<h2 id="introduction">Introduction</h2>
<p>Email has permeated the business space since the internet became mainstream. For many, templates have become as important to streamlining the work of responding to common business-related inquiries as digital marketing campaigns are for growing your customer base. A template isn't merely something you copy and paste for every email response, there has to be a genuine intent to converse with customers or potential clients so that your replies don't sound lazy or inauthentic. In the best case, email templates are tailored to the recipient's needs as they're likely expecting a helpful response to their email.</p>
<p>This article details the step-by-step process of creating and using email templates in Gmail and how they can benefit you in the long run.</p>
<h3 id="whocanbenefitfromemailtemplates">Who Can Benefit from Email Templates?</h3>
<p>Businesses or individuals that need to manage their inbound email communications is one of the main reasons email templates exist. As you become busier, or as your business grows, you can expect to receive potentially hundreds of emails daily. For example, if you're running a business, you may get inbound requests from brands looking for partnerships, individuals inquiring about a product, or complaints and suggestions from users who have tried your product.</p>
<p>Templates are created to efficiently breeze through repetitive inquiries so that the person managing the inbox doesn't have to spend the whole day digging through each email, typing out a response, all to just arrive at the same ending.</p>

<h2 id="advantagesofmakingemailtemplates">Advantages of Making Email Templates</h2>
<p>As mentioned earlier, creating and using Gmail email templates have several advantages; most of them are essential to managing your time and workload. For example, using email templates can save you enough costs over time so that it gradually becomes more of a necessity than a technique to supplement productivity.</p>
<h3 id="speedofdelivery">Speed of Delivery</h3>
<p>An email template allows for a faster response time, especially with emails that can be handled with the same response. Suppose, for example, that you're operating a business that wants to be responsive to its customers and people frequently come to you with similar complaints or issues that need assistance. In that case, you need to be ready to respond promptly, which is where email templates come in handy. You don't need to type the content of the email manually, one after another. Instead, pull up an appropriate template and edit parts of the content to match the name and concern of a customer or client.</p>
<h3 id="efficiency">Efficiency</h3>
<p>A faster response means you save a lot of time. Emails are important, but some things are more urgent and demand immediate attention, such as closing a big deal and or details of an important event you can't afford to miss. With email templates, you don't have to worry about forgetting or taking too long to respond, you already have a template ready to be sent out.</p>
<h3 id="customersatisfactionandbrandrecognition">Customer Satisfaction and Brand Recognition</h3>
<p>Customers generally don't like automated responses because they are impersonal and sound lazy. So it's always a better idea to create templates you can customize. You can design generic templates that are easy to edit and personalize when needed. Consequently, personalized templates help you build your brand name by letting your target customers know that you're responsive to their concerns.</p>
<p>Along the lines of branding, you can also use templates to import your company's branded footer, for example. Or it can contain other brand-relevant assets and communication styles.</p>

<h2 id="typesofemailtemplatesyoucanuse">Types of Email Templates You Can Use</h2>
<h3 id="headerandfootertemplates">Header and Footer Templates</h3>
<p>Headers (salutations to customer) and footers (signatures at the bottom of the email) are among the most important email components to note when customizing a template. Your email header establishes the quality, vibe, or attitude of your email. It's the first thing a reader sees and the first opportunity to make a good impression. Be sure to fill out this section with the recipient's name to let them know that you're sending them a personalized email and not an automated one.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the footer is usually where a recipient might look for more information on you, like your contact details, links to your other website, social media accounts, etc. You can imagine how tedious it would be to type this out for every email response, so save yourself some time and use a template.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> Gmail does have a feature specific to adding signatures to your emails, which can be found via the General tab in Settings. This works well for many signatures, but templates might work better if you want to also set up a standard greeting or email body.</p>
<h3 id="newsletteremailtemplate">Newsletter Email Template</h3>
<p>Newsletter emails are intended for regular subscribers. These are commonly used in marketing campaigns to promote new products, features, deals, etc. If you're not using a traditional newsletter service like Mailchimp, you can instead send them out manually in Gmail with email templates. You don't have to personalize these emails so that you can send them in large numbers.</p>
<h3 id="confirmationemailtemplate">Confirmation Email Template</h3>
<p>This type of template might be used in response to a customer that emailed you regarding a purchase, reservation, etc. The confirmation template could include placeholders for common information you need to send back, like the order number, total cost, dates, etc. This way you can respond without forgetting any of the information the customer would expect to get back.</p>
<h3 id="internalcommunicationstemplate">Internal Communications Template</h3>
<p>Today many office jobs can be done online, whether it's for observing health protocols or just personal convenience. So day-to-day email communication between colleagues, management, and employees has become even more important for efficient coordination. Often, internal communications involve a predictable daily work routine commonly followed in an organization. You can save yourself the trouble of composing an update from scratch every single time by setting up an internal communications template you can easily fill out only with important details warranting the update, like the latest changes or developments, facilitating day-to-day communications with co-workers.</p>
<p>For example, your boss may want to know what you're working on on a daily basis, which might require a daily email. You can set up an email template to provide the structure and general information of what you want to include, thus saving you time <em>and</em> providing a quality update.</p>
<h3 id="customerinteraction">Customer Interaction</h3>
<p>Customer interaction templates are used to keep customers informed or engaged. Templates can help a company's customer care and sales departments achieve their core duties by responding to inquiries and concerns expediently and provide prompt support. The quality and tone of customer interaction templates can strengthen or weaken customer relationships. So ensure you create professional, appropriate, and gracious templates that positively reflect your brand name to your customers.</p>
<p>For example, you can set up a template that automatically responds to all customer inquiries to let them know that their request was received and that you'll be responding shortly. While this will obviously look like an automated response, it does help customers at least know that they've reached the right inbox and that they won't have to wait long to get a full response.</p>
<h2 id="enablingyourgmailtemplates">Enabling Your Gmail Templates</h2>
<p>This section of the article shows you how to enable your templates in Gmail to ensure you can use them when composing an email. We have provided screenshots, so it's easier to understand.</p>
<h3 id="stepbystepinstructionswithscreenshots">Step-by-step instructions with Screenshots</h3>
<p>First, click on the settings button on the top right, which looks like a gear icon.</p>
<img alt="Gmail settings button" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-create-and-use-templates-in-gmail-1.png" />
<p>You will see a window that shows you the quick settings and themes to customize the appearance of your Gmail account. Next you'll want to click on the &quot;See all settings&quot; button.</p>
<img alt="Gmail see all settings" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-create-and-use-templates-in-gmail-2.png" />
<p>Once you've opened the settings page, click on the &quot;Advanced&quot; tab on the settings page.</p>
<img alt="Gmail settings advanced tab" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-create-and-use-templates-in-gmail-3.png" />
<p>Next, find the Templates section on the Advanced screen and click &quot;Enable&quot;.</p>
<img alt="Gmail enable templates setting" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-create-and-use-templates-in-gmail-4.png" />
<p>Finally, at the bottom of that page, click the &quot;Save Changes&quot; button.</p>
<h2 id="managingemailtemplates">Managing Email Templates</h2>
<h3 id="creatinganemailtemplate">Creating an Email Template</h3>
<p>To create an email template, click on the &quot;Compose&quot; button at the top left corner of the screen. Type your template in the compose box, and click on the three dots at the bottom right.</p>
<img alt="Gmail compose button and email actions" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-create-and-use-templates-in-gmail-5.png" />
<p>Once you click the three dots, you will find a Templates menu. Hover over it and then click &quot;Save draft as template&quot;. Finally, click on &quot;Save as new template&quot;. It'll then prompt you to name the template. I'd suggest giving it a name that easily identifies exactly what the template does. If you have a few variations of the same template, try to come up with a naming scheme that differentiates each version.</p>
<img alt="Gmail save template" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-create-and-use-templates-in-gmail-6.png" />
<h3 id="editinganemailtemplate">Editing an Email Template</h3>
<p>A very similar process applies when editing an existing email template, except that you need to overwrite the template you want to edit with the new content.</p>
<img alt="Gmail edit email template" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-create-and-use-templates-in-gmail-7.png" />
<h3 id="usinganemailtemplate">Using an Email Template</h3>
<p>To actually use your email template, start by composing a new email and clicking on the three dots, hover over &quot;Templates&quot;, and choose the template you want to use.</p>
<img alt="Gmail use email template" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-create-and-use-templates-in-gmail-8.png" />
<p>If you're replying to an email and <em>not</em> starting a new one, just open the email, click the &quot;reply&quot; button, and then you should see the same three dots at the bottom of the reply window. From there, the steps are the same to select an email template:</p>
<img alt="Gmail use email template as reply" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-create-and-use-templates-in-gmail-9.png" />
<h2 id="automatinganemailtemplate">Automating An Email Template</h2>
<p>Having an email template saves you the time to think of how to compose your email. Automating these templates allow you to fully enjoy the benefit of speed, giving you more time to focus on other productive work.</p>
<h3 id="stepbystepinstructionsscreenshots">Step-by-step instructions Screenshots</h3>
<p>Templates become even more useful when you automate the sending process. This can be done using Gmail's filter functionality.</p>
<p>To automate an email template, click on &quot;Show search options&quot; button at the top. It's the icon on the right side of the search bar. Click this button to create a new filter.</p>
<img alt="Gmail filter button" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-create-and-use-templates-in-gmail-10.png" />
<p>Next you have to set up the search criteria to ensure you're matching the right emails. In our example, we're sending an automatic reply to let our customers know that we received their request for help, hence we're matching any email that has the word &quot;Help&quot; in it, as shown here:</p>
<img alt="Gmail create filter" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-create-and-use-templates-in-gmail-11.png" />
<p>When you're done, click &quot;Create filter&quot;. This will take you to another menu in which you'll tell the filter what to do. Here we'll tell it to reply with our template:</p>
<img alt="Gmail select filter template" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-create-and-use-templates-in-gmail-12.png" />
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The reply will not be personalized to the recipient, so in this case make sure the template is generic enough that it works for any matched email. For more personalized email responses, you'll need to use a more advanced Gmail integration.</p>
<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>
<p>Setting up your email templates in Gmail is fairly easy to do on desktop. Unfortunately there is not yet a way to do this on Gmail's mobile app. Once you're familiar with creating a template and have learned to use it effectively with the automated feature, the work of emailing or responding to many different people, amidst many other work demands within a busy timetable, becomes more efficient and organized.</p>
<p>With templates, there's no more need to stress over writing a new email every time you reply to an email, like customer concerns or feedback, with email templates in Gmail. It’s time you enjoyed the convenience of this practical Gmail service.</p>

