Organize Your Gmail Folders or Labels

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar Channel and in today's video, I'll share some tips on how to organize your Gmail folders on a browser or iOS device.

If you are like me, you spend a bunch of time during the day going through emails.  I try to get to Inbox Zero once a day, so this means that I'm making decisions for each email -- Delete, File, or Act on.  I have lots of videos about managing email if you are interested in this topic.  This video specifically covers those emails that you have decided to Save or File.  I've talked to a bunch of people who are fine to either delete emails or act on them, but really don't save many.  There are a bunch of reasons for this reluctance, but let's start by explaining how to 

Add Folders

This is pretty easy on both a browser or iOS device, but let's walk through it quickly.  On a browser, hit the More arrow below all of the existing folders, scroll down, and select Create New Label.  Gmail calls folders labels.  You can see you can create a label or make a sub-label.  So, I'm going to create a label called Browser Label, then I'll create a sub-label that nests underneathe my first one.  On a browser you can collapse these sub-labels.  On an iPhone, if you go into Mailboxes, and hit Edit, you will get an option to add a New Mailbox.  I have 4 different email account on my phone, so this looks a little complicated, but on yours it might be simpler.  Choose where you want it to live -- in this case, my Marble Jar account.  And done!

Keep it Simple

When it comes to thinking about what folders to have, I would err on the side of simplicity.  Remember, the more decisions that you have to make, the less you are going to want to keep up with your filing system.  Gmail has pretty good search capability now, so if this is a personal account, you might be able to get by with literally just one folder.  Call it Saved Emails.  Then anytime you want to save an email, you dump it into this folder, which you can search easily by keyword.  If this is a work email, you may want a little more complexity, but check yourself before going too nuts.  For example, for my Grad School program -- I only have one folder.  I do not have a folder for each class or even for each semester.  I just keep all of the emails pertaining to Grad School in one place, which are sorted chronologically, and I search by keyword.

Get rid of extra folders

We've talked about how to add folders, now let's talk about deleting folders.  From your phone, you can delete the folders that you have created.  So, I'll delete this one that I just made.  Hit Edit, select the folder, and hit Delete Mailbox.  You may find, however, that there are some folders that can't be deleted in this way.  You will get an error that it could not be deleted on the server.  That's because this is a Gmail created folder.  Here's how you can control what Gmail created folders appear in your list.  You have to do this from a browser.  Click on the gears icon up in the upper right, and choose Settings.  Now click on Labels.  The black text is what is currently selected.  So right now, you are showing Starred and Snoozed folders, but are hiding the Important and Chats folders.  I only show Sent, Drafts, Spam, and Trash.  So, you can see I've really cleaned up my folders on my browser.  

Get rid of Important and Starred folders on iPhone

I got rid of a bunch, but I still have these annoying Important and Starred sub-folders on my iPhone.  How do I get rid of those?  First, go into Settings, then Inbox, and under Importance Markers, check no markers.  This prevents Gmail from automatically marking your emails Important.  Then, go back into Labels and make sure that you have those folders hidden in Settings.  Look over here to the right of the screen -- do you have a column with a checkbox and Show in IMAP?  If not, go into the tab Forwarding and POP/IMAP, scroll down and under IMAP access, check Enable IMAP.  Okay, now go back into Labels and only check show in IMAP for those folders you want to appear on your phone.  Now I check my phone and viola!  I got rid of those pesky folders that were taking up prime real estate.  Okay, the last tip I have for organizing with folders is to 

Use Emojis

I use a couple of folders more frequently than any of the others.  For example, I have a video on this, but when I send an email that is asking for a response, I always blind copy myself on it, so that I get a copy of the email back in my inbox immediately.  Then I file that email in my +Outstanding folder.  I do this many, many times a day.  So, I put a little red octagon emoji in the title of this folder (using my iPhone), so that it stands out from the other folders.  You could do this for any folder that you use a lot and want to differentiate it. 

And that's it!  I showed you how to create folders, warned you to keep it simple, showed you how to delete or not display folders, and shared my tip on using Emojis in folder titles.  Let me know what you think.  Comments are always appreciated and thanks for watching!