In Gmail’s new Priority Inbox, important messages are identified and sorted automatically, preventing email overload. Determining the importance of each email is based on the emails you read and reply to. To get started here is how to do it in Gmail.
Gmail’s Priority Inbox
Gmail automatically determines the level of importance of messages. By separating newsletters, notifications, and non-critical communication into different categories, this method of organisation is intended to surface the most important messages.
What sorting method does Gmail use? Analysing your habits.
Gmail analyses emails regarding who sends them, who opens them, who reads them and responds, what you delete and archive, and what lingers in your inbox. Your email is categorised into different streams by Gmail based on these signals.
- Email sender: Gmail recognises an important sender if you always open their emails and read or respond to them.
- Email Keywords: Gmail’s algorithm detects keyword trends in your emails. Consequently, if you frequently email about photography, any email containing related terms (like camera, photo, picture, aperture, or shutter speed) will be flagged and marked as important.
- Email interactions: Gmail identifies which emails are important based on how you interact with them, such as by staring, archiving or deleting.
Your emails are then sorted into categories by Gmail. There are three default categories:
- “Primary”: important unopened email
- “Promotions”: like newsletters, sales offers, and blasts
- “Updates”: like bank statements, order confirmations, shipping updates, and reminders
Also, you can add a “Social” category (messages from social networks or other media-sharing sites) and a “Forums” category (messages from online groups or discussion boards).
The Priority Inbox is a one-size-fits-all solution. There’s no way to customise your filters in your Priority Inbox, and you can’t control what appears there.
Aspects of your past behaviour are also taken into account by Priority Inbox. You’ll have to sift through your Promotions and Updates tabs to find new client leads and unexpected opportunities that won’t be categorised as Priority – so you’ll miss important notifications.
Why Priority Inbox Is Great
Sifting through tons of emails daily and getting notifications for them is a hassle. Forget your previous experience with Priority Inbox and assume it reads your mind. There are multiple categories, so the important stuff is at the top, away from the junk. The message is right in your inbox; you don’t have to look for it at all.
In addition, Gmail will only notify you of important messages if Priority Inbox is enabled. In a tab, you only see your unread emails when you get important ones, so you don’t have to deal with an overflowing inbox constantly.
You only receive push notifications when something important comes through, so your phone doesn’t buzz all day if you use Gmail for Android. You might be tempted to turn off email notifications altogether, but if you’re only getting. Still, if notifications per day from people you want to hear from, they become much more appealing.
How to Turn on Priority Inbox
Gmail’s Priority Inbox was designed to help you manage your email more efficiently. With the default configuration, you’ll see stars and Gmail’s importance markers, a feature that helps you identify emails that are important to you. In addition, Priority Inbox can also be used in other ways. Here’s how you can use Priority Inbox to improve your email flagging, follow-up, and efficiency.
Step 1 – Enable Priority Inbox
Follow these steps to enable Priority Inbox if you don’t already have it:
- You can access your Inbox by hovering your mouse over it and clicking the right arrow.
- Select Priority Inbox.
Emails will be sorted into three sections in your inbox:
- ‘Important and unread’ displays all unread and important emails (as determined by Gmail’s automatic importance classification).
- In the ‘Starred’ section, you can see the emails you’ve starred.
- ‘Everything else’ displays any other email in your inbox.
Step 2–Access Priority Inbox settings
- Select Settings from the Settings menu by clicking the Settings (cog) button.
- Go to the Inbox tab.
You’ll notice that the inbox type is set to Priority Inbox at the top of the Inbox settings tab. In each of the four sections of Priority Inbox, you can select what should be displayed.
Step 3–Customise Priority Inbox settings.
Choose another option from the list of options on the right of each section to customise what’s shown in each section. If you aren’t using Gmail’s importance indicators, you can show all your unread mail in the first section (instead of unread and important mail).
Your chosen mail tagging and follow-up system can be customised in the second and third sections. Using stars to flag emails that need follow-up may not be a bad idea if you leave the default setting alone. Labels can be used to flag emails (for example, the coloured labels outlined in this post), so you can remove the stars section and replace it with labels. Adding another label to the third empty section is possible.
To choose a label, click More options in the menu. It is advantageous to configure the inbox so that emails requiring or awaiting action remain highly visible but separate from unread emails. In this way, all of your unread mail can be processed quicker, and all emails that have been flagged for follow-up can be found and acted upon more easily.
Conclusion
With your usage over time, Gmail learns what is important to you and sorts your emails accordingly in the ‘Priority’ inbox. Important emails are those that are a reply to your email or come from a contact. In Priority Inbox, important messages are moved to the top of your inbox and separated from everything else. Based on the messages you open, the people you frequently chat with, and the content in the messages, Gmail determines what’s important to you.
FAQ
Can you prioritise senders in Gmail?
Gmail, the most popular email service in the world, has a Priority Inbox feature. It allows users to prioritise all their emails to get the emails at the top of their inbox. This feature is used by millions of people every day. Unfortunately, it is impossible to set priorities for all your emails in Gmail without using an external tool like Priority Inbox.
What is the difference between Priority Inbox and default Inbox?
The difference between Priority Inbox and default Inbox is that the Priority Inbox comes with its own set of features and functions that help you manage your inbox with ease. You can easily create lists, prioritise your tasks and categorise them according to their importance so that only important messages get priority over other messages in your inbox. This helps you stay on top without worrying about spamming your inbox with irrelevant emails or junk mail.
How do you organise and prioritise emails?
While email is a powerful tool for communication, it can be overwhelming. It can be difficult to know which emails to send and how to prioritise them. With an email management system, you can organise your emails in a way that makes sense and prioritise them accordingly.
