Likes & Launch

I spent a lot of time in my inbox so I am constantly looking for ways to make it more customized to my workflow. Although there is no silver bullet for inbox zero (except perhaps blinding deleting all emails each day), gmail labs and gmail plug-ins are a huge help.

Recycle old emails with Canned Responses

If you are constantly writing similar responses, why are you starting from scratch each time? Gmail Lab’s ‘Canned Response’ feature allows you to save the text you use most frequently in emails.

If you haven’t used Gmail Labs before, full tutorial here. 

Types of canned responses I use at InclineHQ: 
   - How Incline works (explains what we do and why we do it)
   - Confirming weekly speakers
   - Accepting a new student to the next class
   - On-boarding new hiring partners
   - Weekly student feedback requests

Now instead of trying to think of all the scenarios upfront, save as you go. If you write an email this week you know you’ll use in the future, go to canned response and 'save new’ before you send.

Next time you write that email you can drop in the text you need and edit before sending. That way if you have to change any details (name of person or change of dates) you can do it quickly. It’s much faster than searching your inbox for an old email to copy and paste language. 

I haven’t checked it out yet but Text Expander comes recommended from Alex Godin. It costs $35 but gives the added benefit of being able to use it outside email. 

Reduce the amount of email you see with filters

Email is a fast, efficient, and widely adopted communication tool when you’re able to utilize it only to do things that add value. 

Last week I wrote about one of my favorite Gmail hacks by using Google appointment slots to streamline scheduling meetings. Another favorite is Gmail Filters. I use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram often enough that getting an email notification for everything is redundant. Instead I only opt-into the notifications that I care about and have them all filter into a 'Social’ folder. For non-urgent email, I filter into a 'Read Later’, for articles, or 'Rodeo’, for long-term projects.

Thankfully, filter is now getting easier. This week Gmail announced teh launch of automatic filtering. Access will roll out to Gmail users in the coming weeks. (hint, hint: Google, I’d love to try it out.) Thanks Eric Radstake for the video below!

If you still have email that you delete every day or week - pledge to yourself that you’ll stop torturing your inbox and just unsubscribe. The company sending it can save the pennies it saves on sending it to you and may see an open-rate bump with a lower denominator. 

Reuse more emails by setting up introduction context 

Need an introduction or connection? Speed up the email-introduction process by providing what you need, why and how to get in touch. 

Poor request:
Can you make that intro? 

Name

Reusable request: 
As we discussed on the phone, I’m interested in talking to companies that are looking for an iOS developer. I have 3 years of experience working at Company Y.

Here are the links for my portfolio, github and LinkedIn profile. I’ve applied to the company directly through their website but have attached my resume here. 

Thanks,
Name, Email, Social Links

By setting up the context for the request, it’s easy to quickly forward the email instead of starting from scratch. Reusing email is a two-way street so trying to be mindful of setting it up on your end is essential. Canned responses can help here too! 

What tools do you use to manage email? 
Let me know on Twitter @br_ttany. 

This is the second post on gmail productivity hacks. Read the first ToolsThursday post: Hack your google calendar. 

Ever notice how much time you can spend emailing back and forth when trying to setup a meeting? Swapping available times and confirming meeting logistics take you away from doing things that actually add value. 

With Google Appointment slots you can share one link and be done. If you have a paid Google Apps account you can set it up in minutes. And if you’re not on a paid account this feature might be worth the $50/year. 

Creating Appointment Slots

Now to create your first appointment slots. First, open up your Google calendar and drag to create a new time slot. The default type will be Event. Click “Appointment slots” on the top left corner by clicking the blue link that will change the edit options. 

From this view you now have the option to pick how long you want the appointment slots to be. I typically setup one chunk of time for phone meetings for 30 minutes each. 

To have further editing options, click ‘Edit details’ from this view [screenshot below]. Now you have the ability to create the appointment slots on a weekly basis (blue arrow). I try to take most meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so I have them repeat weekly. And you can set default location or phone number for the meeting (red arrow). 

Once you have your appointment slots setup, you can copy and paste the calendar link to share when setting up your next meeting (purple arrow). This link will show all of your available appointment slots. I set up separate blocks for phone calls, breakfast meetings, lunch meetings and in-office meetings. This link will show you all of those even though they were edited separately. 

When you click on the calendar link you see the appointment slots compared against your calendar since you are likely logged into your own account. Your meeting partner would see their own calendar with your appointment slots overlaid so they could choose a time without an existing conflict. Once they click an appointment slot to edit any additional details and you receive an email confirmation.

You’ve now just turned three back-and-forth emails into one reply and one confirmation email. 

Putting appointment slots into your work flow

The calendar link is pretty ugly and a few clicks away to access on a regular basis so I use Google’s canned responses option to shortcut the link into my email flow. 

In addition to adding my Google calendar appointment slot link as a pretty URL, I also added some language around it that I found myself always including. As developers know, take the DRY approach (don’t repeat yourself). 

Now you’re good to go! 

Beyond just saving my inbox, I’ve found that creating appointment slots helps me stay disciplined about blocking off solid chunks of time to do work. Instead of jumping in and out of tasks, I have set time periods of work and set time to speak with others. Productivity hacking at it’s best.

FAQs

What about Tungle.me?
Tungle.me has a similar use case but I found it to require too much work for the other person to book an appointment. I wanted something that was saving us both time, not offloading my work elsewhere. 

What if the other person doesn’t have Google calendar?
How sad! You’ll have to default back to the old way of doing things. 

What if the person is in another time zone?
Sometimes Google calendar can be a little wonky on time zones if you or your meeting guest don’t have it setup properly. You will get a confirmation email when the appointment is setup so it’s worth doing a double check that the hours make sense. Ex: 3AM call anyone?

What tools do you use to get back to adding value? 
Let me know on Twitter @br_ttany.