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

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

Tehhund — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 12:42:09 -0800

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.

By: beyond_pink

beyond_pink — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 12:56:21 -0800

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.

By: w0mbat

w0mbat — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:51:19 -0800

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.

By: town of cats

town of cats — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 19:43:25 -0800

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.