Managing your Inbox when your Inbox is Everything

Our email inbox has a way of taking over our workday if we're not careful. These features will help you manage your inbox by making email a more efficient process.

Our email inbox has a way of taking over our workday if we're not careful. These features will help you manage your inbox by making email a more efficient process.

Schedule Send

Want someone to get a message at just the right time? Going on vacation but still want to send an update to someone when you’re away? With Gmail, you can compose your email and schedule it to send at a specific date and time. 

Schedule an Email to Send Later

1. Open Gmail.
2. Click Compose and enter a recipient and text. (You might see Compose  instead.)
3. At the bottom, next to Send, click the Down arrow  > Schedule send.
4. Select or specify a date and time to send the message.

View or Change Scheduled Email

1. Open Gmail.
2. On the left, click Scheduled.
3. Open the email that you want to change.
4. Click Cancel send.
5. Make any changes.
6. Next to Send, click the Down arrow  > Schedule send.
7. Select or specify a date and time to send the message.

Snooze

For emails that you need to read at a later date and time, you can snooze them until exactly when you need them.

1. Open Gmail and point to an email.
2. On the right, click Snooze .
3. Under Snooze until, choose a time.
   • The email automatically snoozes and moves out of your inbox. You will get a reminder about the snoozed email after the specified time.
4. (Optional) To see all snoozed emails, click Snoozed in the left sidebar.

Insert Signature

Your signature can include your name, title, contact information, and pictures or links. You can also create multiple signatures.

Create a Signature

1. Open Gmail.
2. At the top right, click Settings  > See all settings.
3. In the General tab, scroll to Signature and click Create new.
4. Name your signature, then click Create.
   This name is not your actual signature but is a name for the signature template.
5. In the text box at the right, add your signature text.
6. Use the format bar to add text colors, links, and images.
7. At the bottom, click Save Changes.

Add a Signature to an Email

1. Open Gmail.
2. Click Compose.
3. Click Insert signature and select a signature.

Templates

Tired of typing the same reply every time someone sends you an email with a common question? Compose your reply once and save the email as a template (previously called a Canned Response). Later, you can open the template and send it again with just a few clicks.

Enable Templates

1. Open Gmail.
2. At the top right, click Settings  > See all settingss.
3. At the top, click Advanced.
4. In the Templates section, select Enable.
5. At the bottom, click Save Changes.

Create Templates

1. Open Gmail and click Compose.
2. In the Compose window, enter your template text.
   • Pro Tip: Remove your signature from the email because it is already set up to automatically be added to each email. This will prevent it from appearing twice.
3. Click More  > Templates.
4. Choose an option:
   • To create a new template, click Save draft as template > Save as new template.
   • To change a previously saved template, click Save draft as template and under Overwrite Template, choose a template and click Save to overwrite it.

Insert Templates

1. Open Gmail and click Compose.
2. Click More  > Templates.
3. To insert a template, under Insert template, choose a saved template to insert in your email.
4. Compose the rest of your message and click Send.

Send & Archive

If you want to clean up your inbox without deleting your emails, you can archive them. Your emails are moved to a label called "All Mail." To make this process even easier, you can turn on an option in the settings that changes your Send button to a Send & Archive that will both send the message you are replying to and achieve the message so it no longer appears in your inbox.

Turn on Send & Archive

1. Open Gmail.
2. At the top right, click Settings  > See all settings.
3. On the General tab, scroll to Send and Archive.
4. Select the Shoe "Send & Archive" button in reply.
5. At the bottom, click Save Changes.

Nudge

You might see old emails at the top of your inbox with a suggestion to reply or follow up. This is called a Nudge, which is automatically turned on in Gmail. A Nudge takes either an old message that you sent or a message that you got and lets you know if there's been no activity on the message within the last few days.

Turn Nudges On or Off

1. Open Gmail.
2. At the top right, click Settings  > See all settings.
3. On the General tab, scroll to Nudges and select the different options.
4. At the bottom, click Save Changes.

Smart Reply & Smart Compose

Smart Reply: To save time of typing short replies, Gmail may suggest replies based on the message you're received. Suggestions appear at the bottom of the message in boxes with blue font color. Click the response you would like to send, add anything additional, and send the message.

Smart Compose: You can let Gmail help you write emails faster. The Smart Compose feature is powered by machine learning and will offer suggestions as you type. To accept the suggestion, hit the Tab button to add the suggestion to your email.

Turn Smart Reply & Smart Compose On or Off

1. Open Gmail.
2. At the top right, click Settings  > See all settings.
3. On the General tab, scroll to Smart Compose and Smart Reply and select the different options.
4. At the bottom, click Save Changes.

 

These instructions are from the Google Workspace Learning Center. For more information on these and other tips, visit Gmail training and help.