Gmail doesn't come with instructions per se. They're more like guidelines.

October 15, 2012 12:42 PM

Is there a "Google-approved" Gmail workflow? (or several workflows?)

Has Google has published recommended workflows for managing emails in Gmail? Googling for “gmail workflow” turns up lots of people’s opinions, but they all vary slightly. I’m the kind of person who reads instruction manuals, so if Google has published their intended workflow I’d like to see that and use it as a base for my workflow. I’m interested in others’ ideal workflows as well, but since that question has been done before I’m mainly hoping to see a Google-approved flow.

I've dug through the Help section of Gmail, and they describe how to use each feature (labels, filters, archiving, forwarding, etc). They're a good "here are all the things you can do" overview. But I'm wondering if there's a "here's how we recommend you use Gmail to get the most out of it" page anywhere.

posted by Tehhund to computers & internet (3 answers total)

Here's a one hour video on managing your inbox with Gmail provided on the learn.googleapps.com site which covers three major workflows ("email management methodologies") and how they apply to Gmail. I have never seen Google recommend only one workflow.
posted by beyond_pink at 12:56 PM on October 15, 2012 [5 favorites]

Two behaviors I saw everywhere when I worked at Google:

Switch keyboard shortcuts on in GMail prefs, and do everything from the keyboard. Doesn't take long to get very fast. Type ? to see the shortcuts.

Make a filter and label for every mailing list you are on (or other source of lots of mail), with "skip the inbox" and "Apply the label" checked.
Gives you the functionality of folders and makes the inbox manageable.
posted by w0mbat at 4:51 PM on October 15, 2012 [5 favorites]

w0mbat has it, but keep in mind that the average Googler gets a staggering amount of mail on any given day. Lots of tricks that work for Googlers to keep the volume slightly less insane are probably overkill for most Gmail users which I imagine is why Google doesn't publish an "approved" workflow.
posted by town of cats at 7:43 PM on October 15, 2012 [1 favorite]