You've Got Mail!

In this crazy digital world, it can be incredibly hard to keep your online presence organized. People have multiple social media networks, multiple virtual address books, and not to mention all the fluffy pictures and videos that we tag and save on our cloud space.

I have witnessed, as I am sure many of you have, the horrifying email inbox that has 3,045 some unread emails and countless pages of read emails that have long been forgotten. The average email inbox has become the digital black hole where information is lost. It can seem impossible to organize your email, but alas, there is in fact a way with Google's Gmail!

Gmail is Google's prodigy and it runs just as clean as Google's search engine. If haven't already transferred your email over to Gmail, I definitely recommend it. Not only is Gmail very easy to learn, but it can be very easy to transfer current contacts and emails over to your Gmail account. The compatibility with other email sources is also pristine. If you use Outlook, it can be very easy to access your Gmail account through your Outlook system. For more information on this merger, About.com has a great step by step process of setting up everything.

OK, back to organizing. One of the best settings in Gmail happens to be the ultimate online organization tool. Gmail has the power to automatically filter your incoming emails into separate folders based on folder topics of your choice.

Here is how to set up filters in Gmail

1. On the Inbox page in the right hand corner by your name, there is a drop down button that allows you to choose your theme, settings, or access help. We want the settings button.









2. The settings tab gives you a lot of options to chose from. We want the filters tab.


3. At the very bottom of the filters page is the "create a new filter" button. This is where you create the filters.

4. Creating filters is completely personalized. You can choose if you want to filter by email address, who it was to, keywords or subject titles

5. After you have chosen the source of your filter, you chose where to send it to. These options include sending it to a folder (recommended), automatically read and many more.








6. Finally, after you create your filter it is stored in the filter gallery. This is where you can edit, export and delete all the filters you have created.

Filters in Gmail are a very useful tool to keep any busy inbox organized. Creating folders that automatically receive specific emails can make sure important information never goes to the email graveyard.