If it’s an email, it has got to be from Gmail.
| I am a huge Gmail fan. I have five Gmail accounts, each for a different purpose. In fact, my official email id that sports this domain (kaziurooj [at] freelancewriterurooj [dot] com) is also on Gmail. I don’t need to justify my choice – I am sure almost all freelance writers reading this share my preference. |  |
In this post I’ll share five simple Gmail tricks that will improve your productivity as a freelancer. All five tricks are very popular and you might know one, two or all of them. I still hope you will be able to take something away from this post.
Trick #1: You Forgot to Attach
Had the “Oops!” moment yet? You send an email to your client that is intended to contain the completed documents. After the Send button’s been hit you realize you forgot to attach the files and an embarrassing “Sorry, forgot to attach the files” email follows.
Worse scenario: you don’t realize you haven’t attached the files and the client gets back to you with a “Where are the files? There was nothing attached” email. Embarrassment x 5.
All you have to do to ensure you never forgot to attach the files is type in “I have attached” in your email’s body.
So, for instance, if I am submitting next month’s quota of five blog posts to a client, I’d write “Hi Sandra, I have attached the five blog posts for December….”. Now, if I forget to attach those blog posts and click Send, Gmail will give a warning that says: “Did you mean to attach files? You wrote “I have attached” in your message, but there are no files attached. Send anyway?”. See the screenshot below:
Worse scenario: you don’t realize you haven’t attached the files and the client gets back to you with a “Where are the files? There was nothing attached” email. Embarrassment x 5.
All you have to do to ensure you never forgot to attach the files is type in “I have attached” in your email’s body.
So, for instance, if I am submitting next month’s quota of five blog posts to a client, I’d write “Hi Sandra, I have attached the five blog posts for December….”. Now, if I forget to attach those blog posts and click Send, Gmail will give a warning that says: “Did you mean to attach files? You wrote “I have attached” in your message, but there are no files attached. Send anyway?”. See the screenshot below:
Trick #2: Innumerable Email IDs
Most freelance writers sign up for and subscribe to several newsletters, websites, and online events. Giving your email address liberally is a necessity if you want great information to reach you from the various corners of the internet every single day. However, this opens up several inroads for spam.
The solution? A unique email address for each subscription! One email address on Gmail equals to an infinite number of email addresses. How?
The “+” character can be used to generate infinite number of email addresses. For example, if my email address is xyz@gmail.com, then emails to xyz+new@gmail.com, xyz+abscdiienfldsl@gmail.com, xyz+business@gmail.com, etc. will all land in my inbox. You can add anything after the + sign and still receive emails in your inbox.
I use this feature whenever I subscribe to a freelance writing newsletter, or sign up for an event or just about any mailing list.
So, if I sign up for Marketo’s mailing list, I’ll enter my email address as kaziurooj+marketo@gmail.com. Now, if I start receiving spam in my gmail inbox and the “to” address is kaziurooj+marketo@gmail.com, I’ll know that the Marketo mailing list has been compromised, and immediately unsubscribe.
How would you use this feature?
The solution? A unique email address for each subscription! One email address on Gmail equals to an infinite number of email addresses. How?
The “+” character can be used to generate infinite number of email addresses. For example, if my email address is xyz@gmail.com, then emails to xyz+new@gmail.com, xyz+abscdiienfldsl@gmail.com, xyz+business@gmail.com, etc. will all land in my inbox. You can add anything after the + sign and still receive emails in your inbox.
I use this feature whenever I subscribe to a freelance writing newsletter, or sign up for an event or just about any mailing list.
So, if I sign up for Marketo’s mailing list, I’ll enter my email address as kaziurooj+marketo@gmail.com. Now, if I start receiving spam in my gmail inbox and the “to” address is kaziurooj+marketo@gmail.com, I’ll know that the Marketo mailing list has been compromised, and immediately unsubscribe.
How would you use this feature?
Trick #3: Organize The Heck Out of Your Inbox
Labels are the best way to keep a freelance writer’s inbox organized. They are essentially markers that you can use to filter and segregate your emails in different folders.
