How I stay organized in Gmail

8 tools to help you tame your inbox

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Two years ago, I started using “The World’s Fastest Email,” Superhuman. I LOVED it. I developed so many great email habits while using the platform, and an affinity for inbox zero. The catch… it cost me $30/mo (that’s over $300 a year just on email management 🤯).

I told myself if I couldn’t create a system for myself in Gmail that was on par with my Superhuman routine, I would continue using the service for my own sanity. Luckily, I was able to cut ties with Superhuman without compromising a clean inbox.

✨ Here are the 8 Gmail tools I use to create inbox zen:

🏷️ Custom Labels

This is the only context in which I’d refer to myself as a label wh*re. If you’re a label-making machine, it’s time to take that shit digital. Here’s how I like to customize my labels:

🌈 Add emojis and colors

I love making labels fun and aesthetically pleasing using emojis and custom colors!

To access emojis on Mac keyboards, just press fn
You can also copy/paste an emoji from https://emojipedia.org/

👋 Choose to hide labels or only ‘Show if unread’ to keep the sidebar clean

Sometimes seeing all those different colors and emojis can be overstimulating. I like to keep most labels as ‘Show if unread’ so they only pop up if there’s a new email in the filter. I also like to mark things as ‘Show’ if there’s a particular project or client I want to keep top of mind. Right now, that’s 2023 Taxes 🙃

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✅ Priority Inbox

This was a total game-changer for me, and one of the reasons I don’t think I could ever move away from Gmail. I like to use labels as a way of prioritizing my inbox by action: