For many of us who are using Gmail as their preferred email platform never really fully realize just how flexible and efficient Gmail can be when it comes to personalizing and making your Gmail experience better. If you want to make your Gmail a lean, mean and efficient email platforms, here’s a few things you should try.

gmail1-      Make use of keyboard shortcuts

Gmail allows you to make use of your keyboard to manipulate many of its different functions. You can use the arrow keys to check messages and write replies. You can send a message; add Cc and Bcc email addresses, and so much more. As a matter of fact, there’s a whole list of keyboard shortcuts that’s waiting to be used, all you need to do is activate them by going into the settings section of the gear icon.

Google provides a long list of keyboard shortcuts from their support section. You can view them here.

2-      Prepare standard messages to make replies faster and easier

We often reply to emails with similar messages. Whether we notice this or not, you can make replying to emails a lot faster by setting up canned responses. With just a few simple clicks, you can instantly generate a reply email. You can set up generic thank you messages or busy, I’ll email you later type of responses. This can be customized in the gear icon as well.

Moreover, you can also set up automatic email responses. This is particularly useful if you are out of town or on vacation and won’t have access to email for several days. You can view how this is done here.

3-      Filter your emails to your preference!

Email filtering is one of the best ways to organize your inbox and avoid getting confused or even losing emails. One of the best ways to set up a simple filtering system is by making use of Google’s email tabs feature. The Tabs categorize your emails between three default types, Primary email, Social and Promotions. However, Google does afford you the option of creating new tabs for yourself and setting up a new filter. This not only helps you see top priority emails but also allow you to systematically respond, delete or forward emails.

4-      Stop an email from accidentally being sent

This happens to the best of us. While composing an email we may accidentally click on the send button prematurely. Don’t worry, Gmail has got you covered. By simply click on the gear icon and go to the settings section, then go to the Labs section. You’ll see “Undo Send” you should activate this feature.

Once you have this set up, whenever you send out an email, a notice will appear for a couple of seconds giving you just that quick second chance you need to stop an email from going out if needed.

There are so much more features that the Gmail email platform provides to its users. Go through their support page to find out more how you can further customize your Gmail messaging experience.