If you’re like most then you’ve probably used folders to separate and organize your emails. In MS Outlook for example, you’re able to create a folder called sales. You can move an email from your Outlook inbox to this sales folder but what if you wanted the same email in two different folders? What if you wanted that email to appear in your Inbox and in your sales folder at the same time? Sorry it can’t be done.

Enter labels… Google basically did away with the antiquated folder concept and came up with the brilliant idea of labels. Think of labels not as folders but rather sticky notes that you can add and remove to any email.

Let me give you an example. Let’s assume your company is taking advantage of the fact that multiple people can be logged into the same Gmail account at the same time. There are five people who access the same email account each day. These five people are John, Mike, Peter, Paul and Mary. Let’s also assume that each of these people have created their own label (John Pending, Mike Pending, Peter Pending etc.)

One morning John gets an email from a customer thanking him for his assistance the previous day. John however is not logged into the email account but Mary is. Mary sees that the email is of a personal nature for John and simply applies the label called John Pending to the email. When John logs in later in the day, he simply clicks on his own label called John Pending and there are all the emails he needs to get back to. He replies to the customer and they go back and forth for a few days. Then the customer emails John and asks a question that Paul is better suited to answer. At that point John simply adds another label called Paul Pending. Now that email has two labels, John Pending and Paul Pending. When Paul logs into to the email account, he clicks on his own label, reads the email that’s been going back and forth between John and the customer. Paul sees what he has to fix, then when he’s done, he simply removes his own label.

I know that what you read may take a little to sink in, but when you truly understand the power of using labels, you’ll ask yourself how you could have lived without them.

Again, don’t think of labels as folders. If you do then you’ll miss the concept. Instead think of labels as individual sticky notes that you can and remove from any email.

In combination with filters, labels are the best way  to stay organized without cluttering up your inbox.