For years I used Gmail because it was free, but never really came to terms with the interface. After all, I had been weaned on Outlook and was used to putting things in folders. Gmail left everything in the inbox and only allowed you to mark it with different labels.
It was a mess.
But since I got my Google G1 Android phone which has built-in Gmail support and no Outlook support, I was forced to take another look at Gmail. At first I resisted, but then…
I liked what I saw.
One of the biggest things that had been missing from Gmail was the ability to manage my mail. I wanted the mail I had read out of my inbox. Think folders.
Google still doesn’t have Outlook type folders but it did introduce the ability to archive earlier this year. Archiving solved my problem of wading through hundreds of emails and always looking at a cluttered inbox. Now I can read the message, and if I am done with it for now but may want to look at it again, I can press the Archive button and poof, it disappears from my inbox. If I don’t need it, I simply delete it. Either way, I can maintain a clean inbox.
At the same time, I love being able to search through all of my mail for a particular word, phrase or person and to get all e-mail messages sent and received on that search term. Google refers to this as conversations. It can be a real time-saver, since you can follow the flow of the communications easier.
Maybe it goes without saying, but being able to access my e-mail no matter where I am is another great convenience and productivity booster. Since the G1 phone stores the messages in your inbox on your phone offline, I can catch up on my e-mail and respond to messages even if I don’t have a network connection, or only have a poor one.
Keeping all of my appointments on my phone to track upcoming meetings is a must. Before the G1, I had a Windows Mobile 6 phone which I configured to sync automatically with my Outlook calendar. One of the reasons I didn’t get the Google phone earlier was the lack of the ability to sync with Outlook, not to mention the seemingly primitive way the Google calendar was set up.
But then, when I took a closer look, I found that there is a way to synch my Gmail calendars with Outlook. The cool thing about Gmail is that I can have multiple calendars, so I now have one for the day job, one for my own projects and one for my family events. Thanks to Gmail, all three can be combined into one view, so I can see them at a glance on my G1.
The trick to get around some of the missing functionality of Google calendars is to do all my scheduling in Outlook and then synch it with Google. The Outlook calendar still rules in ease of use and functionality.
You can use the free Google calendar synch program or the fancier and more expensive CompanionLink for Google application to sync your Outlook with your Google calendar.
So Gmail is back in favor and I give it the high productivity nod. Despite the lack of folders and the thought that all my mail is being spied on by the Google algorithms, I am finding that it is saving me so much time and makes me so much more productive that I consider it a good friend and business partner.
What is your experience with Gmail? Do you use it? Leave me a comment and tell me how you manage your messaging.