10 Awesome Gmail Hacks That Make Life Easier

By Lovella Bantasan | Mar 03, 2016 12:34 PM EST

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With so many emails bombarding your inbox daily, it can be hard to stay on top of it all. Here are some handy tips to make  your Gmail  inbox more manageable.

1. The Undo Button

We all have those moments of regret that activates only when we click the send button. Fortunately, Gmail has an "Undo" button you can activate by clicking the Gear Icon in the upper right corner, going to Settings, and then heading over to the Labs tab. A few options down you'll see the ability to enable Gmail's undo button.

2. Filter Your Inbox

Add a filter to your email inbox so they don't distract you from more important incoming messages. Adding a filter is easy, simply go to your Gmail settings, click the 'Filters' tab, and fill out the form based on your specifications. Now any email with your selected keywords or emails from certain senders will go to a specially designated folder in your email.

3. Spot the Scam

Find out if the email you received is genuine adding an authentication icon to your emails.  Now a yellow key will appear next to emails from senders that sometimes get posed as by spammers like, Paypal or Ebay. Look for the 'Authentication icon for verified senders' lab under the 'Labs' tab of your Gmail settings.

4. Looking for something?

Check out Gmail's cool search option that can help you search for a really old email or a document sent ages ago that's buried somewhere in you archives.  Click on the drop down arrow in the right corner of your search box. Now you can search more specifically.

5. Canned Responses

If you find yourself sending the same email over and over again, you can save time by adding quick response filters to your email. Let clients know you'll "be right there" or send your most popular promotions at a click of a button;  Look for the 'Canned Response' Lab in your Gmail Settings to enable this feature,

6. Vacation Emails

Let your clients and friends know what you're up to by enabling an automatic out of office (OoO) message.

7. Don't want to deal with it now?  Add-to tasks

For those tasks you don't want to deal with right away, you can use "Add to Task" feature. Just select the email, click the "More" option, then "Add to Tasks."  Gmail will keep a section of tasks for you to complete for later.

8. Make your email signature more fun with a gif.

Give your email signature a fun personalized touch by adding pics or gifs to the bottom of your emails. Gifs and images can simply be copied and pasted into the Signature Box of your General Inbox settings.

9. Super Stars and Color coded labels

Most of you probably know about Google's yellow star that you can use to mark important emails. Don't stop there, though - head over to settings and see the 12 different stars and symbols you can use to designate value in your Gmail inbox. Similarly, you can use color-coded labels for organization and clarification purposes.  Under "Settings," click on "labels" to manage.

10. Drag and drop images directly into an email

Drag and drop (or copy and paste) an image directly into the email you're composing.  No need to save to your computer then attaching.  Just drag and drop!

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