Admin

How to Create and Use Email Templates in Gmail

<h2 id="introduction">Introduction</h2>
<p>Organizing your bedroom by getting rid of items you no longer need makes it easier and more comfortable to bring in new stuff. We can also apply this to our Gmail account by deleting unnecessary emails to free up space for newer, more important emails. An easy way to find such unnecessary emails is to look in the Promotions tab.</p>
<p>In this article, we will learn how to delete all promotional emails in Gmail, both on desktop and mobile. We'll also take a look at what Promotional Emails are and why you should delete them.</p>
<h2 id="whatarepromotionalemails">What are Promotional Emails?</h2>
<p>A promotional email is considered to be a marketing or commercial email. It usually includes special offers, newsletters, a list of new services or products, and other &quot;calls to action&quot; emails sent to the audience. The target audience could be anyone the company wants to inform about their new services, products, deals, etc.</p>
<p>To be clear, not all of these emails are necessarily bad. Maybe there are situations in which you actually <em>want</em> to receive these kinds of emails, or at least from specific companies, like your favorite bakery sending out their weekly deal. Luckily, in these cases, Gmail will allow you to drag the specific email from the &quot;Promotions&quot; tab to the &quot;Primary&quot; tab, indicating to Gmail that you want to see this email. Unfortunately, for most people, there are very few promotional emails that they really care to see.</p>
<h3 id="howdoesgmaildetectapromotionalemail">How Does Gmail Detect a Promotional Email?</h3>
<p>When emails are sent to recipients, Gmail uses an algorithm to determine whether they contain deals, offers, newsletters, a list of products or services, or other promotional messages. 84.5% of scanned emails containing the above list end up in your Gmail account's promotion tab.</p>
<p>It works in a very similar way to a spam filter in which an algorithm collects many different data points (i.e., number of links, the existence of certain keywords, number, and type of images, etc.) and uses those data points to decide if it's likely that the email is promotional in nature. Like the spam filter, Gmail is always working to improve the algorithm, and marketers are always trying to find ways to avoid getting filtered into the Promotions tab.</p>
<h3 id="whydeletepromotionalemails">Why Delete Promotional Emails?</h3>
<p>One of the main reasons why we may want to delete promotional emails is so that they don't take up space in our Google account. Free Google accounts have a limit of 15 GB, which counts storage between your Gmail account, Google Drive, and Google Photos. This storage can be upgraded to 100 GB for $2/month, but there's not much point in paying for storage if it's just to save marketing emails in your inbox.</p>
<p>Not only do they take up your account's storage, but having too many unwanted emails in your inbox can cause a big clutter problem. Imagine you're trying to search for an email in your inbox about your son's basketball practice, but all of the emails that come up are about deals on basketballs from a sporting goods store. With years of promotional emails collecting in your inbox, scenarios like this are actually pretty common.</p>
<h2 id="deletingallpromotionalemailsondesktop">Deleting All Promotional Emails on Desktop</h2>
<p>You can find that most of the promotional emails are, unsurprisingly, located in the Promotion tab in your Gmail account. Click on the Promotion tab with the price tag icon, as shown in the image below:</p>
<img alt="promotions tab" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-promotions-emails-in-gmail-1.png" />
<p>Let's start by deleting these promotional emails from your Gmail account. To begin, select all promotional emails by clicking on the checkbox icon in the top-left corner of your inbox, as shown here:</p>
<img alt="select all promotional emails" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-promotions-emails-in-gmail-2.png" />
<p>After that, we need to select the <em>remaining</em> promotional emails in your inbox as well. The first checkbox we click only selected the promotional emails you're currently viewing, but Gmail also gives you the option to select <em>all</em> promotional emails. To do this, click the blue text that says &quot;Select all [number] conversations in Promotions&quot;. Once clicked, it should then say, &quot;All [number] conversations in Promotions are selected&quot;.</p>
<img alt="select all promotional emails in inbox" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-promotions-emails-in-gmail-3.png" />
<p>Now, to actually delete these, click on the bin icon that appears after we have selected all of the emails we want to delete:</p>
<img alt="delete promotional emails" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-promotions-emails-in-gmail-4.png" />
<p>Once that is done, you have successfully deleted all Promotional Emails in your Gmail account!</p>
<p>Now, let's proceed to delete All Promotional Emails in Gmail on Mobile.</p>
<h2 id="deletingallpromotionalemailsonmobile">Deleting All Promotional Emails on Mobile</h2>
<p>As of now, Google hasn't made it possible to select multiple emails at once on mobile. Rather, simply hold down each promotional email to mark the ones you want to delete, then click the bin icon at the top.</p>
<p>On mobile, however, another technique can be used to select all Promotional emails at once. Access the web version of Gmail on your mobile device (as opposed to via the app). Doing this on desktop is definitely easier, but if you don't have any other choice, then follow these instructions for mobile.</p>
<p>First, ensure that you are logged in, and and after doing so, you'll be redirected to another page. Simply click the &quot;Use Web Version&quot; button, which is shown here:</p>
<img alt="gmail web version on mobile" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-promotions-emails-in-gmail-5.png" style="height:540px;width:auto;border: solid #aaaaaa 1px;" />
<p><strong>Note</strong>: You'll find the &quot;Use Web Version&quot; button at the bottom part of the page, under the blue button.</p>
<p>After you have done that, you will be directed to the page below. Click on the menu icon at the top-left side of the page:</p>
<img alt="gmail html menu" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-promotions-emails-in-gmail-6.png" style="height:540px;width:auto;border: solid #aaaaaa 1px;" />
<p>Once done, you will be directed to your menu page. Click on the &quot;desktop&quot; link, which is at the bottom part of the menu page:</p>
<img alt="gmail desktop link from mobile" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-promotions-emails-in-gmail-7.png" style="height:540px;width:auto;border: solid #aaaaaa 1px;" />
<p>You should then be directed to the following page:</p>
<img alt="gmail desktop view on mobile" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-promotions-emails-in-gmail-8.png" style="height:540px;width:auto;border: solid #aaaaaa 1px;" />
<p>Now zoom in to the bottom part of this page where you will find the &quot;standard&quot; link, just as shown here:</p>
<img alt="gmail standard button" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-promotions-emails-in-gmail-9.png" style="height:540px;width:auto;border: solid #aaaaaa 1px;" />
<p>Once you have located the &quot;standard&quot; link, click it and you will be directed to your Gmail account in the desktop view:</p>
<img alt="promotional tab on mobile" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-promotions-emails-in-gmail-10.png" style="height:540px;width:auto;border: solid #aaaaaa 1px;" />
<p>From here on out, the process is much like the in the desktop version. To locate the promotional emails in your inbox, click on the Promotion tab:</p>
<img alt="promotion button on mobile" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-promotions-emails-in-gmail-11.png" style="height:540px;width:auto;border: solid #aaaaaa 1px;" />
<p>Once you have located the promotional emails, click on the checkbox in the top-left side of the page to select all emails in this page. Again, you'll need to then click the blue text saying &quot;Select all [number] conversations in Promotions&quot; to select <em>all</em> promotional emails, and not just the ones on that page.</p>
<img alt="select emails on mobile" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-promotions-emails-in-gmail-12.png" style="height:540px;width:auto;border: solid #aaaaaa 1px;" />
<p>To delete all selected emails, click on the trash bin icon near the top of the page:</p>
<img alt="delete emails on mobile" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-promotions-emails-in-gmail-13.png" style="height:540px;width:auto;border: solid #aaaaaa 1px;" />
<p>After this is done, you will have successfully deleted all promotional emails from your Gmail account!</p>
<h2 id="unsubscribefrompromotionalemails">Unsubscribe From Promotional Emails</h2>
<p>Once your inbox is cleared of promotional emails, it's time to prevent it from getting overloaded with them again. It's just a matter of time before promotional emails will again start piling up in your inbox. To avoid that from happening, you should unsubscribe from unwanted promotional emails.</p>
<p>Luckily, with Gmail, you don't have to search for the &quot;unsubscribe&quot; link hidden at the bottom of emails. Instead, you can simply click the &quot;Unsubscribe&quot; button that Gmail displays at the top of promotional emails. This option is safer than clicking the unsubscribe link, which can be potentially malicious.</p>
<img alt="Gmail unsubscribe button" src="https://block-sender.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-promotions-emails-in-gmail-14.png"/>
<p>However, Gmail may not display the unsubscribe button for some promotional emails for various reasons. In such cases, you should not click the unsubscribe link provided by the sender as a last resort. Instead, use a third-party email blocking tool such as <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://blocksender.io/"><em>Block Sender</em></a> to block such emails without unsubscribing.</p>
<h2 id="howtoblockpromotionalemailsingmail">How to Block Promotional Emails in Gmail</h2>
<p>Consider using third-party tools if you are unable to unsubscribe from some promotional emails or looking for a quicker solution. One such effective tool is BlockSender. With this email-blocking tool, you can easily block promotional emails in Gmail without unsubscribing! What's more, it also offers the option to block promotional emails in bulk, saving you both time and effort.</p>
<p>If you haven't already, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://app.blocksender.io/signup">sign up for Block Sender</a>, link your Gmail account, and start using this tool to block unwanted promotional emails in Gmail. It's also available as a browser extension, allowing you to block emails directly from your inbox. In this tutorial, we'll discuss the blocking process using the <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" href="https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/block-sender/bklnjbfcmglhiaoppcckdodanccbelcg">Chrome extension</a> for BlockSender.</p>
<ol>
<li>Open Gmail on your desktop and log in to your account.</li>
<li>Open any promotional email you want to stop receiving.</li>
<li>Click on the block icon and select &quot;Emails from this sender&quot; from the menu.</li>
</ol>
<img alt="Block Sender block emails from this sender option" src="https://block-sender.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-promotions-emails-in-gmail-15.png"/>
<p>Selecting this option will prevent future emails from this address from reaching your Gmail inbox. All blocked emails will be sent to the Trash folder.</p>
<h3 id="blockpromotionalemailsinbulk">Block Promotional Emails in Bulk</h3>
<p>Follow the below steps if you want to block multiple promotional emails in one go:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Select at least one email for each email address you wish to block.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Click on the block icon at the top and select &quot;Block Selected Emails&quot;.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<img alt="Block Sender block senders in bulk" src="https://block-sender.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-promotions-emails-in-gmail-16.png"/>
<ol start="3">
<li>Select &quot;Delete (skip trash)&quot; if you want the emails to be permanently deleted upon receipt and not move to the Trash folder first for 30 days. (Optional)</li>
</ol>
<img alt="Block Sender skip trash folder" src="https://block-sender.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-promotions-emails-in-gmail-17.png"/>

