Gmail: Manage Your Gmail Inbox

In this video, you will learn to manage and organize your Gmail inbox using a variety of methods.

Filters allow you to sort your emails as they arrive in your inbox, which makes organizing your messages easier.

You can direct Gmail to automatically delete a message when it arrives, or put it in a specific folder that you create.

To create a filter, return to your Gmail settings.

Create filters based on criteria...

like who the message is from, who the recipient is, and what the subject line is.

Then, designate a rule to tell Gmail what to do with the message.

For example, if you’re working with someone on a fundraising project for your local community center, you might want all of your emails from that person to go into a specific folder, so you can easily access them later.

Your new filter will automatically apply to messages that are already in your inbox, as well as any new messages that arrive.

Delete the filter if you no longer need it.

At times, you may want to block an email address from emailing you.

This is often the case for spam messages, which are unsolicited messages sent to a large number of recipients at the same time.

Open the email.

Then, open the options pane and block the email address.

Check to make sure the address is blocked in your Gmail account settings.

To keep your inbox manageable, archive messages that you don't need in your inbox, but you don’t want to delete.

Any messages you archive will be moved to a folder called All Mail.

You can also choose to automatically archive a message when it is opened.

Open Gmail settings.

Create a filter for the emails you want to automatically archive.

Then, check the option to skip the inbox.

After you archive a message, it returns to your inbox when someone replies to it.

Or you can move it back to your inbox yourself.

If you’re no longer interested in reading replies to an email, mute it.

When you mute a message, any replies to the message stay out of your inbox and are automatically archived.

The message goes into the All Mail folder.

Search for a muted conversation if you want to find it again later.

To keep your inbox organized and your most important messages easy to find, your inbox is sorted into categories: primary, promotional, and social.

The social tab contains emails about your social media accounts and other similar messages.

The promotional tab contains email marketing newsletters from your favorite stores.

Access each category from a separate tab in your Gmail inbox.

You can disable any categories you don’t want in your settings.