35 Ways Students Can Use Gmail Effectively

Gmail has 4.26 billion active users globally.

But only a few know to use the platform effectively.

Here are 35 Gmail hacks that you shouldn’t miss:

Customize Your Inbox Layout

Inbox management can be a tough task, but customizing your layout can help make it more manageable.

To change your layout:

Go to Settings > Scroll until you see Inbox Type > Select the type you wish to use.

Create Email Filters

Email filters can be a great time-saving tool for managing your inbox.

By creating filters, you can automatically send certain emails to the trash, save important emails with a star, and more.

To set up your Gmail filter:

Select the Settings icon from inside the Gmail search bar > Fill out the information in the window > Select the behaviours you want the filter to follow

Finally, select Create filter.
Use Integrations

There are a lot of apps out there that can help you communicate with your team, manage your projects, and more.

Some of these apps probably integrate with Gmail, which can save you a lot of time and effort.

Some integrations available for Gmail include- Slack,Zoom, Trello, Salesforce, Aweber, Notion, Clickup, Paypal, Hubspot & many others.

Hide Unimportant Folders

If the sidebar of your Gmail inbox is cluttered with old and new folders, you can hide the ones you don’t use.

This doesn’t delete the content inside; it just hides the folder from view.
To hide unused folders:

Select Settings and then See all settings > Select Labels from the top menu > Go through and select Hide for all the folders you wish to hide from view.
Schedule your emails

It’s best to avoid sending emails during the nighttime hours, especially if the recipient is in a different time zone.

Schedule emails easily with Gmail within a few clicks. You can schedule up to 100 email messages.

Use Gmail Offline

Don’t let the bad internet connectivity affect your work again.

Use Gmail offline which is available in Chrome Browser, and complete your Gmail tasks without any hassle.
Here’s how to do it:

Go to Settings > Go to All Settings > Enable the offline mail checkbox > Click on Save Changes.

Create Reminders

The Create Event function is a great way to schedule follow-up appointments right from your inbox.

You can add an event directly from the email you received, which links back to the original email and auto-fills the event name using the email’s subject.
Advanced Search

Gmail’s search bar is a powerful tool that can help you stay on top of your inbox. By using the from, to, and subject fields, you can easily filter your emails by date and keyword.

Confidentiality Mode

This feature is designed to restrict the ability of those who receive your email to perform specific actions with it, like a print, copy, forward, or download.

Especially, when you need to send sensitive information.
To enable this feature, simply click on the ‘confidential mode’ icon which is located on the bottom right side of your email window, and set an expiration date and passcode for the email before clicking ‘save’.
Replace attachments with Google Drive links

Gmail doesn’t have an infinite amount of storage space. Save your attachments to Google Drive and send people the link instead.

They can view or read the file without taking up any of their own storage space & save your storage

Vacation Responder

If you’re on vacation, use your vacation responder. If anyone who sends you an email will receive your pre-written response about your out-of-office status. This may help deter senders from sending additional emails

To use your vacation responder

Go to Settings > See all settings > Vacation responder > Select the radio button next to Vacation responder on > Enter your dates, a subject line, and then your message.

Finally, select Save changes.
Translate messages

The internet has made it easier than ever to communicate with people from different parts of the globe.

If you receive an email in a language you’re not familiar with, Gmail can automatically translate the message for you.
Just click on the More icon on the right, select Translate message, and choose your preferred language.

Un-Send Emails

You can un-send emails within 30 seconds of hitting the send button. To enable this;

Go to Settings >See all settings> Undo send >Change time to 30 seconds >Save changes. Once you enable this, Every time you send an email, an “undo sent” box will appear.

Google Hangouts

You can send a quick message on Gmail with Google Hangouts without any extra effort. Just click the highlighted icon and get chatting without switching the tabs.

Multiple Inbox Trick

Maximize your productivity with Multiple Inboxes. With this, you will better organize incoming messages and stay on track throughout your workweek.

Settings > See all settings > Inbox > Multiple inboxes
Organize Emails Using Labels

Use labels to organize your emails and stay on track.

Categorizing your messages will make it less stressful to respond to urgent emails and help you store your messages accordingly.

Snooze emails, so you don’t forget

The Snooze feature is designed to let you save an email for later. By “pinning” a conversation, it allows you to come back to it.

You can select from a pre-determined or custom time for when the email will appear at the top of your inbox.
Muting threads

Being part of an email conversation that is no longer relevant to you can be annoying. Luckily, you can mute the conversation by selecting it and clicking More > Mute.

This will remove the conversation from your inbox and send it to your archives.