            <div class="alert alert-note">
                <div class="flex">
                    
                        <div class="flex-shrink-0 mr-3">
                            <img src="/assets/images/icon-information-circle-solid.svg" class="icon" aria-hidden="true" />
                        </div>
                        
                    <div class="w-full">
            <p><strong>Note:</strong> You won't be able to recover the blocked emails if you select the Delete option.</p>

                    </div>
                </div>
            </div>
            <ol start="4">
<li>From the pop-up window, click &quot;Create X Blocks&quot;.</li>
</ol>
<p>Once these blocking rules are set up, Block Sender will block all future emails from these email addresses.</p>
<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>
<p>In this article, we have learned what promotional emails are, why it's usually best to delete them, and how to delete all promotional emails from our inbox on both desktop and mobile devices. We also discussed two ways to stop receiving promotional emails in the future: unsubscribing and using third-party tools like Block Sender to block these emails without unsubscribing.</p>
<p>While the practices mentioned in this article should be good enough for most people, more drastic steps can be taken on your account, like deleting <em>all</em> emails from your inbox. This might be useful if you want a fresh start or your inbox has gotten so out of control that it's too difficult to clean up. For cases like this, check out our other article <a href="/how-to-delete-all-emails-in-gmail/">How to Delete All Emails in Gmail</a>.</p>


How to Delete All Promotions Emails in Gmail

<p>Many situations can take you out of the office as an individual, and such situations can last for days; one common example is vacations. Then it becomes difficult to keep track of the number of emails you receive from people during this time period. Imagine automatically responding to these emails with a single customized message because you shouldn't be bothered with responding to your emails while you are away from the office.</p>
<p>In this article, we will learn how to easily set up an out-of-office mail response in Gmail without the use of any external tools.</p>
<p>Now let's get started!</p>
<h2 id="whatisanoutofofficeresponder">What is an Out-of-Office Responder?</h2>
<p>An out-of-office message is the response that you have carefully designed to send to those who attempt to contact you while you are out of the office. Because you are unavailable to respond to them, this is handled automatically. This will let anyone who emails you know that you are not available at the moment, rather than expecting a response and causing issues - instead your auto-responder can direct them to a colleague that can provide assistance, for example.</p>
<p><strong>Why should you make use of an Out-of-Office Responder?</strong></p>
<p>There are numerous reasons why you should set up an out-of-office auto responder when you will not be in the office, but the following are the most important:</p>
<ul>
<li>It makes you less concerned about not being able to respond to emails.</li>
<li>Senders receive an automatic response. Depending on your settings, the response may go to everyone or just to your contacts or people in your organization.</li>
<li>There is no need for an external tool, and it is completely free to set up and use.</li>
<li>It helps businesses maintain professionalism.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="settingupanoutofofficeresponderingmail">Setting up an Out-of-Office Responder in Gmail?</h2>
<p>The first step is to ensure that you have an active Gmail/Google account on your device, as this is required before you can start setting up an out-of-office responder. If you don't already have one, you can <a href="https://accounts.google.com/signup/v2/webcreateaccount?flowName=GlifWebSignIn&amp;flowEntry=SignUp">create an account</a>.</p>
<p>Once you have created an account, or logged into <a href="https://gmail.com/">Gmail</a>, we can get started. Here are a few steps to guide you to set up an out-of-office responder in Gmail. Start by clicking the settings icon, as shown in the image below:</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-set-out-of-office-message-gmail-1.png" alt="Gmail settings button"></p>
<p>The next step would be to click on the &quot;<strong>See all settings</strong>&quot; button.</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-set-out-of-office-message-gmail-2.png" alt="Gmail see all settings"></p>
<p>Once that is done, you will be directed to another page just like it is shown here:</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-set-out-of-office-message-gmail-3.png" alt="Gmail general settings"></p>
<p>Ensure you scroll down to the last section of this page, which would look something like this:</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-set-out-of-office-message-gmail-4.png" alt="Gmail vacation responder settings"></p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> This is the vacation responder section, where you will create an out-of-office responder.</p>
<p>At this point, we can begin filling out the form, which will collect all the necessary information from us, such as the start and end date, message, subject of the email, and so on. Let's go over these questions again, so you understand what they mean:</p>
<p>The first thing we have to do is click the radio button in front of &quot;<strong>Vacation responder on</strong>&quot; to turn on the Vacation responder as seen in the image below:</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-set-out-of-office-message-gmail-5.png" alt="Vacation responder on"></p>
<p>The next section is where we would set both the first and last day of let's say our vacation or out-of-office message. This is just to determine when an out-of-office message is to be activated and when it is to be deactivated.</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-set-out-of-office-message-gmail-6.png" alt="Set vacation responder date"></p>
<p>If you're familiar with how emails are sent, you'll know that the subject can be referred to as the title of our email, and it should contain clear and concise information to entice users to read it. In other words, it tells the reader what the message is about. Fill out the Subject field completely.</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-set-out-of-office-message-gmail-7.png" alt="Set vacation responder subject"></p>
<p>Once that is done, ensure to fill up the message field with the response which you would like to be sent to anyone who sends you a mail.</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-set-out-of-office-message-gmail-8.png" alt="Set vacation responder message"></p>
<p><strong>Note</strong>: Click the box next to Only send a response to people in my Contacts if you only want your contacts to receive your vacation response.</p>
<p>After you have finished filling the form, click on the &quot;<strong>Save Change</strong>&quot; button. And that is all. Congratulations, you have successfully created an out-of-office responder!</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-set-out-of-office-message-gmail-9.png" alt="Stop vacation responder"></p>
<h2 id="whowillreceivetheoutofofficeemailresponse">Who Will Receive the Out-of-Office Email Response</h2>
<p>Depending on your preferences, you may not want Gmail to send the out-of-office response to anyone who emails you. By default, Gmail sends this response to everyone, whether or not they are in your contact list, except for messages from mailing lists or those marked as spam.</p>
<p>However, you can change this default behavior from the settings. You can choose to send the out-of-office response only to your contacts. This is useful if you want only your colleagues or known contacts to know that you are away from the office, not random senders. It also prevents the auto-reply from being sent to spammers, who will know your email account is active.</p>
<p>Here's how you can adjust the settings according to your preferences:</p>
<p>Go to Settings. In the <strong>General tab</strong>, navigate to the &quot;<strong>Vacation responder</strong>&quot; section. Select the &quot;<strong>Only send a response to people in my Contacts</strong>&quot; option. Next, click &quot;<strong>Save Changes</strong>&quot;.</p>
<img src="https://block-sender.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-set-out-of-office-message-gmail-17.png" alt="Gmail vacation responder for contacts only">
<p>Users who have a Google Workspace Gmail account may choose to send the out-of-office response only to people in their organization.</p>
<h2 id="howtosetupgmailoutofofficeresponderonmobile">How to Set up Gmail Out-of-Office Responder on Mobile</h2>
<p>As we mentioned earlier for that of web, we also have to ensure we log in to our Gmail account, once that is done, we can now access our Gmail Application to set up an out-of-office responder.</p>
<p>The first step would be to click the menu icon at the top-left side of the page, as shown in the image below.</p>
<img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-set-out-of-office-message-gmail-10.png" alt="Gmail mobile" style="height:540px;width:auto;border: solid #aaaaaa 1px;"/>
<p>Then we can scroll down, so we can click on the &quot;<strong>Settings</strong>&quot; tab.</p>
<img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-set-out-of-office-message-gmail-11.png" alt="Gmail mobile settings" style="height:540px;width:auto;border: solid #aaaaaa 1px;"/>
<p>Once that is completed, we will be directed to the page below, which contains a list of all of your logged-in Gmail accounts. Click on the Gmail account you want to use to proceed to the next step.</p>
<img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-set-out-of-office-message-gmail-12.png" alt="Gmail mobile choose email" style="height:540px;width:auto;border: solid #aaaaaa 1px;"/>
<p>Once we have done that, we will be directed to this page below where we will scroll down to the &quot;Vacation responder&quot; option. Click on &quot;Vacation responder&quot;.</p>
<img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-set-out-of-office-message-gmail-13.png" alt="Mobile vacation responder" style="height:540px;width:auto;border: solid #aaaaaa 1px;"/>
<p>Once you have clicked on the Vacation responder option, you will be directed to the page shown below. The first thing will be for us to switch the button on the right side of the &quot;vacation responder&quot; option to turn it on. Now, we can fill in the form, as we did for the desktop version.</p>
<img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-set-out-of-office-message-gmail-14.png" alt="Mobile turn on vacation responder" style="height:540px;width:auto;border: solid #aaaaaa 1px;"/>
<p>Once you have finished filling in the form. Click on the &quot;Done&quot; button at the top right side of the page to submit.</p>
<img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-set-out-of-office-message-gmail-15.jpeg" alt="Mobile finish vacation responder" style="height:540px;width:auto;border: solid #aaaaaa 1px;"/>
<p>To terminate an out-of-office responder. Click on the switch button on the right side of the &quot;vacation responder&quot; option to turn off the vacation responder (just opposite of how we turned it on earlier).</p>
<img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-set-out-of-office-message-gmail-16.jpeg" alt="Mobile turn on vacation responder" style="height:540px;width:auto;border: solid #aaaaaa 1px;"/>
<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>
<p>In this article, we learned how to easily set up an out-of-office responder in Gmail by making use of the feature in Gmail's settings page, as well as how to turn it off, for both desktop and mobile versions of Gmail. We hope you found this article to be helpful!</p>


