In a previous blog post I talked about the importance of creating a follow up label in Gmail. In this post I wanted to share a few of my labels that I use and share a quick video tutorial on how to create labels.
What is a label in Gmail?
When you label something in Gmail it is like you are moving it into a folder. One perk of using labels instead of folders is that you can give an email multiple labels instead of placing it in a single folder. You can also nest labels under a parent label. So you could have a label for Teachers and then a nested label for each teacher’s name.
So how do you set up a label?
In the video below, I show you the steps that you need to follow in order to create a label in Gmail.
How to Create a Label in Gmail
My labels
Labels are free and easy so I suggest you create as many as you need but be careful to go overboard because you do not want to create more work for your self. In my work email I have three labels that I use.
My work email labels.
My most used label is the Follow Up label. The Follow Up label is crucial for making sure that you are getting responses to important emails. If I send an email and want to make sure that I get a response I will label it with Follow Up.
I use the Need to Respond label to quickly identify emails that require a response. For example if I get an email with a request and I promise a response at a later date, I will label it Need to Respond so I can quickly find it. This label is great for holding yourself accountable for closing any open email loops you may have.
The last label I use is To Share. I am constantly finding things that I want to share with my staff. To avoid cognitive overload for my teachers I like to space out my shares. The To Share label acts as a temporary saving place for me until I am ready to share. After sharing I will remove the label so it no longer appears in this list.
If you have any questions about labels or want to talk more about productivity at school please don’t hesitate to reach out!