Up your Gmail skills with these little-known tips

The average employee spends roughly 2.5 hours every single day reading and responding to emails. Almost three-fourths of those emails aren’t even relevant to them or their job. Talk about wasted time.

Organizing your inbox is one of the simplest ways to maximize productivity, but it’s not just about organization. Using Gmail productivity tips and integrated features can help you organize your inbox and maximize results.

Improved email organization allows for:

• More time to devote to your main responsibilities
• Less wasted resources
• Lower stress levels
• Quicker customer service
• Faster closed deals
• Increased overall efficiency

Plus, with Gmail’s host of productivity features, you can easily automate manual workflows and processes. So, what are some of those Gmail tips and tricks?

The Gmail tips and tricks that offer the most bang for your buck are really about utilizing all of Gmail’s core functionality to your advantage.

1. Enable Gmail’s tabs to keep clutter out of your inbox.

Gmail automatically sorts emails into primary, social and promotions. You can also add an updates and forums tab.

2. Use the labels, color coding, stars and important indicators to organize your inbox.

Labels are Gmail’s version of folders, and they allow you to color-code, nest and apply multiple labels to emails for maximum organization. Google also has stars and important labels to further segment and organize your inbox.

3. Create and use email lists.

Don’t waste time manually creating a group email by individually adding multiple people in BCC every time. Instead, create email lists from your Google contacts and email them simultaneously using Gmail’s bulk email capabilities.

4. Auto-sort your inbox to see important emails first.

Go to Settings > Inbox and tell Gmail exactly how you’d like to receive your emails. You can sort your inbox based on several parameters, including read status, importance and more.

5. Mute conversations that don’t pertain to you.

Gmail makes it easy to mute conversations that aren’t relevant — like when you’re CC’d on a thread that doesn’t apply to you. Simply mute the conversation, and Gmail will automatically archive future replies.

(Want more Gmail advanced tips and tricks? Check out our 32 favorite Gmail hacks here). Or for troubleshooting something in Gmail, get help here.

The Copper Chrome extension for Gmail is an app that seamlessly integrates with your Gmail inbox. It sits on the right side of your screen, so you can harness the power of Copper and Gmail all in one place.

In other words, you can manage your Copper records and track your Gmail conversations and contacts without switching between applications. You can do everything from your Gmail inbox, including:

• Add a new contact to Copper in one click
• Bring additional context to email conversations
• Filter your Gmail conversations to only show those associated with Copper records
• Send email templates
• And more

Anytime you look at an email from a contact in Copper, you’ll see their entire Copper profile on the right. It’s an intuitive solution to streamline your everyday activities. This lets your team work where and how they want to, combining the power of Copper and Gmail together to maximize your team’s efficiency and productivity.

Here’s how.

Here are 5 of our favorite Copper + Gmail inbox tips to maximize your productivity.

1. Contextualize your inbox in seconds

Sifting through emails and trying to determine which emails should be your priority isn’t only time-consuming. It’s also a hassle. With Copper’s Chrome extension, you can easily see which email threads are being tracked by looking for the Copper logo next to emails. We call this clever feature the Copper Gmail spotlight.

This makes it easy to locate your most important emails in a crowded inbox. But it’s not just that. You can also see every email you’ve exchanged with a person using Copper in a few quick steps:

• Hover over their name.
• Click the ellipsis (…) on the Copper Chrome extension.
• Then, click Filter inbox.

From there, you’ll see every single correspondence you’ve had with a contact in seconds, making it easy to locate and contextualize conversations — no matter how chaotic your inbox is.

2. Uncover additional connections

The more connections you have inside a company, the better poised you are moving forward. Every contact you have within a company is a chance to strengthen your influence and network within that organization.

Often, important decision-makers in companies are CC’d on emails that they aren’t participating in. For you, this represents an opportunity to capture valuable connections, but it’s not always easy to see those opportunities.

Copper can help uncover these influential decision-makers. (ABM hack, anyone?)

First, hover over the Copper icon in Gmail.

The Copper Chrome extension will then show you every single participant on that email and allow you to add them to Copper in one simple click.

3. Create to-dos in real time

It’s no secret that managing tasks and reminders can be a real chore, especially if you’re using multiple tools to track everything. One of the most straightforward Gmail tips involving Copper is creating tasks and reminders right inside your inbox.

For example, if you read an email that you want to respond to on a future date, you can click the Copper icon in that email and click “set reminder” to automatically schedule a time to reach out in the future.

You can also easily create tasks with the Copper Chrome extension.

• Click the “+” button.
• Then, click “New Tasks.”

From there, you can create a task related to any opportunity, person or company within Copper CRM.You can use Copper in the way that works best for you: the Copper Chrome extension can act as your “home base” inside Gmail and/or Calendar. Or if you prefer to work inside your CRM, Copper displays tasks and reminders on your Copper Dashboard. You can even schedule a daily task report to arrive in your inbox each morning. Talk about effortless.

4. Save time with email templates

If you’re busy, it’s more than a pain to manually send the same emails over and over again. This is where you can use templates to save yourself some time.

Start by creating a template in Copper. You can add mail merge fields, which will dynamically insert unique information like first name, last name and email address. (click here for a step-by-step to creating email templates in Copper).

Once you create your templates, it’s super easy to use them in Gmail.

You can either hit the “Compose” button to start a new email or open the email to which you want to reply. Then, once you’re there, simply click the file folder icon along the bottom toolbar and choose the template you’d like to insert.

5. Set up meetings without the back and forth

The worst part about setting meetings is trying to find a time that works for everyone. It often requires endless back and forth through email, which eats up valuable time and clogs up your inbox.

With Copper, you can save time using a Meeting Scheduler.

• First, set your availability inside of Copper by clicking Settings > Meeting Invitation Settings.
• Then, any time you send an email, you can click on the calendar icon to insert your meeting scheduler link.

This shares your schedule with recipients, and if your entire team is using this setting, planning meetings become so much easier.

To dive deeper into how Copper's Gmail integration works, get all the details here.

There are tons of Gmail tips you can use to boost your team’s efficiency and productivity. But when you combine the power of Copper and Gmail, you really supercharge your inbox’s organization, making it easier to stay on track and focused on what’s important – building relationships and closing deals.

If you’re not a Copper customer yet, try us free for 14 days — no credit card needed.