How to Setup an Out-of-Office Responder in Gmail

<p>Many of us have had our Gmail accounts for a lot of years now and, in many cases, for over a decade. Considering the average person receives thousands of emails per year, many of us have a huge backlog of emails in our inbox or various folders. But what happens when we need to find one of these old emails? The problem gets even harder when the email isn't properly labeled, has no unique keywords to search for, or can't remember the sender/receiver.</p>
<p>As you'd expect from any reasonable email client, Gmail allows you to search for emails by date, although doing it is not quite as obvious as it could be. There are two ways to search by date, via the Search Options menu, and using a certain syntax in the search bar. We'll go over both here.</p>
<h2 id="searchbydateusingsearchoptions">Search by Date using Search Options</h2>
<p>The first option is probably more intuitive for many users since it uses a GUI of options. To access these options, click on the icon to the right of the search bar:</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/search-by-date-in-gmail-1.png" alt=""></p>
<p>Once clicked, the menu will open and present you with a number of different filtering options, one of them being &quot;Date within&quot;. This option will help you find all emails within X number of days or months of the chosen date.</p>
<p>So, for example, if you knew that you received the email right around Jan. 5th, 2022, then you'd choose &quot;1 day&quot; and then choose &quot;2022/01/05&quot; in the date picker.</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/search-by-date-in-gmail-2.png" alt=""></p>
<p>After clicking &quot;Search&quot;, Gmail will use your parameters to fill in the search query for you and return only emails within the date range you chose.</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/search-by-date-in-gmail-3.png" alt=""></p>
<p>But what about the first email at the top, received on Jan. 7th? This is because Gmail filters emails according to UTC instead of local time. This email was actually received on Jan. 6th according to UTC. However, Gmail displays the date according to local time but uses UTC for filtering emails.</p>

            <div class="alert alert-note">
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                            <img src="/assets/images/icon-information-circle-solid.svg" class="icon" aria-hidden="true" />
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            <p><strong>Note:</strong> The date following the &quot;after&quot; operator is included, while the date after the &quot;before&quot; operator is excluded. For example, the query &quot;after: 2024/12/01 before: 2024/12/31&quot; will return emails received on or after December 1, 2024, and before December 31, 2024 (excluding December 31).</p>

                    </div>
                </div>
            </div>
            <h2 id="searchbydateusingadvancedsyntax">Search by Date using Advanced Syntax</h2>
<p>The more advanced way to search emails is actually similar to above, but skips the step in which you use the GUI to pick dates. Here, we'll show you how to use the date syntax for more options on restricting by date.</p>
<p>This can be achieved by entering a query in the search bar with the following format:</p>
<pre><code class="hljs">before:YYYY/MM/DD
</code></pre>
<p>or</p>
<pre><code class="hljs">after:YYYY/MM/DD
</code></pre>
<p>Gmail will then show you emails received before/after the date specified. For example:</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/search-by-date-in-gmail-4.png" alt=""></p>
<p>This query was run on January 7, 2022. Note that it also returned an email conversation dated January 3, which is after the specified date (2022/01/01). This is because one or more emails in this conversation were received prior to January 1.</p>
<p>Note that this search is less restrictive than the GUI method since it <em>only</em> places an upper or lower bound date. So, both bounds aren't required for the query. We'll take a closer look at that in the next section.</p>
<h3 id="relativedateoperators">Relative Date Operators</h3>
<p>Gmail date search also has two more operators similar to &quot;before&quot; and &quot;after&quot;. They are called &quot;older_than&quot; and &quot;newer_than&quot;. These operators do not require a specific date. They are used to filter out emails based on the current date dynamically. For instance:</p>
<pre><code class="hljs">older_than:1y
</code></pre>
<p>The above query returns all the emails that were received more than a year ago.</p>
<h3 id="searchingbetweendates">Searching Between Dates</h3>
<p>You can be even more restrictive in your search query and set a before <em>and</em> after date. To do this, simply use both versions of the query above in the search bar. For example:</p>
<pre><code class="hljs">after:2021/12/27 before:2021/12/28
</code></pre>
<p>This query will only return emails between Dec. 27th, 2021 and Dec. 28th, 2021:</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/search-by-date-in-gmail-5.png" alt=""></p>
<p>You can also combine these operators. For example:</p>
<pre><code class="hljs">newer_than:2m before:2024/12/01
</code></pre>
<p>The above query filters out those emails from the last two months that were received before December 1.</p>
<h2 id="combiningdatewithothersearchcriteria">Combining Date with Other Search Criteria</h2>
<p>What if you want to filter only those emails received in the last two months that contain an attachment? Gmail date search allows you to combine date operators with other operators to achieve this.</p>
<p>Enter the date filter query in the search bar, then select &quot;Has attachment&quot;.</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/media/search-by-date-in-gmail-6.png" alt=""></p>
<p>The above query was run on 09-12-2024.</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/media/search-by-date-in-gmail-7.png" alt=""></p>
<p>Similarly, you can filter out emails by date from a specific sender or receiver or those that are unread.</p>
<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>
<p>Gmail's search bar can be used for some pretty advanced searching, more than just searching keywords within an email or for email addresses. Take some time to learn the various advanced syntax and you'll find that you're much more productive when working with your email!</p>


Search by Date in Gmail

<p>Every year the holiday season is by far the biggest time for shopping, both online and off. That also means that it's one of the most active times of the year for marketing and ads, especially email marketing. As with the rest of us, your inbox is inevitably bombarded with dozens of emails from every newsletter, app, and ecommerce site you've ever bought from or signed up for, all advertising their Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-block-black-friday-and-cyber-monday-emails-1.png" alt=""></p>
<p>But what if you don't want these emails? Unsubscribing isn't always an option, as you may like the rest of their content/products. Another option would be to block just these emails. But how?</p>
<p>With Block Sender, you can create very specific blocks to make sure all Black Friday and Cyber Monday (aka BFCM) emails don't reach your inbox. Here are a few ways to do that:</p>
<h2 id="blockbyphrase">Block by Phrase</h2>
<p>Probably the most effective way to block these emails is to simply block the phrases &quot;Black Friday&quot; and &quot;Cyber Monday&quot;. This should cover most of these emails since these names are most commonly used to identify the sales after the Thanksgiving holiday.</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-block-black-friday-and-cyber-monday-emails-2.png" alt=""></p>
<p><strong>Note</strong>: Since phrase blocks are more broad than a subject block or email address block, it might be a good idea to pause or delete these phrase blocks <em>after</em> the sales season ends in order to avoid missing out on random emails containing these phrases.</p>
<h2 id="blockbyemail">Block by Email</h2>
<p>While phrase blocks may be more targeted and still allow legitimate emails through, certain businesses may increase their email communication altogether to keep their brand front-of-mind. These emails can become excessive and annoying, in which case it's best to just block their email address.</p>
<p>Some websites will send their emails from various addresses. Sometimes this happens because the emails are coming from different departments, and in some cases it is done to avoid being blocked by simple blocking rules. For example, emails might be sent from <code>no-reply@example.com</code>, <code>promotions@example.com</code>, <code>marketing@examples.com</code>, etc. In cases like these, it's best to block the entire domain (i.e. <code>example.com</code>) or use a wildcard to match more addresses.</p>
<h2 id="blockbysubject">Block by Subject</h2>
<p>Some businesses re-use email subjects for their marketing emails since they know what typically works. These subjects may be re-used within the same year or from previous years. Given this pattern, you can block these subjects to make sure that only very specific marketing emails don't get through to your inbox.</p>
<p>Using one of these blocking methods, or a combination of these method, you should be able to block a large portion of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales emails sent to your email address. Have them archived, sent to trash, or permanently deleted, and spend less time on your inbox!</p>