So, if you want to keep all updates from LinkedIn in one folder, because you don’t want these updates overwhelming your inbox or wish to keep updates from a website you’ve subscribed to in another folder, labels are the way to go.
If you don’t already use labels in Gmail, this support page can help you (read each of the sub-sections under organizing your mail): Organizing Your Gmail Inbox.
So, if you want to keep all updates from LinkedIn in one folder, because you don’t want these updates overwhelming your inbox or wish to keep updates from a website you’ve subscribed to in another folder, labels are the way to go.
If you don’t already use labels in Gmail, this support page can help you (read each of the sub-sections under organizing your mail): Organizing Your Gmail Inbox.
Trick #4: Vacation Responder
Always keep your clients, and prospective clients, informed if you’d be unavailable for more than two days.
The vacation responder feature can be accessed by clicking on the gear-shaped button on the top right of your gmail mailbox > Settings > Scroll down > Vacation responder > Turn vacation responder on. In the text box below add in text that informs those who contact you how long you’ll be away and how they can contact you if there’s an emergency.
I find the vacation responder very helpful. For instance, I will be taking my annual 10-day vacation in December.
If someone visits my website and decides to hire me to write content for their business, shoots me an email while I am away on my vacation, they’ll know when to expect a response if I’ve set up an auto-responder.
However, if there’s no responder set up, it looks really unprofessional (and I might lose that client) if I get in touch with them 10 days after their email.
The vacation responder feature can be accessed by clicking on the gear-shaped button on the top right of your gmail mailbox > Settings > Scroll down > Vacation responder > Turn vacation responder on. In the text box below add in text that informs those who contact you how long you’ll be away and how they can contact you if there’s an emergency.
I find the vacation responder very helpful. For instance, I will be taking my annual 10-day vacation in December.
If someone visits my website and decides to hire me to write content for their business, shoots me an email while I am away on my vacation, they’ll know when to expect a response if I’ve set up an auto-responder.
However, if there’s no responder set up, it looks really unprofessional (and I might lose that client) if I get in touch with them 10 days after their email.
Trick #5: Desktop Notifications
Most freelance writers complain of a compulsion to check their emails every 5 minutes – or worse. This compulsion affects your productivity.
There was a time, not very long ago, when the first thing I used to do every morning was check my email – my smartphone used to be right by my side all night. Not any longer.
So, this feature is really helpful for those freelance writers who share my compulsion for email checking.
Here’s how you set it up: Gear-shaped button > settings > scroll down > Desktop notifications > Chat notifications on. Now every email you receive in your inbox will show up as a notification, irrespective of what you are doing at that point in time.
If you know that you’ll receive a notification whenever an email’s received it will drastically reduce your compulsion to check your email and will help you concentrate better on the task at hand.
There are several more productivity enhancement tricks in Gmail that freelance writers can use. I might do another follow up post that covers a few more of these tricks.
What is your favorite Gmail trick? Share with us by commenting below.
Share, tweet and spread the word. Also, subscribe to this blog's feed (the subscription option’s given in the sidebar) to receive an update when I add another post.
There was a time, not very long ago, when the first thing I used to do every morning was check my email – my smartphone used to be right by my side all night. Not any longer.
So, this feature is really helpful for those freelance writers who share my compulsion for email checking.
Here’s how you set it up: Gear-shaped button > settings > scroll down > Desktop notifications > Chat notifications on. Now every email you receive in your inbox will show up as a notification, irrespective of what you are doing at that point in time.
If you know that you’ll receive a notification whenever an email’s received it will drastically reduce your compulsion to check your email and will help you concentrate better on the task at hand.
There are several more productivity enhancement tricks in Gmail that freelance writers can use. I might do another follow up post that covers a few more of these tricks.
What is your favorite Gmail trick? Share with us by commenting below.
Share, tweet and spread the word. Also, subscribe to this blog's feed (the subscription option’s given in the sidebar) to receive an update when I add another post.
Author: Urooj Kazi is a freelance business writer. To hire her to write content for your business, visit this website's Contact Urooj page.
