Google Priority Mail Helps Organize Your Inbox

Yesterday when I logged into my Google Apps email, there was a message telling me that Google will sort my email into three sections if I so choose.  I nearly chose to ignore it, as I have not had particular success with the labeling functions, even the nested ones.  I find it just clunky enough that I forget to set up the filters.

But I decided to check out Priority Mail, and I must say that I am cautiously optimistic about this one.  Priority Mail segments your inbox into three sections. The first is Important and Unread, the second is Starred, and the third is Everything Else.  It makes decisions about what to place in the Important and Unread section, and you then teach it as you go along.

Teaching is easy.  If it marks an email as important, and it is not (at least to you) you mark it unimportant with a toggle switch that appears along with the other mail options at the top of your box.  It then gets moved to the Everything Else section.  If an email is more important to you than Google thought, just mark it important, and it will move to the Important and Unread section.  The idea is that over time, the app will learn what you want in the Important and Unread section, and misplacements will be fewer.

Sweet.  I have missed important email in the past because it got buried in my Inbox. I admit that I have signed up for probably a few too many newsletters, and I intend to read them, so they stay in the inbox until I read them, or give up and delete them. I get the usual collection of group email that I don’t need to act on, and the announcements from various vendors that don’t require my attention. If this really works over time, the email that require me to take an action will float to the top, and the email that can wait until I have more time will stay out of the way.

The Starred section is also useful.  In the past, if you starred an email, it maintained its position in the email stream.  Out of sight, out of mind, so much for the star!  Now the email that you star is gathered in the center section of your Inbox, all in one place, so you can remember why you starred it in the first place. It is now much more useful as a memory tool, to respond to important email that can’t be handled the first time you read it.

There are other features that I have not explored yet, like changing the settings on the sections to change what email appears and stays there.  Sections can be hidden so they are out of the way, and there is an empty fourth section that you can customize to meet needs not covered with the basic three sections.

So with a full work day under my belt, so far I like it.  It can be turned on or off as needed and it works pretty much as promised.  I will let you know if I change my mind about it once I have lived with it for a while.  How about you?  Have you tried it?  What do you think?

Regina Sillitti is Project Coordinator for Dinkum Interactive.  She has worked in programming,  design, business analysis and quality assurance. Her background in design and data processing give her a unique perspective on client – tech translation. You can reach her at regina@dinkuminteractive.com.

Regina Sillitti is Project Coordinator for Dinkum Interactive. She has worked in programming, design, business analysis and quality assurance. Her background in design and data processing give her a unique perspective on client - tech translation. You can reach her at regina@dinkuminteractive.com, or find her on Twitter, @ReginaSillitti.