Remark: Because this post was growing bigger and bigger I decided to split it up in several parts. So read here the first part on how I use Google Mail. I will continue writing posts about all the other tools I use.
By now I have been asked quite a few times what I was doing to increase my everyday productivity
Why giving your life to Google?
Until a few weeks ago I was using Microsoft Outlook to organize my e-mails, my calendar and my contacts. To be able to have all that in sync with my Android phone I was using gSyncIt . A pretty cool piece of code that can sync your Outlook Contacts, Calendar and Tasks straight to your Google account that then in turn syncs with your Android phone over the internet. Yes, iPhone users, over the internet! No cable, no iTunes, just something we call “internet”. That is this weird thing that connects all computers together today. I guess you have heard of that… Despite syncing your Google account to your phone works like a charm, syncing Outlook to Google was sometimes difficult. It just syncs once per hour and too often it didn’t sync calendar events correctly. I was fine with that for a while because I was used to Outlook and didn’t want to miss it.
But one day I realized that my IBM Thinkpad X41′s 40 GB HDD wasn’t really up-to-date anymore and I was running out of disc space due to an incredibly large Outlook inbox file. That was the day that would change my entire life. I activated my brain, thought of all advantages and disadvantages and finally decided to put my whole life in Google’s hands. I didn’t regret that step so far.
By today I am using these Google products most: iGoogle, Google Mail, Google Calendar, Google Contacts (integrated into Mail), Google Tasks, Google Maps and my G1 Android phone.
How do I use Google Mail?
With Outlook I was using several different e-mail accounts whose mails were filed under different folders. I was using multiple signatures connected to the different accounts and I kept Outlook running to get notified as soon as new mail arrives. Finally I was able to access Outlook without having an internet connection. All these features are important to me and needed to be accomplished by Google Mail in one way or another.
Multiple e-mail accounts are an easy task since there is an option hidden in the settings to import mail from different accounts via POP3 into your existing Google Mail account. One just types in his or her account details and Google starts downloading new mail every 60 minutes. In addition you can have each incoming mail labeled according to which account it was downloaded from. Labeling in Google Mail replaces folders in Outlook. Sending e-mails with different sender addresses is just as easy as adding accounts for import. Just add SMTP credentials and you are done.
When I switched to Google Mail you could only define one signature for all your e-mails. I didn’t like it but I was sure they will change it as this feature is easy to implement and quite a number of people were asking for it for quite a while. Today you can allocate one individual signature to each address you send mail with. That makes it easy to have your private and business accounts within one Google Mail account.
For getting notified there are different ways. There are browser plugins available that can notify of new e-mails. I don’t use any software since I have Google Mail integrated into iGoogle and therefore passively check for new mails whenever I boot my browser. Besides that my Phone does a sound for each new mail. As I can hear my phone ringing in my entire flat (its pretty small ;) ) I get an audible notification, too.
Getting Google Mail to be accessible even when no internet connection is available works via Google Gears. This browser plugin allows any website to store data on you computer. When you go into the Google Mail settings you will see that there is a tab called “Offline”. This item gives you options to set up Google Mail for offline access. In case you won’t have an internet connection available you can still access Google Mail, read mail and write mail. A soon as you go back online everything is synchronized.
The advantages I get from Google Mail are pretty straight forward. Because Outlook requires a lot of my notebook’s resources I am faster booting Google Mail (that is always visibly bookmarked right under the address field) than Outlook. Besides that I can even leave my computer at home while travelling
Read soon how I am using all the other tools to improve my efficiency at work!
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I assume you will be posting the next parts of this series soon about Calendar, Contacts and Tasks?
My life got much simpler too when I finally ditched Outlook! That was 2 years ago though, and back then Google Tasks didn’t exist. Being a developer and entrepreneur myself, I set out to create a task manager that integrated with all things Google. And though Google finally came out with Tasks, it has minimal functionality, so I kept growing my product. Anyway, if you want task reminders, sharing/collaboration, assignments and calendar integration you might check out GQueues ( http://www.gqueues.com )
Rest is coming soon! GQueues looks cool, btw ;)
@Jonas: Thats a nice article! I would like to learn as many ways as possible to use all things Google efficiently!
@Cameron: I recently suggested Gqueues to my CTO since we are looking at moving to Gapps from MS office suite and the biggest drawback with Gmail is lack of a good task manager!