Sam Purtill

Figuring out a fast and efficient way to process your emails has saved me several hours each week of unnecessary work and gotten rid of nearly all my email-related stress. With the help of my Icelandic friend Gunnar, I finally figured out how to do email.

UPDATE: Google launched “Priority Inbox” a few weeks after I wrote this tutorial. This may be easier and faster than Multiple Inboxes (though I haven’t tested it). Definitely worth checking out.

What this system does

This is a hack for Gmail that will allow you to categorize all incoming messages into five different inboxes that show up on your Gmail homepage: Do, Doing, Delegate, Defer, and Important — the Four D’s and one for any random email that doesn’t fit. You will be able to go to sleep every night with Inbox Zero, keep track of the emails you are waiting for replies, and process your emails at lightning speed.

Let’s Get Down To Business

Below is a guide to set up Gmail with Multiple Inboxes & Superstars. Combine this hack with Keyboard Shortcuts and I guarantee a 2-3x productivity boost with your email.

1. Go to your Gmail Inbox.
2. Click Settings.
3. Click Labs in the Settings tabs.
4. Enable the Multiple Inboxes Labs feature.
5. Enable the Superstars Labs feature.
6. Click Save Changes at the top or bottom.
7. Click General in the Settings tabs and look for the header “Superstars” - it will have little stars and other icons under it about halfway down the page.
8. Drag the stars so they look like the following image (in this order):
   
9. Click Save Changes at the bottom
10. Click the Multiple Inboxes link in the Settings tab; if it isn’t there, click on Settings again and look for it in the tabs
11. Fill in the following rules for each inbox:
    1. Rule: l:^ss_cr        Label: DO: Actions
    2. Rule: l:^ss_cb        Label: DOING: Projects
    3. Rule: l:^ss_co        Label: DELEGATE: Waiting For
    4. Rule: l:^ss_cp        Label: DEFER: Someday / Maybe
    5. Rule: l:^ss_cg        Label: IMPORTANT
12. Maximum page size: 15.
13. Extra panes positioning: select Below the inbox.
14. Click Save Changes at the bottom.
15. Go to your Inbox and start starring emails to put them in their proper inbox — you will now see the multiple inboxes on the homepage of Gmail.
16. As soon as you put the proper star on them, archive them; they will still show up in the proper inbox below your ‘main’ inbox. If they don’t automatically show up, refresh the page and take a look. I’m attaching a picture at the bottom of what my inbox looks like.
17. You’re done! Enjoy the huge productivity boost now. And going to sleep with “Inbox Zero” every night.
18. Enable Keyboard Shortcuts and memorize them! This will save you more time than anything out there. Once they’re enabled, press Shift + ? in Gmail and it will popup with a list of all the shortcuts.

That’s it! Now read on for an explanation of the Four D’s.

The Four D’s

1. DO: Things that take you 2-5 minutes to reply to. Small, simple tasks. Try to clear this before you go to sleep every night.
2. DOING: This is for more longer-term projects. Things that take time, meetings, conference calls, etc. Keep things like annual taxes, big events, and projects that will take hours to days to complete in here.
3. DELEGATE: These are replies that you are waiting on. Sometimes you send an email and it goes into a blackhole. Star it with the Delegate star and you can always check up on the emails you’re waiting on. This will help you follow up with people you need to meet with, talk to a project about, etc. Very useful.
4. DEFER: Things you’ll get around to you sometime. Try to keep this one limited and usually take the emails from here and put them into one of the above 3 D’s as soon as I have a chance.

I’ve added an IMPORTANT inbox for things that don’t fit into any of the four D’s. These are things like little reminders for what T-shirts to buy in Reykjavik, or some cool restaurant to eat at in Paris. Plus that little green star is cool. I made this inbox for myself, it’s completely optional. Feel free to change the names of the labels to something that is more helpful. And if you’ve made it down this far, you should follow me on Twitter and @ me with any questions or Gmail productivity tips. Alright, good luck, have fun, and I hope you will peruse Gawker… ok, Facebook too… with all this extra time you’ll have.
Just imagine: your inbox could be as sexy as this…