Despite existing for more than thirty years, emails still take up free time, annoy, frustrate and exasperate. The occasional email also makes us happy, but for the most part they are more of a chore than a pleasure. What if you could automatically label emails in Gmail, sort them all, apply a label, and remove spam? Wouldn’t that make life a little easier?
As far as I’m concerned, a self-monitoring inbox is the holy grail. Spam can be deleted, promotional and marketing emails can be tagged and left out, and important emails can be tagged as such and placed in a folder where you will see them. All email platforms say they offer this type of organization, but in my experience, only one does. Gmail.
The labels feature has literally changed the way I use Gmail. I can now confidently use this email address for insurance quotes, signing up for new websites, and all those activities that would normally end in an avalanche of spam. They still send that deluge, but now it doesn’t overwhelm my inbox.
Automatically label emails in Gmail
Labels help you categorize all your emails and organize them in a manageable way. Labels are folders in Gmail and can automatically identify, classify, and then organize all incoming emails using these labels.
By setting an Insurance tag, for example, I can tag and send to that folder all of my insurer’s regular insurance quote spam and marketing. I can then read them or delete them en masse as I see fit. I can rinse and repeat this as many times as I want for any subject or sender flooding my inbox.
Let’s create a spam email label that will classify all spam emails that Gmail’s own filter doesn’t catch.
- Select Create label from the menu on the left. Select Further if not visible.
- Name your new tag something meaningful and select Create.
- Select your new label and select the Arrow down in the search bar at the top of the page.
- Add drop out to the line Include the words.
- Select Create filter.
- Select Apply the label and select the label you created.
- Check the box next to any other carrier you want. Mark as read It is useful.
- Select Create filter.
Now, whenever a spam or marketing email arrives, Gmail will scan it for the word “unsubscribe” and label and move it. Since most legitimate spam contains this word somewhere, it is the most useful operator when dealing with spam.
Label work emails in Gmail
For other email filters, friends or work, for example, you can add a label with your name, the @worplace.com email address, or something more unique to the sender or type of email. The potential of these labels is enormous.
For example, if you work outside the office, it may be helpful to send all your work emails to a Work folder so you can quickly view them.
- Select Create label from the menu on the left.
- Name your new label Work and select Create.
- Select your Work label and select the Arrow down in the search bar at the top of the page.
- Add the last part of the email address to the Of line. For example, “@workplace.com.”
- Select Create filter.
- Select Apply the label and select the work label.
- Select Create filter.
From now on, all work emails from a given domain, “@workplace.com”, will be sent to the Work folder that was created in the left panel. Since we didn’t add any operators, they won’t be marked as read and you’ll see the number of emails next to the folder.
Exclude emails from labels
If you find that certain emails are caught in these tags that shouldn’t be, you can use exclusions to remove them. For example, if you want to retain certain newsletters that also use drop outand are caught in the above filter, you can use the “-” operator to exclude them.
Simply add –(*@emailaddress.com) in the From section of the filter and they will not be included. The * is a wildcard that will capture any address on that domain, and the “-” tells Gmail not to include the address in the label.
You can create as many labels in Gmail as you want and have them do all kinds of things, from sorting spam to filtering for work, groups, hobbies, or whatever. If your inbox was bursting at the seams from too much junk and you were missing out on useful emails. As a result, this is a very simple way to regain control.
If Gmail could somehow create a plugin that could automatically unsubscribe me from the hundreds of junk emails I receive weekly, it really would be the ultimate email!
