Gmail is something that I use every day. Why do I like to use gmail so much? Here’s a few reasons:
- It’s accessible via the web, which means I can use it on multiple devices every day, easily
- The way that Gmail integrates with other Google Apps makes it very efficient and easy to use (I like easy)
- I don’t have to use Outlook
Those are three good enough reasons to throw out there, but there are also some power user type of features that I’ve started to use more recently that have made Gmail very efficient for me, making it easier to manage the large amounts of email that I have to deal with each day.
Keep reading to learn about 3 small features that I’ve enable in Gmail to make my emailing a lot more productive.
Posted in Rants on 01. Apr, 2010
Over the last year or so I’ve put a huge focus on getting all my communications to go through email, such as:
- Banking notifications and financial alerts
- Web site status alerts
- Client communications, as much as possible
- Email alerts from project management software (BaseCamp in particular)
- Event reminders
- … and on and on
This is great, for the most part. I’m really on top of stuff – that is, when I can keep up with my email.
The one result of having every alert and communication funneling through my email is that I now have a ton of email to pay attention to on a daily basis. I’m starting to hate it, but I must keep focus on why this is a good thing.
I must remember that I’ve done all this and created this situation so that I am actually able to keep up on everything through a single communication medium – and it’s actually mostly working!
I can’t start to hate my friend “email”, because my friend “email” didn’t ask to be put into this situation. I asked “email” to do all this for me, and it’s doing it’s job well.
This goes right back to a Droid post that is coming shortly – regarding how that little device is turning out to be quite a useful tool for me, much more than any other cell phone I’ve had. A lot of the usefulness of the Droid comes from the fact that it allows me to manhandle my email to my hearts content.
Yeah! Now I gotta run so I can check my email!
Wow, it’s actually nice outside today. No more snow. The sun is out. Very little wind. I was driving around with windows down. And yet due to being an Internet fiend I’m sitting here typing on my keyboard.
Ah yes, the life of an Internet user. I’m gonna type this fast so I can get back to standing on my not-so-awesome apartment balcony.
New Gmail security feature
Gmail recently added a new feature that allows it’s users to detect suspicious account activity. This I like.
Half the battle in regards to keeping online accounts secure is knowing who is accessing them, and this feature allows you to keep tabs on whether or not your account is being accessed where it’s supposed to be accessed.
Got somebody logging into your account from another country? A country that you’ve never visited in your life, much less accessed the Internet from? Gmail will tell you if it happens.
Are you taking yourself too seriously?
I think this is a question that every person should probably ask themselves, at least as far as the Internet is concerned, which is why I laughed when I read this.
However, I think that some of the points being made in that post are not actually so bad. Posing for a social media profile picture? Aren’t most people posing for pictures anyways, regardless of where it ends up?
I don’t think that it’s a bad thing for people to take themselves too seriously on the Internet, however. Many different approaches have worked for many different people with both good and bad results, for many things. I can’t just cut a solid line down the middle of that argument myself.
Retro web designs
Check out this list of retro and vintage web designs. There’s 50 sweet examples. This is appropriately titled as “inspiring”.
Retro web design isn’t cliche yet is it? I hope not, I still like it.
There’s just something cool about designs that play off styles of the past, they can have a haunting look and feel.
Closing note -
If I spent the last 5 minutes tweaking the heading sizes on this post, as opposed to spending only 10 minutes writing this, am I taking myself too seriously on the Internet?
