So, what's the big deal about searching? You've been using search functions for years, right? You're used to sorting messages in your inbox by name
and subject.
Now, forget what you've learned and stick around. Google has come up with a unique way to manage your email: instead of sorting messages (boring!), you search for them. Yeah, Sure, every provider has a search feature, but do they have labels? What's so great about labels? Right now, you're probably thinking, "I want to sort. Google doesn't care about the end user. I'm using [another provider] where I can sort."
Now, forget what you've learned and stick around. Google has come up with a unique way to manage your email: instead of sorting messages (boring!), you search for them. Yeah, Sure, every provider has a search feature, but do they have labels? What's so great about labels? Right now, you're probably thinking, "I want to sort. Google doesn't care about the end user. I'm using [another provider] where I can sort."
If you're a little patient and think of a whole new way to organize your emails, you'll find gmail fun, easy, and far more functional than those old-fashioned sort providers. Here's the difference: instead of having several emails in several folders that you have to keep reorganizing, you have one email with several labels.
That's really a lot more efficient and easier: you don't need several emails. In most providers, you have folders. So, the best way to keep all your data
organized is to have a copy of an email relating to any aspect of the project
in each folder. Let's say you have folders set up something like this:
Now, to keep track of your emails and stay organized, you keep copies
of emails in different folders. For
example, your production team added a new functionality to the widget. You need to inform the client of the new
specifications.
If you use folders and want to stay on track, you will put a
copy of the same email into different folders. Your inbox would look something like this:
Using this example, you would need to keep a copy of your email regarding your new widget in the "Joel on software" file. You would probably want to put another copy in the "Partnerships" file, whe
Ultimately, you would need to keep a copy of an email in every folder. And, you would have to make sure you cross-referenced everything in your other folders, right? Is this starting to sound tedious? Repetitive?
Ultimately, you would need to keep a copy of an email in every folder. And, you would have to make sure you cross-referenced everything in your other folders, right? Is this starting to sound tedious? Repetitive?
And, this is why gmail uses labels. It's a simple concept. Let's take the same widget project. Instead of the mess above, just assign
labels. One email can have several
labels: so, if you want to keep track of
the production process and the new technical specifications and maybe keep in
touch with the client, you can create labels just as you would folders.
Searching is easy, and it's much more powerful than sorting
- once you learn a few tricks! In this tip, we'll look at using keyword
searches to help you quickly find messages from a specific person or
with a specific subject".
