Green Grads

26 December 2008

Tech Tips: Google Goodies #1 – GMail

When I was considering what little snippet of techno hooplah to start this series off with, I think I always knew deep down that it had to be GMail. I originally signed up for a GMail account a few years back simply because it had a huge amount of storage but since then it has grown to be much, much more.

Firstly I will say that you really need to read an article written over at zenhabits entitled ‘Email Zen: Clear Out Your Inbox’. This really changed the way I did thigs.

So GMail, what is it and how do you use it.

Step One – Register

Kind of a dumb step I know, but the most important first step is registering, preferably with your name. In my opinion this should be the first thing students are required to do on their first day of law school.

Ideally, you want your GMail account to be your firstname.lastname@gmail.com. This is because when you’re at some fancy cocktail party being all charming and sophisticated to some prospective employer, you dont want to tell him your email is fluffycat69@gmail.com. Trust me it doesn’t look any better if you’ve printed it on a business card.

But the problem is, if your name is Jane Smith chances are some other clever Jane Smith got in before you. As far as I know, Google haven’t released any gmail2.com addresses yet (but keep an eye out and grab your name if they do!) so you’re going to have to get creative, but not too creative.

I think it’s fine to do simple variations of your name. So jane.smith.aus@gmail.com seems reasonable. Perhaps even add in a simple word that is easy to remember, like jane.smith.green@gmail.com. Personally, I prefer these kind of approaches to jane.smith848743@gmail.com – but if your name is really common and you cannot think of anything simple to distinguish yourself, go with as low a number as you can get.

Step Two – Forwarding

Next, take all of the email accounts you currently have and point them *all* to your gmail account. This would most likely be your student email, ISP email and any other free service emails you had throughout highschool.

If you dont know how to do this, look for the Forwarding options in the Settings. If you’re stuck, post on our forums.

Step Three – Settings

Have a think about how you want to use each email. I have set it up to always reply with my GMail address, but in the GMail settings it is possible to reply to certain emails via some of your other email accounts (ie. when you reply to an email sent to your fluffycat69@hotmail.com account, it will look as though your email was sent from fluffycat69@hotmail.com)

I really cant think of any reason you’d want to keep any of these old emails separate, but if you do want to do it then the option is there.

Step Four – Learning to Zen

Again, I have to sing the praises for Leo Babauta and his Email Zen system. Read his article and have a think about how you can apply it to your life. I wont repeat the stuff he says here, I will just say that it really works. Do it.

Step Five – Learning to Uni

I probably could have just started the article here but figured I should go through it from start to finish. This is where the magic happens. How do you use GMail to be an awesome student.

1) Backup Your Assignments

Everytime I write a draft anything I email it to myself and in the subject line write ‘Backup – Assessmentv1.0′ and then archive it. Then when I’ve finished the piece of work I will email it to myself and in the subject line write ‘Backup – AssessmentFINAL’.

This way, I have access to my work anywhere there is an internet connection. By searching for ‘Backup’ I get a list of all of my assessments and their drafts. This has saved my bum a number of times when I’ve needed to make a last minute change at uni before submitting the work. I always backup the drafts too, because occasionally I will have deleted a paragraph from the final version and then later need to put it back in.

2) Consolidate

By keeping all your emails in one place you dont need to stress about where your information is. If you’re using the Zen system you’ve archived everything to the one spot. For example, over the past twelve months I’ve occasionally sent emails to various people working in various legal fields. I dont remember their names or their details because I dont need to. GMail remembers them for me.

If you know that your Con Law lecturer also worked for X firm, you can just do a search in your GMail for ‘Constitution’. Find an email from them and you have the details you need. If you had some brief correspondence with a firm representative during last year’s vacation clerk intake you know that the information you need is there. You can simply sort your archived emails by date until you find the right one you’re looking for.

3) GMail Todo

GMail recent added a Todo function that is pretty damn awesome. After a while you will find yourself relying more and more on GMail as a centralised place for you to sort yourself out. So what better place for your simple todo list?

To activate it, click on Settings — Labs — Enable Tasks.

Then when you receive an email that contains a call to action, simply click on the dropdown menu at the top of the email and select ‘Add to Tasks’. If you are reading an email that reminds you of something, you can add a task by clicking the big + button at the bottom of the tasks panel.

It’s not fancy, but it is immensely helpful. The more you use your GMail the more you see your todo list and the more useful it becomes.

Step Six – Rinse and Repeat

I need to wrap this post up, but there are sure to be more tricks that you can do with GMail to help you be a better student. At the end of the day though, its email. We all know it. The reason GMail rocks is because it’s free, it’s accessible anywhere and while it is somewhat common it is still respectible enough for you to use it in a business setting.

It gets better the more you use it, so use it.

Related posts:

1. Tech Tips: Google Goodies #2 – Google Reader
2. Tech Tips: Google Goodies #3 – Google Docs
3. Tech Tips: GMail Labs Stuff
4. Tech Tips: Google Profile
5. Tech Tips: Taking Notes #1 – Word

Green Grads says:

Green Grads | Tech Tips: Google Goodies #3 - Google Docs says:

JaneRadriges says:

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