How to Block Black Friday and Cyber Monday Emails

<p>With billions of users around the globe, Gmail continues to be the most reliable and used email service. Google provides 15GB of storage whenever you register for a Gmail account. But is that enough?</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-emails-in-gmail-1.jpg" alt="Google storage used"></p>
<p>With the growing need for remote work, cloud storage, and backups for tons of apps - your Gmail storage space can fall short. Unless you want to pay for it and buy the extra storage, it's better to clean up!</p>
<p>You should know that there are better ways than cleaning up emails one at a time. So in this article we'll go over <em>how to mass delete emails on Gmail</em>.</p>
<h2 id="step1checkyourgmailstorage">Step 1: Check Your Gmail Storage</h2>
<p>Since emails in Gmail cannot exceed the 25MB size limit, having at least 5-7GB of storage space is workable. Of course, you can use a Google Drive link to share files exceeding this limit.</p>
<p>Therefore, find out how much space is left in your account before you actually go and delete all of your emails in Gmail. There are three ways of doing this, which we'll show here.</p>
<p>Already know how much storage you have? <a href="#step2selectallemails">Skip to deleting the emails</a>.</p>
<h3 id="viagooglestoragelink">Via Google Storage Link</h3>
<p>You can simply visit <a rel="nofollow noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://one.google.com/storage">one.google.com/storage</a> to find out how much of your available storage you have used. This is a somewhat easier method if you have access to a desktop or laptop.</p>
<p>Even mobile browsers will work, but phones usually have multiple accounts synced. For that, you will have to confirm you're on the particular Google account you are checking.</p>
<h3 id="viagoogledrive">Via Google Drive</h3>
<p>click on the grid of dots icon (highlighted below), and then<br>
There are more straightforward methods after logging into your Google account in Google Chrome.</p>
<p>Don't remember the website? No problem. Just open a new tab in your Chrome browser, find the dot grid icon beside your account avatar to access your G Suit apps. From there, click on the Google Drive icon.</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-emails-in-gmail-2.png" alt="Chrome Google Drive link"></p>
<p>You can then view the remaining storage for your account at the bottom of the left-hand sidebar.</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-emails-in-gmail-3.png" alt="Google Drive storage used"></p>
<h3 id="viaphone">Via Phone</h3>
<p>Open the Google app from your phone and click on the account icon. Tap on &quot;Manage Your Google Account&quot; and go to the search bar with the magnifying glass symbol.</p>
<p>Type storage and select &quot;Account Storage&quot; from the search option. It will show you your entire storage space and how it is distributed among Drive, Photos, and Gmail.</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-emails-in-gmail-4.jpg" alt="Google Drive storage used via phone"></p>
<h2 id="step2selectallemails">Step 2: Select All Emails</h2>
<p>You could be running out of space because of your Google Photos and Google Drive, which you'll know from checking the storage. It's a good idea to check and clean out those first since videos, images, and files are <em>usually</em> much larger in size than emails, making it easier to free up space.</p>
<p>Long-time Gmail account users have hundreds if not thousands of messages. If you want to delete the emails, however, it's best to do so in groups, which we'll outline below. This will allow you to delete certain types of emails first, like all promotional emails for example, before needing to delete ones that are more important to you.</p>
<h3 id="searchbycategories">Search by Categories</h3>
<p>Who knew labeling your emails could come in so handy? Gmail provides numerous pages of email with 50-100 emails per page, given you are accessing them from a desktop or laptop.</p>
<p>Therefore, having them sorted by categories or labeling them will save a lot of time whether you want to find or delete them. Simply search the label name or try searching <code>category: name</code>.</p>
<h3 id="searchbydate">Search by Date</h3>
<p>Perhaps the easiest method for searching through piles of emails is going through the dates. Type the date in <code>YYYY/DD/MM</code> format, and it will filter out all emails on that date.</p>
<p>Want to find old emails? Here's a cool trick. Just type <code>older_than:1y</code> in the search bar and press <kbd>Enter</kbd>. All your emails that you received before one year will appear. Click on the down arrow on the select box and click all.</p>
<p><strong>Note</strong>: This way of searching also returns email <em>threads</em> in which some emails within the thread are older than 1 year. So by searching this way you may also be matching more recent emails due to long-running/old threads.</p>
<h3 id="moreadvancedsearches">More Advanced Searches</h3>
<p>The most efficient way of finding emails from a particular label/category and time is to use a combination of both categories and dates. So how do you do it?</p>
<p>In the search bar in Gmail, simply type something like <code>older_than:5y label:label-name</code> and press <kbd>Enter</kbd>. All your emails from that particular label that are older than five years will then appear.</p>
<p><strong>Note</strong>: Gmail now offers an easy way to search and select emails, so you do not need to memorize this. But this option is only available if you access Gmail from your desktop.</p>
<p>Simply click on the search bar, click on the filter icon at the right end of it, and the drop-down box will provide you with all the options to select particular emails under a given time and category.</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-emails-in-gmail-5.png" alt="Gmail advanced filtering"></p>
<p>However, using this filter UI you can only select emails that are older than a year. For even older emails, you need to use the formula mentioned above.</p>
<h2 id="step3deleteallemails">Step 3: Delete All Emails</h2>
<p>Did you know that any email you delete on your Gmail account remains there for 30 days? This is a safe-guard in case you accidentally delete an email that you wanted to keep. So just know that if you have a change of heart, you can restore them from the trash within 30 days.</p>
<p>Now that you have searched and selected the emails you want to delete, it is time for the final act.</p>
<h3 id="deletingallselected">Deleting All Selected</h3>
<p>The fastest way to delete all emails from a category, label, or search is to click the checkbox next to the refresh button above the list of emails, and then click the &quot;Select all X conversations in [label/category/search]&quot; button. This will select all of the resulting emails, even the ones not on that page.</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-emails-in-gmail-6.png" alt="Gmail select all conversations"></p>
<p>This is by far the fastest method as you don't need to perform the same step on each page of emails. However, bulk deleting thousands of emails at a time might not be right for everyone as it may be important for you to actually inspect what's being deleted, which is why the next few ways are also of use.</p>
<h3 id="deletingbypages">Deleting by Pages</h3>
<p>Athough not quite as fast as the previous method, deleting a page of 50 emails with one click is still a great way to work through a lot of old or unnecessary emails.</p>
<p>Click on the small checkbox at the top to select all emails on that page. Next, click on the trash can, and voila, they are deleted! Or moved to trash for 30 days until you either explicitly delete them forever or allow Gmail to empty the trash!</p>
<h3 id="deletingbytabsfolders">Deleting by Tabs/Folders</h3>
<p>For your convenience, Gmail divides the emails into different folders. For instance, any promotional email from an eCommerce site, for example, comes in the Promotions folder.</p>
<p>The Social folder contains messages from social networking sites and media sharing sites. Updates here include your email subscriptions. Select one of these tabs to delete the emails from that category and follow the steps above.</p>
<h3 id="deletewithyourphone">Delete with your Phone</h3>
<p>Although it's much easier to delete emails while on a desktop/laptop, it is possible to do so from your phone as well, just not in bulk. In the app you'll need to manually select each email you want to delete. While not quite as fast, it's still pretty easy to manually select a lot of emails in a short amount of time.</p>
<h2 id="importanceofmassdeletingemailsongmail">Importance of Mass Deleting Emails on Gmail</h2>
<p>Ever had this appeared while checking your morning email?</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-delete-all-emails-in-gmail-7.png" alt="Gmail low storage notification"></p>
<p>Imagine you have a meeting in the morning and you cannot find your company email because your storage is full. No one wants to face that! Google will even warn you that it will stop receiving emails on your behalf if you run out of space.</p>
<p>Since the space provided by your Gmail account is shared within Google Photos, Gmail, and Google Drive, you need to be very careful. Now you cannot delete the important backups from Google Drive or Photos. Therefore, getting rid of unnecessary emails is a good idea. A quicker way to do this is to search for emails with attachments and delete those first since they can be as large as 25MB in size, thus taking up a good amount of space.</p>
<p>Once you start the process, you will be pretty surprised how many spams and other unimportant emails hog your storage.</p>
<h2 id="wrappingup">Wrapping Up</h2>
<p>Apart from old messages that hold emotional value, most old and unread messages only occupy your storage space. With Google limiting this to 15GB for your entire account, storage has become precious.</p>
<p>It gets even trickier since Google Photos and Drives also share the same storage with your Gmail account. Therefore, keeping unnecessary emails out of your inbox can help.</p>
<p>You will also be able to keep your current and important emails organized and make it easier to find the emails you actually do care about.</p>


