Email System: GMail Instructions

Over @the99percent, I recently wrote on the email system I’m using to keep myself organized. Setting up in GMail is a bit more complicated than setting up in another mail client, so I thought I’d further elucidate here:

(1) Go to Gmail settings
(2) Click on Labs
(3) Enable Multiple Inboxes

(4) Go into Settings
(5) Click Labels, and create 3 new ones: Action Steps, Backburner, Delegated
(6) Back in Settings, click Multiple Inboxes

Set up like this:

Now, you can sort everything in your Inbox as explained in the article:

Action Steps // urgent to-dos that should be completed within 24 hours

Backburner // non-urgent tasks that can be checked back in on ~72 hours

Delegated // emails that you’ve sent out and are awaiting response on (important to track)

Everything else can be considered a Reference, and labeled/archived immediately.

Here’s the finished product:

Hope that helps!