Add a delegate

You can share your inbox without sharing your password to manage your account. They can use filters to sort emails, archive messages, and apply labels to organize emails.

They can also send, read and delete email messages.
Here’s how: Settings > See all settings > Accounts and Import or Account > Add another account.

Enter the email address of your delegate and hit Next Step > Send email to grant access.
Set up templates

Gmail allows you to easily create templates for repetitive emails, so you don’t have to keep typing out the same basic information over and over again.

This can save you a lot of valuable time in the long run.
Go into Settings> All settings > Advanced link. Scroll down to the section marked Templates and click the circle marked Enable.

Add an image to your Signature

You can add images to your Gmail signature in addition to text like your name and contact info.

If you want to include a business logo, headshot, signature, or something else with every message you send, just add it to your email signature.
To add an image to your signature:

Settings > All settings > On the General tab, scroll down to Signature > Create new > create your custom signature > Click the image icon to upload

Email Aliases

Creating an email alias is a great way to stay organized. By subscribing to newsletters and filtering messages with an alias.

You can create an alias account by adding a dot or a plus sign followed by a label to your email ID.

35 Ways Students Can Use Gmail Effectively
Gmail Themes

If you’re tired of the same old look in Gmail, try out the themes available. You can go for a simple colour scheme or something more graphic, like the planets or a beach scene. Just click the gear icon, select themes, and choose.
Use multiple accounts at once

If you have multiple Gmail accounts to your name or manage a few aliases for your company, you can easily keep track of them all from one central Gmail hub.

To enable multiple accounts: Settings> Accounts> Import, and click on Add Another Email ID

Clean house

Stop all the spam emails. Use Gmail’s search bar to find all instances of “unsubscribe.” Then, select the messages, mark them as spam, and you’ll never see them in your inbox again.

Create to-do lists

Gmail’s “tasks” function is a great way to easily keep track of everything you need to do. When hen you get an email that requires a later action on your part – may be a reply or some sort of meeting – you simply click the “More” button to the right.
Use Smart Compose

You can be more productive by taking advantage of Gmail’s Smart Compose. Gmail can guess what you’re trying to say and finish the phrase or word for you.

As you type, you’ll see the predictive text in grey. To finish the phrase, just hit the Tab button.
Here’s how to enable it: Gmail settings > Scroll down to “smart compose” > Set it to smart suggestions on

Send emails from different addresses

Send emails from different addresses in one place. You go to compose an email in Gmail and select which email address you’d like to use from the drop-down menu.

Here’s how: Settings> Account & Import> Add another email address >Add your email

Create Contact Groups and Send to Many at Once

If you ping emails to the same group of people on a regular basis, set up contact groups.That way you just need to type the group name into the ‘To’ field rather than typing in every single email address.
Create emails that self destruct

Gmail has developed a custom software script that hosts a self-destruct feature. This feature can be helpful when you don’t want an email to be forwarded to someone else.

 

35 Ways Students Can Use Gmail Effectively

Send password-protected emails

The confidential mode feature allows you to send an email with verification encryption sent via SMS. By using this feature, you can be sure that the email is only read by the intended recipient. This is an additional layer of security.
Sidebar Add-ons

The sidebar in Gmail can be used for more than just viewing your notes and google applications. You can also make it more productive by linking other applications to your Gmail or business by plugging in add-ons. It allows you to pull data into one place.
Integrate Google Calendar.

Google Calendar and Gmail can already work together pretty well, but if you want even more organization, you can enable the Google Calendar integration. This allows you to receive notifications when an email includes an event.

Customize Your Left Navigation Bar.

If you don’t like to keep the navigation options in the order that Gmail uses as a default. You can customize them by choosing which labels to show and hide on the navigation bar.
Create multiple inboxes.

To make sure you don’t miss an email, set up multiple inboxes to help organize and de-clutter your messages.
Multiple signatures

You can have more than one signature for different emails. Select the signature that would be most appropriate for the email you’re sending.

Sync your CRM with Gmail

Syncing your CRM with Gmail can help increase your productivity, especially if you spend a lot of time in Gmail. The integration is powerful and simple and can help with lead management, email templates, and CRM data exports.

Archive Emails for Future Reference.

Cleaning up your email can be quick and easy. When responding to an email, just have it automatically archived in the “All Mail” tab on the left menu of your screen instead of cluttering up your inbox.
Here’s how you can enable it: Settings > General tab > locate the “Send and Archive > Turn it on
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35 Ways Students Can Use Gmail Effectively

 

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35 Ways Students Can Use Gmail Effectively