How to Delete All Emails in Gmail

<p>Email scams are resilient. Take the Nigerian prince scam, it became popular in the 90s but is still highly effective today. <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.adt.com/scams-across-the-country">Research by the ADT Security</a> revealed the scam to have duped Americans out of $703,000 last year, an average loss of $2,133.</p>
<p>So, what can you do to protect yourself from email scams? And why should you be worried about them at all?</p>
<p>For starters, email users are low-hanging fruit for scammers due to how easy it is to send out a mass number of emails. Gmail in particular, with over 1.5 billion users, is a large enough group of easy prey that they are often the most likely targets.</p>
<p>What's more, Gmail's base isn't filled with just free email account users. Google Apps for Business makes it easy for companies to enjoy the same cloud-based features and convenience, but it also invites fraud in the form of Business Email Compromise (more on this later).</p>
<h2 id="howtoidentifyemailscams">How to Identify Email Scams</h2>
<p>Email scams tend to fall into one of five categories. While they have unique characteristics, the scammer's goal is always ultimately economic gain.</p>
<p>Here are the five categories and how to spot each kind of scam email:</p>
<h3 id="spoofing">Spoofing</h3>
<p>Email spoofing takes place when a scammer creates an email message with a fake email address. The address often appears to look like one the recipient is familiar with (think colleagues, friends, or customers), but includes one small and easily missed detail.</p>
<img alt="email spoofing" class="img-responsive" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-spot-and-beat-email-scams-1.png">
Image: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.proofpoint.com/">ProofPoint</a>
<p>Spoofing emails can also look like phishing emails, where cybercriminals ask for sensitive information or for the money to be transferred to an account urgently. For example, the email might look like it's from a friend in trouble and they need you to send them money to get them out of trouble as soon as possible.</p>
<p>Some of the most damaging spoofing emails include malware attachments. As soon as the attachment is clicked on, the malware goes to work.</p>
<p>One notable case took place in 2013. Cryptolocker, a form of ransomware, spread as an attachment. When opened, it immediately encrypted the victim's computer and displayed a ransom request of £500.</p>
<img alt="email scams" class="img-responsive" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-spot-and-beat-email-scams-2.png">
Image: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-25506020">BBC</a>
<p>The victim then had to pay this fee in order to get all of their data decrypted by the scammers, otherwise they'd lose it forever.</p>
<h3 id="phishingfordata">Phishing for Data</h3>
<p>Phishing scams involve requests for sensitive data as a result of a threat to your personal security. They usually come from what appears to be a legitimate source (think banks, online stores or companies you have online accounts with).</p>
<p>For example, the Charles Schwab email below is actually a phishing email. It includes the following six tell-tale signs that it is not from a legitimate source:</p>
<ol>
<li>It's not addressed to the account holder by name in the recipient email address section.</li>
<li>A generic &quot;Dear Customer&quot; greeting is used instead of the recipient's name</li>
<li>The email was triggered by activity the account holder did not perform.</li>
<li>A request to &quot;reset the account&quot; is made along with instructions to visit a link the scammer provides</li>
<li>Reassurance is made with the opportunity to verify your account via a link provided</li>
<li>Mousing over any URL in the phishing email shows the URL <code>http://almall.us</code> and not the legitimate <code>schwab.com</code> website.</li>
</ol>
<img alt="phishing email" class="img-responsive" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-spot-and-beat-email-scams-3.png">
Image: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.webroot.com/">WebRoot</a>
<h3 id="bogusoffers">Bogus Offers</h3>
<p>Bogus offers are usually the most obvious to spot. They include an often unbelievable freebie that can be accessed by visiting a fake website. In many ways, these are a blend of phishing and spoofing emails.</p>
<p>In the example below, the recipient receives an email addressed to &quot;Dear customer&quot; (first red flag, Amazon always uses your name). The offer is a 90% coupon that's available as one of one million &quot;lucky&quot; customers selected as part of Amazon's 20th birthday celebration.</p>
<p>Bogus offers also include a sense of urgency (note the coupon link expiry in 24 hours).</p>
<img alt="bogus offer" class="img-responsive" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-spot-and-beat-email-scams-4.jpg">
Image: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.hoax-slayer.net/">HoaxSlayer.net</a>
<h3 id="requestsforhelp">Requests for Help</h3>
<p>Request for help emails are also known as advance-fee scam emails. They commonly state that the recipient stands to receive a large amount of money, but first has to pay a small up-front fee to gain access to the funds.</p>
<p>The Nigerian Prince or 419 scam is one of the most common. It has, however, been replaced by a newer version dubbed the &quot;Nigerian Astronaut Wants To Come Home.&quot;</p>
<img alt="request for help" class="img-responsive" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/how-to-spot-and-beat-email-scams-5.png">
Image: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/williamtakor/status/698396750751600640">@WilliamTakor</a>
<p>These types of emails often come with long, dramatic backstories and a large fee that's available to you. In this case, the amount of $3,000,000 can be wired to your bank account after you pay 20% of the total ($60,000).</p>
<h3 id="businessemailcompromise">Business Email Compromise</h3>
<p><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_email_compromise">Business email compromise</a> (BEC) targets employees or departments with access to funds or the authorization to complete wire transfers or payments. Typically, personnel receive a request from either a vendor, customer, or colleague. Because the request appears legitimate, it could easily be processed.</p>
<p>And these types of scams can vary in value and the time it takes to execute them. Research shows that BEC cost businesses <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/cybercrime-and-digital-threats/ic3-bec-cost-organizations-us-1-2-billion-in-2018">over $1.2 billion in losses in 2018</a>.</p>
<p>BEC is one of the most sophisticated forms of email scams. In fact, Google and Facebook were <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/google-and-facebook-lose-100-million-in-a-major-phishing-scam">scammed out of $100 million</a> over a two-year period. The scam was perpetrated by a hacker who accessed both companies' systems and tracked payments they made to various suppliers. With this information, the hacker proceeded to send fake emails with invoices while pretending to be a vendor.</p>
<p>Spotting BEC is a little more complex than the other four types of email scams, but it is possible. Here are four tips on how to protect your firm:</p>
<ol>
<li>Commit to frequent but brief staff training on the latest BEC threats.</li>
<li>Don't process any sudden request for funds transfers from executives. Often, BEC involves emergency requests from c-suite staff, requests that are often hard for subordinates to decline without fear of punitive action.</li>
<li>Tighten-up your processes and consider shifting financial transfer responsibilities and the management of sensitive data transfer to outside parties. Most BEC cases occur as a result of internal threats or loopholes. Removing internal responsibility can prevent internal risks from causing BEC.</li>
<li>Install effective anti-phishing software to prevent known threats from reappearing or compromising your systems.</li>
</ol>
<h3 id="bonustipblockunwantedemail">Bonus Tip: Block Unwanted Email</h3>
<p>Block Sender is a powerful and efficient <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/block-sender/bklnjbfcmglhiaoppcckdodanccbelcg">Chrome Browser extension</a> that integrates with Gmail. It helps you protect your inbox by blocking unwanted emails in by email address, domain name, domain extension, a phrase, subject line or IP address.</p>
<img alt="block emails" class="img-responsive" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/block-button-inbox-screenshot-highlighted.jpg">
<img alt="block email by name" class="img-responsive" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/extension-create-block-by-name.png">
<p>It also comes with smart bounce-back notifications to make spammers believe that they've tried an email address that does not exist.</p>
<p>While most email scams are often easy to spot, they all rely on human nature to be successful. As a Gmail user, protecting yourself from these five types of email is just as important as securing your home at night. Email scams will continue to evolve and become more sophisticated, but with a little know-how, you can train yourself to spot, get rid of and prevent threats quickly and easily.</p>


