5 Essential Add-ons for a more productive Gmail
by Celine Roque
Google is fond of keeping things simple, and this reflects in their services like Gmail. They are, however, also famous for being innovators – something that the variety of add-ons available on Gmail Labs would support. For power users who want additional features, try to look up what’s available under Settings > Labs. A few of the most handy ones are listed here:
1. Undo Send
Ever pressed the Send button by mistake? We’ve all been there. The results are often incomplete emails, forgotten attachments, and unintended recipients. By enabling this feature, when you press the Send button, Gmail will delay the transmission of your messages by a short while. A new Undo button will be available near the top of the page for about 15 seconds, after which it will disappear, and your email will be sent.
2. Forgotten Attachment Detector
A common blooper around the office is promising attachments, but forgetting to send them. This feature scans your email for the word “attached”. When you hit Send and it senses that no files were chosen, it will ask you whether this was an oversight or not, allowing you to edit the email further. Simple yet effective.
3. Tasks
Using an organizer is fine, but if you have a lot of email-specific tasks to accomplish, why not keep track of them inside Gmail itself? Enabling Tasks will create a text link in your side menu, and clicking on that will open a simple to-do list. It’s easy to add and delete tasks, set a due date, and create notes for each task.
4. Keyboard Shortcuts
Some of us are more comfortable navigating with a mouse, but others swear that keyboard shortcuts make their work flow faster. If you’re in the latter category, why not enable this feature? Don’t forget that you still have to turn shortcuts ON under Settings > General afterwards, though. Default keystrokes are listed here.
5. Email Addict
As various studies have shown, in order to be productive, you’ve got to take some rest every once in a while. The Email Addict add-on puts a text link near the top of the page that says, “Take a break”. Clicking on it will lock you out of Gmail, to force you to rest your eyes or get some other work done. This is handy for those who obsessively check their emails every minute. It also makes you invisible in Google Chat.
Do you use any of the Google Labs features in Gmail? Which one’s your favorite?
Joking aside, I think I will start implementing Timothy Ferris’s tip in 4 hour work week book and checking email only twice a day in the future…
