Three easy Gmail tricks that save you 15 minutes every day
Plus: Teaching Gmail which category fits each sender, , apps that enhance Gmail further, finding large attachments to free space, and organizing without losing messages,
You check your Gmail app every day. You read messages, reply to some, delete or archive others. The basics work fine. But there are features built directly into that app that most people never discover, features that could save you time and frustration every single day.
The search bar does more than you think. The snooze button solves a problem you didn’t know had a solution. And those category tabs everyone turns off actually make inbox management easier, not harder.
Today you’ll learn:
How to search Gmail using commands like “from:sarah has:attachment” to find exactly what you need in seconds
Why swiping partway on an email reveals the snooze button that makes emails reappear exactly when you need them
How Gmail categories automatically group your mail so you can check important messages first and promotions later
What those category tabs actually do and why they help instead of hiding your email
How to train Gmail when it puts messages in the wrong category
Why searching with “after:2024/01/01” shows everything since New Year’s Day
The difference between archiving and deleting, and when each makes sense
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How to search
The search bar at the top of Gmail isn’t just for typing someone’s name and hoping the right email appears. It understands specific commands that let you find messages with surprising precision.
Try typing these directly into the search bar:
from:sarah shows only emails from Sarah, no one else
has:attachment displays every email that included a file
is:unread gathers all your unread messages in one view
after:2024/01/01 shows everything that arrived since January 1, 2024
You can combine these commands. Type from:sarah has:attachment and Gmail shows only Sarah’s emails that included files. Type is:unread has:attachment to see unread messages with attachments you haven’t opened yet.
This sounds technical, but you don’t need to memorize anything. Just type what you’re looking for in plain language first. If that doesn’t work, try adding “from:” or “has:” before a word. The app will show you what it finds.
More useful commands include subject:invoice to find emails with “invoice” in the subject line, or larger:5M to find emails bigger than 5 megabytes, which helps when you’re trying to free up storage space and need to delete large attachments.
Here’s why this matters. That one email from three months ago with the PDF attachment your accountant sent? You can find it in seconds instead of scrolling endlessly through hundreds of messages, hoping to recognize the subject line.
To search for emails containing multiple specific words:
This is another useful tip that will save you significant time. Imagine you paid an invoice for your car last year and want to find it again in your thousands of emails: Use AND between terms in capital letters. Type invoice AND car to find only emails that contain both words. Without AND, Gmail shows emails with either word, which gives you too many results. For subject lines specifically, use subject:(invoice car) to find emails with both words in the subject line.
If you receive an email that requires action, but not right now:
For iPhone users: Swipe the email partway to the right. Don’t swipe all the way, because that archives it. Swipe about halfway, and you’ll see a clock icon appear. Tap the clock icon. Choose when you want to see this email again: tomorrow morning, this evening, next week, or pick a custom date and time.
For Android users: The process is identical. Swipe partway to the right until the clock icon appears, tap it, and choose your timing.
The email disappears from your inbox immediately. It doesn’t get deleted or archived. Gmail just hides it temporarily. Then, at exactly the time you chose, it reappears at the top of your inbox as if it just arrived, marked with a small clock icon to remind you that you snoozed it.
This changes how your inbox works. Instead of keeping dozens of messages sitting there because you “need to deal with them eventually,” you see only what needs attention right now. Everything else is scheduled to return when you can actually handle it.
You can snooze as many emails as you want. Gmail tracks them all and brings each one back at its scheduled time. If you realize you need a snoozed email sooner, search for it using the commands mentioned earlier, and it will still appear in search results even though it’s hidden from your inbox.
Categories
Gmail automatically sorts incoming mail into categories: Primary for important personal and business messages, Social for notifications from Facebook, Instagram, and similar platforms, Promotions for newsletters and marketing offers, and Updates for receipts, confirmations, and automated messages.
Many people disable categories immediately because they believe Gmail is hiding their email. But categories don’t remove anything. They just group messages so you can process them intentionally instead of feeling overwhelmed.
On iPhone: Tap the three horizontal lines in the top left corner. You’ll see Primary, Social, Promotions, and Updates listed there (Some users may also see a Forums tab for discussion groups and online communities). Tap any category to see just those messages.
On Android: The same menu with three horizontal lines works identically. Tap it, then tap the category you want to view.
The advantage becomes clear when you use it. Check Primary throughout the day for important messages from real people and businesses you care about. Then check Promotions once or twice a week when you have time to browse through newsletters and offers. Social and Updates can wait even longer unless you’re expecting something specific. Gmail also reminds you by sending an email to check your updates.
If Gmail puts a message in the wrong category, you can teach it to do better. Long-press the email on mobile, or right-click it on desktop. Select “Move to tab” and choose the correct category. Gmail learns from this and adjusts how it categorizes future messages from that sender.
Some people prefer seeing everything mixed together, and that’s completely fine. You can turn categories off in Gmail settings. But before you do, try using them for one week. You might discover that batching your email by type reduces the constant feeling of inbox overwhelm.
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Worth knowing
Gmail’s archive function confuses people because it seems to make emails disappear without deleting them. When you archive a message, Gmail removes it from your inbox but keeps it in “All Mail,” which stores everything you’ve ever received except items you specifically deleted. Archived messages still appear in search results and in any labels or categories you’ve applied to them. The purpose of archiving is to clean your inbox without losing access to messages you might need later. Think of your inbox as your desk and “All Mail” as your filing cabinet. Archiving moves messages from the desk to the cabinet, while deleting throws them in the trash.
Tech news you can actually use
Gmail now warns you before sending emails to the wrong person. Google added a feature that analyzes your sending patterns and alerts you if you’re about to send a message to someone you don’t usually email. If you type a similar name by accident, Gmail displays a warning asking you to confirm before sending. This helps prevent embarrassing situations where you meant to email Sarah from marketing but accidentally selected Sarah from accounting. The feature works automatically without requiring any setup.
Spam filtering improved for emails pretending to be from legitimate companies. Gmail’s updated filters better detect messages that forge sender information to appear as if they came from your bank, shipping companies, or well-known retailers. These phishing emails often slip through because they technically come from real domains that scammers have compromised. The new system analyzes message content and sending patterns to catch these before they reach your inbox. You don’t need to do anything; the protection activates automatically for all Gmail users.
Unsubscribe buttons now work faster and more reliably. Gmail redesigned how the unsubscribe function works for commercial emails. Instead of taking you to external websites where companies make it difficult to opt out, Gmail now handles unsubscribing directly for most newsletters and marketing emails. Look for the unsubscribe link at the top of commercial messages. Click it, and you’re done. No visiting other websites, no filling out forms asking why you’re leaving, no hunting for tiny unsubscribe links in email footers.
Spark Mail organizes your inbox by sender importance and message type
(iPhone and Android)
Spark Mail takes Gmail’s basic category system further by actively organizing your inbox based on who sent the message and what type of message it is. Personal emails from contacts appear first, newsletters get grouped together, notifications stack neatly, and you see everything that matters before anything that doesn’t.
The app learns which senders you consider important by watching which emails you open immediately versus which ones you ignore or delete. Over time, Spark moves important sender messages to the top automatically while pushing less urgent items down the list.
Quick replies let you respond to common messages with one tap. The app suggests responses like “Thanks,” “Will do,” or “Got it” based on the email content. For simple acknowledgments, this saves you from typing the same short responses repeatedly.
Email scheduling lets you write messages now but send them later. Compose your email, tap the send button, and choose when it should actually go out. This helps when you finish work emails late at night but don’t want recipients to receive them until morning, or when you want to follow up with someone next week but don’t want to forget.
Download Spark Mail free from the App Store or Google Play Store. The basic version includes all features mentioned above at no cost. A premium version is available with additional features, including unlimited email accounts and advanced customization, but most users find the free version sufficient.
Before we continue with Boomerang, it’s worth knowing that I have another newsletter, Daybreak Notes, and Beans, with a focus on positive news to counterbalance the negative headlines you see all day.
On most days of the week, I share ten uplifting news stories about science, health, art, travel, archaeology, or any other topic I think you’ll enjoy reading or that will give you hope now that we need it. Try it:
Boomerang brings emails back when you need them
(iPhone and Android, works with Gmail)
Boomerang adds powerful follow-up features to Gmail to help you remember messages that require action. The core function lets you make emails temporarily disappear and return at scheduled times, similar to Gmail’s native snooze but with more options.
Set reminders if you send an email but don’t receive a reply within a specific timeframe. Boomerang tracks whether the recipient responded and automatically reminds you if they didn’t. This prevents important requests from falling through the cracks when people forget to reply.
The respondable feature analyzes emails you write and predicts how likely recipients are to respond based on factors like message length, question clarity, and tone. Before sending, you see a score indicating whether your email will probably get a response or get ignored. Suggestions help you rewrite for better results.
Schedule sending works like Spark Mail’s feature, letting you write emails now but send them later at optimal times. Boomerang suggests ideal sending times based on when recipients typically open emails.
Download Boomerang from the App Store or Google Play Store, or install it as a browser extension for desktop Gmail. The free tier includes 10 scheduled messages per month, which is sufficient for occasional use. Paid plans starting at a few dollars per month remove this limit for people who need to schedule regularly.
Quick Fix
If Gmail stops syncing new messages on your phone, the fix takes 30 seconds. Open your phone’s main settings, find Gmail in your app list, and tap it. Look for a setting called “Background App Refresh” on iPhone or “Background Data” on Android. Make sure it’s turned on. This allows Gmail to check for new messages even when you’re not actively using the app. Without it enabled, Gmail only checks when you open the app manually, which makes it seem like messages aren’t arriving. Enable this setting, and Gmail will sync continuously as expected.
Did you read this one?
Meanwhile
I’ve been thinking about email volume lately. Not the messages I send or receive, but the sheer number of promotional emails that arrive daily despite my efforts to unsubscribe. I realized I’ve been treating unsubscribing as a task I’ll do “eventually,” which means I never do it. The Quick Fix mentioned above about Gmail’s improved unsubscribe function made me curious enough to test it. I spent 20 minutes this weekend clicking unsubscribe on every promotional email in my inbox. The new system worked exactly as described. No visiting external websites, no forms asking why I’m leaving. Just click, confirm, done. My inbox volume dropped noticeably.
Tell me what you would like to learn in the next newsletter
What problems are you encountering with your phone, tablet, or computer right now? Maybe it’s something you’ve been putting up with for months, or a new issue that just started this week. Screen Skills works best when it addresses real problems that real people face, so leave a comment, send me a direct message, or reply to this email and tell me what’s making your digital life harder than it needs to be. This newsletter was based on a question I received; your question might become next week’s newsletter.
Until next time,
Alexander
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If this newsletter provides useful information that reduces your screen frustration, improves your output, and makes spending time online more fun for you, please consider supporting this newsletter that occupies a unique niche on Substack: digital tips for non-digital people.
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On Saturday, I published:
"The search bar at the top of Gmail isn’t just for typing someone’s name and hoping the right email appears. It understands specific commands that let you find messages with surprising precision."
Your suggestions are always clear, concise. I can visualize as you describe. Thinking of my inbox as a desk and gmail sorting as a filing cabinet 😊
Thanks! 💻📱
Currently having more analog issues.
But I was wondering today what alternatives there are to Spotify.
I didn't listen to music that much so canceling it wasn't that big a deal, but ...
Thanks for the Gmail tips.
I don't use Gmail for anything important, but these will still come in handy.