How to Spot and Beat Email Scams

<p>It may be hard to believe, but at the time of this writing, Gmail is over 20 years old! And while you may not remember when you opened your Gmail account, there's a pretty good chance that you rely on it dearly.</p>
<p>In the last decade, Gmail's received a number of updates. From canned responses to color labels, Gmail's new look has made it easier to use. While most people may not want much out of Gmail, there are those who spend their days in the tool and want to be able to do more.</p>
<h2 id="gmailhackstostreamlineyourday">Gmail Hacks to Streamline Your Day</h2>
<p>If you belong to the latter group and want to level-up your Gmail proficiency, stay tuned. In this blog post, we share 12 Gmail hacks that will help you get more done faster.</p>
<h3 id="1usekeyboardshortcuts">1. Use Keyboard Shortcuts</h3>
<p>Keyboard shortcuts are probably not the first Gmail hack you'd expect, but they're likely to be a hack you'll implement immediately and use daily.</p>
<p>Like all other keyboard shortcuts, Gmail has an extensive list of options. In fact, you have access to more than <em>100</em> shortcuts.</p>
<img alt="Gmail Hacks" class="img-responsive" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/gmail-hacks-8-ways-get-more-done-less-time-1.png">
<p>Here are a few of many you're likely to use frequently:</p>
<ul>
<li>Compose: &quot;c&quot;</li>
<li>Compose in a tab: &quot;d&quot;</li>
<li>Mute conversation: &quot;m&quot;</li>
<li>Search mail: &quot;/&quot;</li>
<li>Forward: &quot;f&quot;</li>
</ul>
<p>To view the complete list of Gmail keyboard shortcuts, simply press <code>Shift + ?</code> while Gmail is open on your desktop.</p>
<p>By default, keyboard shortcuts are disabled in Gmail. To enable them, go to the <strong>gear icon</strong> &gt; <strong>Settings</strong> &gt; scroll to <strong>Keyboard shortcuts</strong> and enable the feature. Next, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the <strong>Save Changes</strong> button.</p>
<h3 id="2blockunwantedemail">2. Block Unwanted Email</h3>
<p>Spam and other forms of unwanted email are serious business. It's escalated over the years as spammers have turned to more sophisticated methods. Today, spam can contain ransomware or send you to a fake website that's almost indistinguishable from the original, all with the goal of financial gain for the spammer.</p>
<p>While Gmail comes with a built-in spam filter, spam sometimes gets through. And because spammers have been known to change tactics to avoid Gmail's spam filter, more and more spam finds its way to inboxes daily.</p>
<p>The solution?</p>
<p>Try Block Sender. It's a powerful <a target="_blank" href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/block-sender/bklnjbfcmglhiaoppcckdodanccbelcg">Chrome Browser extension</a> that integrates with Gmail. It allows you to block unwanted emails in 8 different ways, and also comes with very handy bounce-back notifications for spammers or email stalkers.</p>
<img class="img-responsive" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/gmail-hacks-8-ways-get-more-done-less-time-2.jpg">
<br/>
<img class="img-responsive" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/gmail-hacks-8-ways-get-more-done-less-time-3.png">
<p><a target="_blank" href="/"><strong>Try Block Sender Today &gt;&gt;</strong></a></p>
<h3 id="3usetasksingmail">3. Use Tasks in Gmail</h3>
<p>If you've been looking for a way to manage more than just email, there's a really good chance that you've tried one or more task-tracking apps.</p>
<p>It's also likely that you've wanted something that fits perfectly with the rest of Google's apps.</p>
<p>Enter Google Tasks.</p>
<p>It's a feature that's available in Gmail. Previously, Tasks wasn't a tool most were aware of or easily found. Recent updates have seen this handy tool placed in a more accessible position towards the right of your browser window.</p>
<p>You can add emails to tasks, making it easier to organize, tackle, and complete more related tasks in one go.</p>
<img class="img-responsive" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/gmail-hacks-8-ways-get-more-done-less-time-4.png">
<p>Like many Google apps, you also have access to Tasks from your mobile phone. Simply download the app from the <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.tasks">Play Store</a> or <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/google-tasks-get-things-done/id1353634006">Apple App Store</a> and log in using your Gmail account information.</p>
<h3 id="4createafilter">4. Create a Filter</h3>
<p>Filters can be timesavers. They were designed to be used in various ways, from automatically archiving certain emails to assigning labels to specific messages.</p>
<p>Filters are also useful for helping prioritize emails. For example, if you want to respond immediately to all email queries submitted from an online form on your website, but struggle to spot them in your inbox, creating a filter will help. Your filter can be set to always label emails sent with a specific subject line from your web form.</p>
<p>As Gmail also offers color labels, you can assign a color to all web form emails. Labels appear in the left-hand menu where you'll have easy access to all web form emails going forward.</p>
<img class="img-responsive" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/gmail-hacks-8-ways-get-more-done-less-time-5.png">
<p>Read <a target="_blank" href="/how-to-filter-emails-in-gmail/">How to Filter Emails in Gmail</a> for steps on how to create filters.</p>
<h3 id="5speedupemailcreationwithcannedresponse">5. Speed up Email Creation with Canned Response</h3>
<p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="/guide-to-canned-responses-in-gmail/">Canned responses</a> are the quintessential solution to dealing with repetitive email requests that you send or need to reply to. Enabled from the <strong>Advanced</strong> tab (<strong>gear icon</strong> &gt; <strong>Settings</strong> &gt; <strong>Advanced</strong>), they allow you to create templated emails that can be used for common requests.</p>
<p>For example, say you often receive a specific question from your client base. Instead of copying text from a document, or typing up a reply each time, simply use a canned response.</p>
<img class="img-responsive" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/gmail-hacks-8-ways-get-more-done-less-time-6.jpg">
<small>Image: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-enable-and-use-canned-responses-in-gmail/">TechRepublic</a></small>
<h3 id="6usesmartcompose">6. Use Smart Compose</h3>
<p>You may have already seen Smart Compose in action, but if you haven't, it's worth giving it a go. Smart Compose is a predictive text feature in Gmail. It makes it easier to reply to emails by predicting the rest of your sentence.</p>
<p>While it may look and feel a little creepy at first, once you start to use it, it grows on you.</p>
<img class="img-responsive" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/gmail-hacks-8-ways-get-more-done-less-time-7.png">
<small>Image: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/software/smart-compose-3677031/">Tech Advisor</a></small>
<p>To activate Smart Compose, go to <strong>Settings</strong> &gt; <strong>General</strong>. Scroll down to Smart Compose and select the &quot;Writing suggestions on&quot; radio dial button.</p>
<h3 id="7undosend">7. Undo Send</h3>
<p>While this may not seem like a Gmail hack immediately, it definitely is. Ever send an email in Gmail and realize that you left out important information or sent it to the wrong person? Ever wonder how to prevent that or recall the email?</p>
<p>Unlike Outlook and other email clients, Gmail doesn't come with an email recall feature. Instead, you can set a send cancellation period.</p>
<p>Send cancellation periods allow you a grace window in which you can cancel an email you've just sent. This saves you the time and hassle of resending another email with an apology, explanation, or correction.</p>
<img class="img-responsive" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/gmail-hacks-8-ways-get-more-done-less-time-8.jpg">
<p>The maximum window is 30 seconds which is about the right amount of time to realize any omissions or mistakes made with sending emails.</p>
<p><strong>Note</strong>: While this feature is helpful, the option to cancel an email within the 30-second window is lost if you open a new email, click on a tab or select label.</p>
<p>To set your Undo Send window to 30 seconds, go to the <strong>gear icon</strong> &gt; <strong>Settings</strong> &gt; <strong>General</strong>. Go to Undo Send and select the 30-second duration from the dropdown menu.</p>
<p>For more information, read our complete guide on the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="/gmail-undo-send-feature-what-it-is-and-how-to-use-it/">Gmail Undo Send feature</a>.</p>
<h3 id="8gooffline">8. Go Offline</h3>
<p>Going offline may seem counter-intuitive, but it's one of the smarter email hacks out there. It's an effective way to block out time and interruptions (think social media and/or other notifications) that would otherwise keep you from dealing with email according to <a target="_blank" href="/achieving-inbox-zero-in-gmail/">your set routine</a>.</p>
<p>Once activated, you still have access to all the important email-related features you need. You can read, respond to, and search for emails.</p>
<p>To use Gmail offline, ensure your internet connection is on. Next, go to <strong>Settings</strong> &gt; <strong>Offline</strong> tab.</p>
<img class="img-responsive" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/gmail-hacks-8-ways-get-more-done-less-time-9.jpg">
<p><strong>Note</strong>: If you're a Google Business Apps user, you may need to ask your administrator to activate the feature for you if it's currently unavailable.</p>
<p>Once activated, you'll need to wait for your email and content to sync before going offline.</p>
<h3 id="9writebetteremailsfasterwithgrammarly">9. Write Better Emails Faster With Grammarly</h3>
<p>We've all been there. You're in the zone and ready to tackle your inbox. But just before you hit send, you spot a typo. Then you see a spelling issue. You also begin to question whether you've used a certain word within the right context…</p>
<p>That's why Grammarly was built. It spots these and tons of other little mistakes people make on a daily basis, mistakes that could cost you credibility.</p>
<p>Using this nifty tool will help you pick up everything from typos to syntax and spelling errors. It highlights these with a red underline and all you need do is mouse-over the text and select the best replacement. This all leads to shorter proofreads and edits, lots of time saved, and you also get to save face.</p>
<p>Adding it to Gmail is easy. It's available for download as a <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/grammarly-for-chrome/kbfnbcaeplbcioakkpcpgfkobkghlhen?hl=en">free Chrome extension</a>.</p>
<img class="img-responsive" src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/gmail-hacks-8-ways-get-more-done-less-time-10.png">
<h3 id="10keepmessagesbrief">10. Keep Messages Brief</h3>
<p>No one likes to read long blocks of text, especially when they are sent through emails. So whether you are communicating professionally or sending a personal message through email, keep it brief.</p>
<p>If your email's body exceeds 100 words, you should consider summarizing it. You can also use an efficient online <a href="https://www.check-plagiarism.com/text-summarizer" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">summarizer</a> for this purpose. Simply paste your message into the tool; it will make it concise without missing anything important for free.</p>
<h3 id="11gmailintwotabs">11. Gmail in Two Tabs</h3>
<p>Ever try searching for an email or series of emails, then try compiling an email in Gmail at the same time? What about toggling between filters and labels while also trying to send email at the same time?</p>
<p>It's kind of a challenge.</p>
<p>Sure, Gmail allows you to compose emails in almost all views, but that can prove just a little too cluttered on a busy day.</p>
<p>The solution? Try using two tabs. One for searching, filters and labels, and the other strictly to send emails. Sounds a little weird, but give it a go. You'll experience a sense of order about your email experience as you apply this hack.</p>
<h3 id="12goinboxzero">12. Go Inbox Zero</h3>
<p>Email can control your day if you don't control it. That's why inbox zero has become such a strong productivity methodology. In a sentence, it's all about creating a routine for prioritizing and replying to emails daily.</p>
<p>Here are four tips for achieving inbox zero:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Determine when you'll deal with emails</strong>. This can be at the top of each hour or second hour.</li>
<li><strong>Block unwanted emails</strong>. Blocking and getting rid of unwanted emails is a big timesaver. With less clutter, you'll have more time to focus on what matters. You can block unwanted emails with Block Sender's <a target="_blank" href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bklnjbfcmglhiaoppcckdodanccbelcg">free Chrome Extension</a>.</li>
<li><strong>Prioritize email</strong>. Segment email into two categories. The first includes those that can be handled in under two minutes (think answers to simple questions or those that should be passed onto people who are best suited to help). The second includes complex emails that require more than two minutes to reply to. You can also choose when to deal with each category. Inbox zero is all about structure. Batching email by completing quick emails first is a smart way to go.</li>
<li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="/how-to-use-gmail-labels-to-organize-your-emails/"><strong>Label your emails</strong></a>. Label emails from each category accordingly in Gmail.</li>
</ol>
<p>Read our full article <a target="_blank" href="/achieving-inbox-zero-in-gmail/">Achieving Inbox Zero in Gmail</a>.</p>
<h2 id="summary">Summary</h2>
<p>While not an exhaustive list, these Gmail hacks are sure to save you loads of time. They'll help you access features faster, prevent unwanted emails, prioritize messages, speed up replies, and give you the flexibility to cancel sent emails and work offline.</p>


