Right Inbox
Do you sometimes wish that you could do more with Gmail, or maybe that you could view your inbox in a different way? Well, in this video, I'm sharing with you seven of my favorite Gmail extensions so that you can give your email some superpowers.
Hello, everyone. Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.
Now, the first extension on our list is called Right Inbox. And as I open up my Compose menu, you can see right away I've got a number of additional options.
I've got four different buttons here within the message itself, and then down below, just below my Send button, I've got a number of additional options down here as well.
So let's take a look at some of my favorite features here within Right Inbox.
In this case, I am sending an email, and I'm asking someone a question. You know, how does Thursday look for you?
I wanna meet with this individual, but I wanna track when they open this up, and if they click any of the links within my emails as well. Well, Right Inbox, one of its features is the ability to track those emails.
Here, you can see, I can choose if I either want to track the clicks or the opens, or maybe I want to do both. Now that this button is green, when I send this message, I will be able to see when this person actually opens or if they click any of the links within this particular email.
If I open up my Sent folder here within Gmail, I can see this email, which I sent earlier, and I see that I've got a notification. I've got this little green check mark with the number two.
This is letting me know that this individual has opened up this email two times, and I can see exactly when they did so. This can give me some further insights, some further information as to what I should be doing next with this particular client.
My second favorite feature with the Right Inbox extension has to do with using its template feature. Why? Because it's so easy to access. It's right here at the top of my messages.
How many times have you written the same email over and over and over again? When in reality, all you need to do is use the same template.
So in this example, I've got a number of templates that I've already created. In fact, Right Inbox sets you up with a few defaults as well.
Maybe this is a follow-up email. I'm gonna select this option here and then select the button itself, and now you can see, I've got this templated message ready for me to send.
Lastly, before I send this email, I wanna make sure that I'm reminded if this individual doesn't follow up with me. And don't worry, Right Inbox has this built right in.
Down below, we can see this reminder option here, and I can turn this on and choose when I would like to be reminded. For example, I wanna know if this person has not responded to me by tomorrow afternoon.
So I'm gonna select that option. I have a number of other options available here as well.
Maybe I want to make sure that it comes back even if they do reply to me, or I can check this box, and it will watch and see if a reply comes within that timeframe. So you can really customize the way that this reminder works.
Now, I can confidently send this email, and I'll be reminded if this individual doesn't get back to me within that timeframe.
Gmail reverse conversation
Now, the next extension on our list is something that so many of you have requested or asked me about in the comments.
Here, within Gmail, we know that the oldest message will be displayed at the very top, and sometimes you have to scroll all the way down to the bottom to read the most recent message. If you go to Reply, you're gonna be replying at the bottom of the screen.
What if you could change that? Well, the good news is that you can, and you can do it with the Gmail Reverse Conversation.
Here, I'm gonna open up that exact same email, but what? The most recent message is now staring at me in the face on top with my oldest message at the bottom.
Look at this. My reply is at the top as well.
If I hit Reply, I can now reply to that message very traditionally, very much like we see in Outlook and some other email programs, and the rest of my message is down below.
So if you prefer to read your messages with the most recent on top and be able to reply on top, Reverse Gmail Conversation is the extension for you.
Inbox When Ready
Now, the next extension on our list is great for anyone who gets distracted with all of the messages that are staring back at them. As a productivity coach, I encourage my clients to ignore their email for certain stretches of their workday.
Our next extension helps us to do that right here. Inbox When Ready allows you to hide your inbox with just a click of a button.
Here, in the top left-hand corner of the screen, I can select Hide Inbox and now everything is out of the way. I can still compose my messages as I would naturally, but I don't have to see all of the existing messages or new messages as they come in.
This can give me a heightened sense of focus and keep me distraction-free as I go about my day. But it gets even better.
If I click on the Inbox When Ready options here, I can choose the frequency for when I auto-hide my inbox. For example, I can hide it by default when I first get into my Gmail account.
I can hide my inbox after 10 minutes of inactivity, or I can even choose the Enable Impulse Check, meaning that I can dictate how often do I want to check my inbox today.
There's a number of other settings, including time of day and scheduling, in which you can include here as well, but if you wanna be distraction-free and just toggle your inbox on and off, Inbox When Ready might be the solution for you.
Gmail Tabs
Now, the next extension on our list got so many rave reviews and comments when I first introduced it two years ago that I thought I'd bring it back for today's video.
You may have a very long list of labels and categories here on the left-hand side, but there's probably some that you use more frequently than others. So wouldn't it be nice if you could just pin a few of your key labels at the top of the screen?
Well, you can do so with Gmail Tabs. Here, you can see I've got my Inbox tab, but I can quickly and easily go to my Action Required and my Newsletter tab.
These are the exact same labels as you would see here on the left-hand side, but they're just a little bit easier to get to because I have them pinned at the top of my inbox.
At any time, I can go over here and choose to edit these labels if I want to add further ones, or if I want to change the name of the label, but now, I can pin any of the categories or any of the labels that I have over here and easily access them at the top of the screen.
Clearbit Connect
Now, our next extension is ideal for anyone in sales, marketing, entrepreneurship, or maybe just anyone who needs to find a particular email address.
Perhaps I'm wanting to reach out to someone at a particular company, but I don't know their actual email address. All I know is their name.
With the Clearbit Connection extension installed, on the right-hand side of your panel here, we can open up this option and find specific emails. So in this case, maybe I've already typed in a company name, in this case, I'm gonna use Trello as an example.
I'm gonna click on this. What Clearbit is going to do is it's going to give me all of the known email addresses of all the people who work at Trello.
As I sift through this, not only can I see their name, a profile picture in most cases, but I can also see what their title is.
In this case, I'm gonna select this individual. It's gonna open up and give me some further information, including links to their Twitter account and their LinkedIn profile, and now I can email this individual directly.
Grammarly
Now, you've probably heard of the next extension on my list, but I really can't emphasize how important it is to use this on a regular basis.
Grammarly has been helping people craft better messages for many, many years, but chances are you do most of your text-based writing right here within Gmail.
With the Grammarly extension installed, here, you can see, just before I send this message, I've got a number of underlined words. It's very easy for me to see what Grammarly is pointing out to me.
All I need to do is hover over each one and see if I need to correct something. Yes, that's not how you spell wasn't.
I wasn't sure if we. Yeah, I missed a spelling there. I missed an entire letter.
On the next steps. Yeah, that makes more sense if I add, the next steps.
The reason why Grammarly is so important is that you're probably already a very good writer, but sometimes we do things very fast. Sometimes we forget to double-check our work, and that's precisely where Grammarly comes into place.
You can look so much more professional and increase your chances of getting a response by making sure your emails sound and look the way you want.
Zoom for Gmail
Now, the last extension I have on my list today has to do with setting up meetings that much quicker and faster. This is especially if you use Zoom meetings.
Here, on the right-hand side, under the Google taskbar, you can see I have the Zoom extension already installed. When I open up a particular email message, what I can do is have the option to either start a meeting immediately, or I can schedule a meeting in the future.
Not only is this going to allow me to quickly and easily create this meeting and send that link to whomever it is I'm speaking with, but I can access it here without going to a new tab.
Well, I hope you enjoyed today's video, and I would love to hear from you next. What are some Gmail extensions that I missed, or what are some of your favorite extensions that help you get more done as a part of your day?
Be sure to let me know in the comments down below. Thank you so much for watching today's video.
Be sure to give this video a thumbs up and subscribe right here to the Simpletivity channel.
As always, remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.
