My Email & Content Management Technique

4 months ago I moved all my mail to Gmail – Prior to this, for many years, I used Microsoft Outlook for all my email management. It was a complete mess and kept growing in size and in the process slowed down everything that was running when Outlook was open.

Over time I had accumulated a number of user names and passwords for various accounts, I had affiliate links, important business correspondence etc etc – all this was sorted into various folders in my Outlook – I had a folder for each website and sub folders within each.

With all the folders in place, you would think that searching for anything in particular would be easy –

But on the contrary, finding things became more and more difficult

I have multiple email addresses (because of my various websites). The one thing that Outlook made real easy was setting up multiple email addresses – and sending emails using any of these addresses was also quite simple in Outlook. But other than this advantage, organization of emails was a complete mess.

After quite a bit of initial hesitation, I moved all my email management to Gmail – Let me explain what I mean here – I still get all my emails delivered to my Outlook. And then, if there is an important email that I need to store, like say WordPress UserName and Password for my FutureNestEgg blog, I forward this email to my Gmail account with the subject ‘UserName and Passwords For WordPress For FutureNestEgg.com’.

I am consistent with the subjects otherwise the whole purpose is lost. So for my ImBizJourney wordpress blog, I use the header, ‘UserName and Passwords For WordPress For ImBizJourney.com’.

In Gmail I have various labels - I apply the relevant label and move it into the appropriate label/folder. If I get an email attachment, which I need to store, I again use the same organization technique. And if there is some important content I need to store for future, I again follow the same procedure. All in one place – super simple and super easy !!!!

I have also set up some rules to deliver certain emails straight into a different folder/label. For example all my Google Alert emails are delivered into a separate place – and so I look at it, when I am ready for those emails.

Gmail has made me really flexible – I can now really work from anywhere and from any computer (as long as there is an internet connection). All my important content, user names and passwords etc etc are all in one place.

Search facility in Gmail is very good – fast and effective. I just search for say ‘wordpress futurenestegg password’ and this will give the username and password details for my futurenestegg wordpress blog.

I have more than 15 email addresses at the moment and setting up these different email addresses in Gmail is not very easy – as there is a limit of number of emails you can set up. And my email address list is only going to grow in the future and not the other way round – And so I prefer to receive all my emails in Outlook and use Gmail for organize and manage my emails.

I don’t have any folders in Outlook anymore – Email comes into Outlook, if important gets forwarded to Gmail with proper subject and body and if not gets deleted (if no action required).

I highly recommend Gmail if you need one place to organize, manage and store emails – I honestly feel I have become more productive since moving to Gmail.

Notice how I use Gmail not just for managing my emails but also for all my content management. If there is something important I need for my business, I email myself and store it in my Gmail (in the appropriate place).

Do you use Gmail – Have you got a Gmail tip that you would like to share ?

Best,