How to organize your ideas in Gmail

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, E-mail, Productivity, Google, Freeware, How-Tos

How to organize your ideas in Gmail - Emailers Anonymous

by Jason Clarke Sep 4th 2008

A friend recently asked me how he could set his Gmail up so that he could email himself ideas, and have them be automatically filed away into a specific label instead of clogging up his inbox. Gmail has a function called Filters which is similar to rules in other email systems, and it is very powerful and well-suited to this task. If you would like to be able to email yourself information and have it automatically be stored away into a label and stay out of your inbox, follow these instructions.

So the first thing to keep in mind is that there are reasons where you might legitimately want to email yourself and have it show up in your inbox, for example you might Reply All to something and find that your email address was included as an addressee. You don't want a thread like that one getting automatically moved into a folder, or you might miss it.

So the solution is to use a custom email address, which is easy. Gmail supports an email standard that allows you to add a plus symbol after your username, and anything you like after that. So an email sent to username+ideas@gmail.com will go right into your Gmail account the same way one sent to username@gmail.com will.

But here's the cool thing: you can filter based on the actual incoming email address. Here's how:

1. Click Settings at the top right of Gmail
2. Click the Filters tab
3. Click Create a new filter at the bottom of the page
4. in the To: field, put username+ideas@gmail.com (or whatever email address addition you want to use)
5. Click Next
6. Check the Skip the Inbox box
7. Check the Apply the label: box, then click Choose label... in the drop down and pick New label
8. Make a label for your ideas, maybe called Ideas
9. Click Create Filter

You're done. Now test it by emailing yourself at this new (fake) email address. It won't show up in your inbox, but should show as unread in the Ideas (or whatever label you chose) folder.

You can use this little hack to set up multiple labels so that you can email yourself specific types of information and set up rules to ensure that they all end up in the right pile.

For more email tips, check out some of our other Emailers Anonymous posts.

Tags: auto-tagging, automatic-filtering, Emailers-Anonymous, Gmail, gmail-filters, gmail-labels, labels, tagging, tagging-email

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Aniruddh said 8:45PM on 9-04-2008

I'm doing the same thing to save my ideas, important note & codes but for sending msg to Gmail I'm using note2email.com ...It is a web application designed for sending quick text notes to any email address.

supernova_hq said 9:14PM on 9-04-2008

Wow, I had no idea about the "+" thing. I'm not sure if I'm going to use the filters for notes, but having a near infinite number of slightly different emails could be VERY useful.

In fact, telling friends & family to add "+notspam" to your username when emailing you could help them avoid the junk box :)

davidf said 9:30PM on 9-04-2008

I use a similar idea with my domain-based email to filter my messages, especially website and newsletter accounts. So by using name+downloadsquad@gmail.com I could automatically filter any messages and also tell if my email address was being sold on to third parties.

Ryan said 10:29PM on 9-04-2008

Cheers for the info - never knew about the + thing either - DLS and Gmail rocks

Phil Bassett said 6:05AM on 9-05-2008

You can do exactly the same, but easier, by filtering on content.

I just put "Note to mee" in the body of the text. The misspelling of me is deliberate to avoid any other email that might contain these words getting caught

Atanas Boev said 10:12AM on 9-05-2008

I use google notebook for quick notes.
Now, I have a google chrome desktop link, and its even better.
1) Open Chrome
2) Go to http://www.google.com/notebook/ig
3) Choose "create application shortuts"

Now you have a small window, for quick access to your google notes. You can use it offline, it syncs back when you go online :) Gears rulez.

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters