Updating my Gmail Filters

Definitely not an expected thing to write as the final article of 2024, but I don't really care.

My email organization has not always been the best. I primary use Gmail's priority inbox, which gives different types of emails different sections. This is how I have it setup:

1. Important and unread
2. Unread
3. Inbox

Emails I don't need are either deleted or archived. This works well when you frequently check your email multiple times a day, but if you don't check for a few days the unread number of emails quickly starts to pile up.

I don't sign up for many emails, and I also turn off most emails I don't need, so this doesn't affect me as much. However, things still sneak by, and not being able to quickly find the email I need is annoying.

I have 4 emails that I use:

• Personal one that I rarely use
• Main Gmail (for important stuff)
• Side email (for less important stuff like social networks)
• Spam email that I intentionally try to fill with spam (for things I don't care about one bit)

This actually works really well. However, the types of emails inside both can get mixed up. Gmail does a good job at automatically categorizing emails (although it rarely uses the "Forums" category) and an okay job at deciding what emails it thinks you will find important.

However, there is another thing you can do for greater organization. Gmail has a manual automatic filter system that... works. Any search query that you make can be turned into a filter that performs actions automatically to similar emails. For example, you could make all emails with a word important, or apply a label to them, or archive them. Combining labels with filters is really powerful, and is the main way that I am organizing my inbox.

Labels

Combing colored labels with emojis can make glancing at your emails much faster. As far as I know, label colors only appear on Gmail, and different email applications treat labels differently (for example, some apps use folders instead), so keep that in mind.

To use my method of automatic labels, first make the labels themselves. I recommend adding an emoji at the start of the label, as this will make it easier to recognize at a glance. When setting the color, save vibrant tones for more important labels, and same with the colors orange and red. When setting colors for other labels, just do whatever makes sense to you.

You can nest labels under each other, which makes the sidebar more organized. However, be aware that label names in the inbox display the full path, which can cut off information. For example, a Twitter label nested under a SNS label will display in the inbox as SNS/Twitter.

Now, its time to make the filters. You must be on desktop to do this. Click on the icon on the right side of the search bar, and this will bring up advanced search. Just make your advanced search query, and then click Create filter. Another way to quickly make a filter is by clicking the 3 dot menu in an email, and selecting Filter messages like this. This will quickly make a new filter with the email address of the selected email filled in.

Once you selected what messages to include, you are given options for what to do when a message matches the filter. These are the important items I am focusing on:

• Skip the Inbox
  • If you have Override filters enabled, emails Gmail thinks are important will be exempt from this setting
• Apply the label
• Categorize as
• Also apply filter to matching conversations

The last one is important because it will organize the mail you have already received, instead of just new mail.

After you create a filter, you can edit them in settings, under Filters and Blocked Addresses.

My Filters & Labels

These are the filters and labels that I use.

For Google Voice messages, I have a 📞Voice label applied. For missed calls, I have it automatically delete those emails too, as I can check Google Voice for that.

Any emails relating to this site are given a 🌐Neocities label and forwarded to my side email. This includes the guestbook.

Anything related to money is always marked as important, given a 💲Payment label, and forwarded to my main inbox.

Additionally, each social network has a dedicated label.

Finally, for school messages, any official school messages are given a label. Anything from learning management systems are given a label based on notification category (grades, assignment, reminder, discussion, update).

The End

I hope that you people reading this have become inspired by the magnificent process of organization. Hopefully your inbox is even more of a seizure of colors now, but a seizure of color that make sense to you.

Have a great 2025, I hope!