Many people use Gmail nowadays, and that is not surprising. It’s simple to use, free, and Google knows how to make a good product. If you use Gmail you might not be using it to its full potential. It has some amazing tools built into it that make it simple for you to organize your email. Below is a description of some of those tools and links to pages that show you how to make use of them.

Label your messages: Applying labels to your messages visually organizes your inbox so you know what emails you should address first. For example, if there are a few emails that you need to deal with before the others you can mark them with a red “Important” label. Or, if you are planning a vacation, you can apply a green “Vacation” label to any confirmation emails that come in.

Free up space with archiving: Do you like to keep your inbox clear of emails, but you can’t delete ones you have read because you may need them? Rather than make a bunch of different files you can simply archive old emails. Archiving emails sends them to an “All Mail” folder so they don’t clutter up your inbox but you can still access them when needed.

Add a signature: Everyone ought to have an email signature, it saves a lot of time because you don’t have to type your name and contact info at the bottom of every email. After you have created a signature, Gmail will automatically drop it into the bottom of your emails.

Filter your incoming messages: Gmail also lets you create filters that can automatically label, archive, delete, or forward specific incoming messages. By selecting the “Filter messages like this” option from Gmail’s “More” drop-down menu, you can tell Gmail to automatically apply the “Job Search” label to any messages that include the words resume, apply, career or job. You can tell Gmail to instantly send all messages with the words “hotel,” “car rental,” or “reservation” to your Gmail “Vacation” folder.