
We saw, in another article, the best Gmail advanced search operators.
2) The calendar gadget
Google Calendar is an excellent management tool for projects and appointments, which if used on your smartphone is capable of sending notifications on your mobile phone so you never miss an event or meeting.
You can integrate the calendar in Gmail, thanks to the Calendar gadget that is activated in Gmail from the Settings -> Labs menu.
To activate a labs feature, remember to save and restart Gmail.
The gadget appears in the lower left corner of Gmail; if you don't see why there is chat, press the button with the three dots at the bottom.
You can, from the gadget, view a list of upcoming events and add new ones through the quick add function.
3) Activity manager
A hidden feature of Gmail is the activity planner that you can use by pressing on Gmail in the upper left corner.
As seen in a previous guide with Google Task you can create lists of events, appointments and things to do.
An E-mail can be saved as an activity by selecting it and then choosing the relevant option from the Other menu.
To do this even earlier, you can press the Shift-T keys together
Alternatively, even simpler, you can use the stars.
Whenever you receive an email that has a commitment or an appointment, you can light a star.
Messages with the star can be found in the special messages section, clickable from the left column.
4) Managing personal expenses with Gmail is possible, as seen in a guide a few years ago, thanks to the integration with Google Docs.
5) Manage Gmail with fast links
Quick links is another useful Gmail Labs gadget.
With this gadget you can create bookmarks for emails or internet searches.
For example, we saw how to use quick links to view only unread messages in Gmail.
If you use Gmail as from point 1, with message searches, then you can create a quick link for the most frequent searches so you can see the list of appointments or notes with a click.
To do even more, in other articles we have seen:
- 10 best Google scripts to automate Gmail
- Best extensions for Gmail on Google Chrome
- 20 Gmail tricks and hidden options for Google mail
- The 10 most powerful and unique Gmail features
