Update: I have posted an update to this article entitled ‘My GTD workflow for Gmail V2‘.
Soon after joining Google I realised how easily one can become overloaded with emails. I receive north of 300 emails a day and I quickly found that I was overwhelmed with email management. It was at that point I decided rethink my email management system. The following article will outline the system that works for me. It’s worth noting that everyone is different and the system that will work for you will undoubtedly be different. However, I hope you can take something from the logic and methods I share in the rest of this article.
I use the following Gmail features extensively. You will need to familiarise yourself with these features before proceeding.
- Labels – Regular Gmail users will be familiar with labels. If you are an Outlook user then labels will require a slight change in thinking. The key difference between labels and folders is that an email can have multiple labels applied to it, whereas an email can only ever be placed in one folder. Additionally, folders can be nested within each other whereas labels cannot. You can find more information in the Gmail Help Centre.
- Multiple Inbox – You can enable Multiple inboxes within the labs feature in Gmail. You can find more information at the Official Gmail Blog.
Labels – In rethinking the way I manage my emails, I decided to use a workflow process. The general concept is that emails flow into my inbox and are then assigned at least one of the following labels:
- *follow-up
- *to-review
Multiple Inbox – I used the following search queries in setting up my Multiple Inbox.
- label:star AND (label:*follow-up OR label:*to-review OR label:drafts)
- label:*follow-up -label:starred
- label:*to-review -label:starred
Keeping my Inbox Empty - One of the most important aspects of my GTD email management system is keeping my inbox empty. I open my inbox 3 times per day: 9am, 1pm and 5pm. At this point I flick through my inbox and assign appropriate labels to the email. For instance, if my manager send asks me to follow up with a particular customer I will apply the label *follow-up and then archive it. If a colleague sends me a troubleshooting guide I will apply the label *to-review and then archive it. Regardless of what label I do or do not apply, I always archive the message so that my inbox is always empty.
Quick Tip - I use Gmail keyboard shortcuts extensively when flicking through my emails. By pressing the ] key the message is archived and you are immediatly brought to the next message. Note you must enable keyboard shortcuts in Gmail Settings.
Star messages you want to take action on today – Every morning I scan through all my *to-review and *follow-up messages to see what messages I want to take action on during this particular day. Based on my multiple inbox settings, the messages that are starred will appear in the “To-Do Today” inbox as shown below:
Conclusion – I find this workflow works for me as I can sift through large amounts of emails quickly whilst retaining focus on the items that need action. I use the multiple inbox feature as a workflow management system – such that email flow into my inbox, through my labels and ultimately into the starred inbox where I take action on that item.
Drawbacks – I would like to see the multiple inbox feature update automatically without the need for me to click the refresh button.
I’d be very interested to hear of any other Gmail GTD systems that you use. Please let me know in the comments below.