Mastering Gmail: Organizing Your Inbox With Folders And Labels

There are millions of Gmail users, but we bet most of them barely keep their inboxes with folders, labels, and filters or even know about it. If you receive lots of emails, they tend to pile up over time, and managing them becomes increasingly difficult. However, did you know that you can keep your inbox organized in just a few clicks? This is done using Folders and Labels in Gmail.

Even though Gmail doesn’t have ‘folders’ per-se, the email platform’s ‘labels’ feature works pretty much the same way. You can filter the emails into various categories and block emails based on a specific keyword. You can also choose to move a particular type of message to a custom folder by creating rules on Gmail. If that sounds interesting, here’s how to create folders and labels in Gmail to keep your inbox organized.

Create Folders or Labels in Gmail

On Web

To create a label on the web, simply open Gmail and look for the + icon beside Labels on the left section. This is where you start the process of organizing your emails effectively!

1. Open Gmail and in the left section, click the + icon beside Labels.
2. Enter a new Label name and click on Create.
3. Alternatively, you can click on the cogwheel icon at the top right >See all Settings >Labels tab >Create a new label.
4. To give you an example, we created a label called work.
5. To move an email to the newly created label, open it and click the tag/label option. Finally, select the label you just created.

You can quickly go to the newly created tag from the left sidebar. Alternatively, you can type “label:” in the search bar to go to the label.

On Phone

Creating a label is unavailable on Gmail for Android but can be found on the iOS app. Hence, if you use an Android device, you would need to add a label using a browser.

1. Open the Gmail app, tap on the hamburger menu, scroll down, and select Create New.
2. Enter a name for your new label. For this example, I’m creating a label called ‘Receipts’. Once that’s taken care of, tap on Done.

Moving Emails from Inbox to Folders

Once you've set up your labels, the next step is to move emails into these new labels. There are a couple of ways to do this: you can manually apply labels to emails in your Gmail inbox, or you can create filters to automatically organize incoming mail.

On Web

To move emails on the web, open the email you want to apply a label to and click on the labels icon. Choose the label you want from the drop-down list and click on Apply.

On Phone

To move emails using your phone, select the email you want to apply a label to, go to the 3-dots icon >Label, choose the label(s) you want to apply, and tap on the checkmark icon at the top right.

Automatically Apply Labels to Incoming Emails

To streamline the process, you can automate the application of labels to incoming emails. Unfortunately, this feature is only available on the web.

1. Open Gmail on the desktop, and click on the Show Search Options icon in the Gmail search bar.
2. Enter the conditions for the filter based on sender, subject, body text, attachments, and more.
3. Set it up as you wish and click on Create Filter.
4. Check the box next to Apply and select the label you want to apply.

Create Sub-folders in Gmail

Labels in Gmail are powerful and can serve as substitutes for folders. If you want to create nested labels (sub-folders), here's how to do it through the Gmail web app.

1. Open the Gmail web app. Hover your mouse over the label where you want to create a nested label.
2. Click on the 3-dots icon.
3. Select Add sublabel.
4. Give your new label a name, and click on Create.

Edit or Delete a Label

Editing or deleting a label can only be done from Gmail on the browser. To edit or delete a label, open the label, click on the 3-dots icon for more options, and select Edit to rename or remove it.

Manage Labels in Bulk

To manage multiple labels easily, use the expanded settings in Gmail. Click on the cogwheel icon >See All Settings >Labels tab to access bulk editing options.

So these are the best ways you can use labels or folders in Gmail to clean up your inbox and get rid of clutter, spam emails, and promotional messages. By implementing these strategies, you’ll find managing your emails much easier and more efficient!