A good way to organize your emails is to color-code them, so you will be able to keep track of the messages. Below, we have discussed how to create and use colored labels in Gmail to organize your emails in detail.
1. Create Labels
To begin organizing your emails, the first thing that you need to do is create a label. Below, we have listed the steps for creating labels. These steps work for both the Gmail web app and EasyMail for Gmail, but will not work if you are using Gmail offline.
Follow these steps to proceed:
Launch your browser and open your Gmail inbox. Head over to the left pane and expand the More section. Scroll down and choose Create a New Label. In the following dialog, type a name for the label and hit the Create button.
If in case these steps do not work for you, you can try creating a new label by going into the Gmail settings. Here is how you can do that:
In your Gmail inbox, click on the gear icon in the top right corner and select See all settings. In the next window, head over to the Labels tab and scroll down the window. Click on the Create new label button as shown below. Enter a name for the label and hit the Create button.
You have now successfully created a new label.
2. Color Code the Emails
Now that you have created a new label, it is time to color code it to make it visually stand out from the other emails in your inbox. Here is what you need to do:
In your Gmail window, head over to the left pane and locate the newly created label. Hover your cursor over the label and click on the three dots that appear next to it. Navigate to Label color and choose a color of your choice. You can also create a custom color by clicking on Add custom color in the same context menu.
3. Apply a Filter
After you add color to your label, you can customize your inbox so that the targeted emails are labeled. Moving forward, there are two methods of doing so.
You can either select the existing emails in your inbox and label them, or you can manually apply the filter to the targeted emails. The latter will automatically label all future emails. You can do both as well!
1. Label the Existing Emails
Follow these steps to label the existing emails in your inbox:
To label the messages in your inbox, select the targeted emails by clicking on the checkboxes associated with them. Click on the label icon on the toolbar. Then, checkmark the box associated with the label you want to apply and click on Apply to make the changes.
If you just want to label a single email, right-click on it and choose Label as > [desired label].
2. Manually Label Email Addresses
If you manually apply the labeling filter to email addresses, all the emails you receive from them in the future will be automatically color-coded. Follow these steps to do so:
Click on the Show search options icon in the address bar located at the top of the window. In the text field associated with From, type the targeted address and then click on Create filter. In the following dialog, checkmark the box associated with Apply the label and expand its drop-down menu. Choose the targeted label and click on Create filter again.
The emails you will receive from this email from now onwards will be color-coded. If you are a productivity geek like us, you can also consider using Gmail add-ons to improve your efficiency.
Regain Control of Your Inbox
The steps listed above should help you better organize your emails and regain control of your inbox. Organizing and managing your email will help you spend less time dealing with it, and enable you to pay more attention to the things that lead to your success.