Gmail Hacks: 12 Ways to Get More Done in Less Time

<p>Love or hate email, it's pretty much here to stay. While it's the preferred medium of communication for business, you don't need to become a slave to your inbox.</p>
<p>In this blog post, we're sharing our 4-step approach to achieving Inbox Zero in Gmail.</p>
<p>We'll help you determine when your prime email time should be, share how to prioritize your emails, provide tips on preventing your inbox from receiving unwanted email, and how to use labels in Gmail to streamline your inbox.</p>
<p>But before we dig into these four tips, what is &quot;Inbox Zero&quot; anyway?</p>
<p>Inbox Zero is a term coined by Merlin Mann. Mann, a productivity expert, created Inbox Zero as a way to keep his email inbox empty <strong>at all times</strong>.</p>
<p>Here's a look at the broad strokes of Mann's approach:</p>
<ul>
<li>Only open your email client when you're attending to email (at a specified time)</li>
<li>Attend to email periodically throughout the day. Here, Mann recommends the top of each hour.</li>
<li>Delete and/or archive as many new emails as possible.</li>
<li>Pass along emails to a team member who is best equipped to handle the issue.</li>
<li>Immediately reply to new emails you can deal with in under two minutes.</li>
<li>Create folders for emails that can be replied to in under two minutes and those that need more attention</li>
<li>Dedicate time daily to clearing out all emails that need more than two minutes to reply to.</li>
</ul>
<p>While these guidelines seem relatively straightforward, grey areas begin to appear as you try to apply each rule.</p>
<p>For example, what if you're a busy person and spend your days in meetings. Attending to email at the top of each hour becomes a little challenging. How and when should you get to email?</p>
<p>And, how do you prevent unwanted emails from entering your inbox, especially if you don't have the time to create complex filters in Gmail?</p>
<h2 id="aflexibleapproachtoinboxzeroforgmail">A Flexible Approach to Inbox Zero for Gmail</h2>
<p>Gmail's likely one of the most amazing, yet unsung heroes of modern business operations. It makes it possible to do more at less of a cost, especially when paired with the rest of Google's Business Suite.</p>
<p>But as you become more reliant on Gmail, you experience many of the same challenges that you would with other email clients.</p>
<p>Spam is still an issue.</p>
<p>You need to be smart about managing your email labels (think folders in Outlook).</p>
<p>You also need to know how to create rules and filters to control what shows up in your inbox.</p>
<p>In our Inbox Zero approach, we'll help you tackle these issues and more.</p>
<h2 id="steponeestablishyouremailroutine">Step One: Establish Your Email Routine</h2>
<p>While clearing your inbox at the top of each hour may make for a highly productive day, it may not be possible. Your schedule may not allow it.</p>
<p>How do you establish your routine?</p>
<p>Here are a series of questions to help you find yours:</p>
<p><em>Can you block out time slots in your calendar?</em></p>
<p>Blocking out time will allow you to focus specifically on email. You'll need to accommodate the easy-to-reply-to and the more complex emails.</p>
<p><em>How much time can you easily spare each day?</em></p>
<p>30 minutes? 1 hour? As you look at your calendar and think about your daily schedule, consider when you'd be able to commit to email.</p>
<p>You want to develop a habit of attending to email at a specific time daily. Committing to a set time will help rid you of the impulse to check email sporadically, allowing you to focus on other responsibilities and not be tied down by email.</p>
<p><em>When are you most focused in your day?</em></p>
<p>Are you a morning person? Do you get more done in the afternoon? Are you able to get more email done in the evening?</p>
<p>If you deal with more complex emails in the evening, can your emails wait that long to be attended to?</p>
<h2 id="steptwoprioritizeemail">Step Two: Prioritize Email</h2>
<p>Email, according to Mann, comes in two forms. You get easy-to-respond-to and complex emails.</p>
<p>The trick to determining which emails are easy and complex is understanding what they both look like.</p>
<p>Easy emails can be replied to in less than two minutes. These emails usually come in the form of:</p>
<ul>
<li>Simple questions people need answers to</li>
<li>Direction or instruction requests</li>
<li>Information requirements</li>
<li>Approvals</li>
<li>Feedback you can provide without batting an eye</li>
</ul>
<p>Complex emails take longer to address. These types of emails typically:</p>
<ul>
<li>Require research or data to provide a reply</li>
<li>Need expertise and insight to be shared with clear explanations and detail</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Pro Tip:</strong> If an email requires an in-depth response, consider picking up the phone and having a conversation. It will be more fruitful to exchange ideas in real-time and be more productive than saving a lengthy email reply for later in your day.</p>
<h2 id="stepthreeassignemailsusinggmaillabels">Step Three: Assign Emails Using Gmail Labels</h2>
<p>Most people equate <a target="_blank" href="/how-to-use-gmail-labels-to-organize-your-emails/">Gmail labels</a> to folders in Outlook, but they are different. Labels were designed as a way to tag different emails you receive. Tagging emails makes it easier to group them for easy retrieval or management.</p>
<p>Unlike folders in Outlook, deleting a label doesn't delete emails. Instead, your emails will stay in your inbox.</p>
<p>You're also able to assign multiple labels to an email where Outlook only allows storing one email in one folder.</p>
<p>This kind of flexibility makes Gmail labels useful as you implement Inbox Zero. Labels can be used to segment emails by priority. You can drag and drop emails on labels.</p>
<p>By moving emails to &quot;easy&quot; or &quot;complex&quot; labels, you'll clear your inbox and can begin to tackle each kind of email.</p>
<h2 id="stepfourblockunwantedemailswithblocksender">Step Four: Block Unwanted Emails with Block Sender</h2>
<p>While it's hard to prevent spam, it's not the only reason why your inbox is filled with email. There's a good chance that you receive many legitimate emails because you're on an internal distribution list, for example.</p>
<p>It's also possible that you signed up for newsletters from a number of publications at one point, all of which seem to arrive in your inbox daily, if not weekly. And unfortunately some of these publications will eventually share/sell your email to third parties, causing you to receive even more unwanted mail.</p>
<p>So how do you manage these and other emails?</p>
<p>When we developed <a target="_blank" href="/">Block Sender</a>, we wanted to streamline email management. We also wanted to give Gmail users the ability to quickly and easily take action and choose what happens to emails they receive.</p>
<p>Fact is, Gmail blocks some spam, but it can't catch everything from everyone. Spammers have evolved their techniques. And there is a lot of email out there that rightfully isn't considered spam by Gmail, but you don't want to receive it anyway.</p>
<p>To block these emails, filters are an option, but most Gmail users find them confusing to create and hard to manage, especially when you have many filters.</p>
<p>Block Sender is a <a target="_blank" href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bklnjbfcmglhiaoppcckdodanccbelcg">Chrome Browser extension</a> (also <a target="_blank" href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/block-sender-for-gmail/">available for Firefox</a>). Once installed, you're able to use it to block any email you choose, all using the extra UI features our plugin provides to Gmail.</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/block-button-inbox-screenshot-highlighted.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p>You can block emails by:</p>
<ul>
<li>Name</li>
<li>Email address</li>
<li>Website and domain</li>
<li>Domain extension</li>
<li>Keyword</li>
<li>Subject</li>
<li>Phrase</li>
<li>IP address</li>
</ul>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/extension-create-block-by-name.png" alt=""></p>
<p>Blocking unwanted email will immediately decrease the amount of email you receive, making it easier to focus on what really matters in your inbox.</p>
<p>You're also able to choose what happens to your emails. You can send them to your archive folder or straight to trash. And if you're being spammed and want to put an end to it, you can use a bounce-back email that is sent to the sender.</p>
<p>Bounce-back emails include a text-based reply notifying the sender that your email address is not active or that their emails cannot get through. These are also great for anyone harassing you via email.</p>
<p><img src="https://block-sender.s3.amazonaws.com/media/bounce-back-sender-view.png" alt=""></p>
<h2 id="summary">Summary</h2>
<p>Inbox Zero is a systematic approach to managing email. It includes setting time to attend to email, understanding the difference between easy-to-reply-to and complex and when to respond to both. It also involves keeping your inbox clean by preventing unwanted emails and using Gmail labels to prioritize emails.</p>
<p>Using these 4 steps can make email management simpler. They are designed to be flexible enough to fit any work schedule, making it easier to keep your inbox clean and have productive and fulfilling work weeks.</p>


Here's how you can get to Inbox Zero in Gmail with four easy-to-execute steps.