Email Tips From A Google Insider

Once again we share a blog from Cassandra Johnson, blogger for PPAI publication,  

Promotional Consultant Today. If your office is anything like our office, you receive HUNDREDS 

of emails a day. In fact our owner Olivia often jokes that her responsiveness and accessibility by 

e-mail is putting pounds on her waist line.  The promotional industry “lives” by email. We share 

information between suppliers multiple times a day regarding artwork, pricing, stock, virtual images, 

e proofs…..well you get it…..then that information is shared with the client creating some long 

e-mail threads.

We share some quick tips today- 

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place” 

George Bernard Shaw

Email Tips From A Google Insider

Email.  It’s a word cursed across all companies. The statistics surrounding the time spend managing 

email are staggering. Research shows the average worker spends 13 hours a week, 28 percent of 

office time, on email. One estimate is that the average worker writes 41, 638 words a year in emails,

 the equivalent of writing a 166 page novel each year.

However if you are using Gmail either for work or personal email, you are in luck. Promotional 

Consultant Today shares these tips from former Google employee Rodolphe Dutel on little- 

know Gmail features that can help improve your email use. 

The good news for those who don’t use Gmail is that as email systems work to keep up with each other, many of these same features may also be available now or in the near future.

Enable Undo Send. If you’ve ever found yourself resending emails because you made a mistake 

in the first try or forgot an attachment, you know how this can derail your day.  In Gmail’s 

Setting menu, there is the option to “enable Undo Send” and a time setting for this Undo to be active. 

If you enable this setting, after you click the send button, you will see an UNDO link next to the 

message saying your email has been sent. This link gives you between five and 30 seconds (you choose) to undo the send if you spot something amiss in your email.

Use Canned Responses.

If you find yourself constantly writing the same responses on emails r very similar ones, there is 

an option in Gmail to craft Canned Responses that can be populated into an email as a starting 

point, saving you time in retyping the same thing over and over. You can then customize the email 

from that point. To enable and create your canned responses, go to Setting and then click on Labs, then Canned Responses.

Use Email Offline.

If you want to take advantage of available time when you are not connected to a network or wifi, 

search the app store in your device for Gmail Offline, a Google app that stores a limited amount 

of your Gmail information on your device so you can respond or create emails when not connected 

and they will be sent the next time you connect.

Keep Your Email Safe.

To keep others from accessing your email and keep your information safe, Google has a two-factor 

authentication system that requires the user to enter both a password and a second unique code 

( sent to you via the app or text message) to access the email system. 

Yes, it’s an extra step to log in, but it might keep you from later explaining how critical information 

got in the wrong hands or why your email address is sending out tons of spam. Information on how 

to set up the two-factor authentication can be found here.

The two-factor authentication can be found https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1066447

Consider Apps

There are a number of paid and free apps that can help you manage your email. Dutel suggests using 

Inbox Pause if you want to pause your email system from receiving incoming emails for a period of 

time while you are immersed in a project ( the emails are delivered to you when you un-pause). 

Unroll.me another program to help quickly and easily unsubscribe from email you don’t want and 

get a single daily digest of those emails you do want. Sidekick will send you notifications when 

an email has been sent, delivered and read. There are many other apps that work with Gmail. 

Check the app store for your device to find these and others.

Source: Rodolphe Dutel http://blog.remotive.io/author/rodolphe/  is a buffer product specialist 

and is alos the founder of Remotive.

Compiled by Cassandra Johnson

What tip do you think you can implement?