Gmail tip #2: The Filter Label Combo

In my last tip, I talked about using filters to automatically mark as read any emails you send to yourself.

It's taken me a while, because this is a whopper of a tip. I call this tool the Filter Label Combo. It's sort of a two-pronged attack for getting on top of your email. You may already use labels (and yes, Josh the Pen Pal, hopefully with colors, too!). You could use labels for a myriad of reasons, and I'd love to hear what those are for you.

Let me set the stage by giving examples for three approaches of the Filter Label Combo tool:

1. Cataloguing your life (i.e., things you send to yourself such as reminders, etc.): Filtering By Subject. For me, for example, I often send myself recipes, articles or titles of books I want to read, job postings, friends' mailing addresses, funny/interesting things about which I would like to blog, wines I like. I learned to make labels for those things, and I've set filters to automatically (in addition to mark as read) label them. So when I have a few minutes and want to read an article, I know where to go. Or when I need a quick dinner idea, I know where to go. But mostly, just because, I really, really, really like to catalog things. (Steph is like this, too. When she got excited about Systematic Theology, I told her, "You would like that. You like everything that has the word 'systematic' in it. I bet that if I gave you a bag labelled 'systematic garbage' you would love it.")

2. Filing incoming mail from sources other than yourself: Filtering by Sender. For example, I created a filter that added the label Trinity for anything that came in from an address that looked like this: "*@tiu.edu". The wildcard (*) serves as a placeholder for any series of characters.

3. Getting email that's somewhat from yourself; or from mailing lists: Filtering by Recipient. If you forward your email from your school account, this could be helpful, too. And same approach, but different means, for mailing lists.

I really think the whys are more important than the hows, in this case especially, because I think you're all smart enough to figure it out, but I'd like to break it down for those of you for whom it would be helpful. Here, then, are the hows.

Let's start with scenario 1: by Subject. What this presumes is that you'll pick a system so that you can filter. I now send all recipes to myself with the word "recipe" in the subject line, and I'll also put the name in it. So it'll be something like "recipe: chana masala." Here's a snapshot of my emails labelled "recipe." (Incidentally, you may notice that I figured out this method only recently. Also of note: you can still manually apply your label, even though you're now using a filter.)

So, first decide what will be the keyword (e.g., will you put a signifying word in your subject line?) and then proceed to create your filter. Go to Create Filters, and fill in the criteria, like such:

In the next step, you'll probably want it to be Mark as Read, and you'll want to Apply the label... You can create a new label at this point if needed.


Then click and you're done! Test it by sending a congratulatory email to yourself. Woohoo!

Now, to scenario 2: by Sender. Here's what the set-up might like look for the example I gave above. Vary it for your situation.

Lastly, scenario 3: by Recipient. 3a. You can also filter for emails that are sent to your school (or other) account and forwarded to Gmail. (You can ask me for help if you need.) You'd simply set the To in the filter to youraddress@yourschool.com. So any email that looks like it's been sent to your other address gets labeled "calmail" or whatever else you want.

3b. I set a roommate filter/label for emails sent to our house mailing list, males@lists (Maria, Anna, Lisa, Elizabeth, Sarah spells MALES). Similar idea: set the "To:" to the mailing list address and go from there, as such:

3c. Some of you may have heard about this tip from the Gmail blog that discusses how you can add a plus (+) to your account and have all emails still arrive in your box. So you can give away your address as youremail+cb@gmail.com when you sign-up for Crate and Barrel, and if you start getting junk mail, you can just auto-filter to delete. Or you can use it for certain organizations you join. Use the same principle in this Scenario to filter those emails.

Alright. Enough for now. Let me know how it goes! And with luck, there will be a third tip about Quick Links. Happy Gmailing!

P.S. Firefox spellcheck doesn't like my double-l spelling of "labelled" - and dictionary.com says its British spelling. What say you?

A few randoms, III

(Do I just need to start a blog called, afewrandoms.blogspot? Slash, how many of my questions begin with "Do I just need to start a blog called..."?)

1. I came in late to work today. (Good thing Sarah came in to give me a rub, rub or I would have never gotten out of bed!) It's not news that my job is flexible, but actually it's quite rare for me to show up to the office late if it's an office day (as opposed to lab/teaching day). But it seems that on the days I do show up late, I've missed the memo or something. I get there and everyone is gone. That's what happened this morning, and so I asked, Sharon-style (where she kind of rolls her eyes, but not), "Who scheduled the Secret Meeting?" Seriously. Well anyway, I found out they were cleaning out a storage closet downstairs, so I guess I wasn't missing much. (Last time they had gone out to coffee. Boo for missing that one.) When I show up in room 24, the first thing my boss says is "Cute shoes!" (Okay, he is like a late 50s or early 60s man whom I adore.) "This is unusual," he ponders, "you're always wearing tennies or flip-flops." (Hey, those were Chucks, not tennis shoes; and sandals, not flip-flops. Okay, well sometimes they are flip flops. With a sweatshirt. And jean with holes in them. I'm going to miss this job. Well, good thing I'm going to grad school, where it won't matter what I'm wearing. Unless, of course, I'm "man hunting," as someone would say. Advice I got from someone else regarding this? "Sit next to the cute boys. They're all Christian. Stay away from the ones with wedding rings, of course.")

2. I hope you are all enjoying the hidden shout-outs. Sometimes I don't name the person, but you can figure it out using the "word bank" that is the labels of this post. It's like a matching game. Only, should I number/letter the hidden shout-outs so that you know what you're actually trying to match?

3. Hilarious article/video about great books you're ashamed to have not read. Authors confess all. Mine would have to be Hamlet, which is really awkward to admit. Of the 20 some plays by Shakespeare I have read, I had to pick the one that I haven't read in its entirety to be my favorite. (It's my favorite tragedy; Much Ado, my favorite comedy.) I've been assigned this book twice in my school career, and I've written three papers on it. Ugh.

3b. What's your confession?

4. Good essay by Orwell about writing. I appreciate efforts to cut away at excess. (For example, I believe that good recipes don't include ingredients that don't add anything.) I also appreciate this blog's attempt at conciseness, and the author's advice on better blog writing, which I would do well to heed better. (Slash, David, you must finish Elements of Style!)

5. Encouraging quote:

“The only people who get better are people who know that, if they never get better, God will love them anyway.”

—Steve Brown, A Scandalous Freedom (West Monroe, LA: Howard Books, 2004), 68-69

6. Yay for Cheeseboard with Annie!**



7. Should we do a Keep-On-The-Media(n) Cheeseboard party before I leave? (Some of you aren't even here, I realize. Sorry!) When are you free?

Seriously, how effective is that? It makes me think of the sign on Telegraph that says "Drug Free Zone."

8. Appropriately, for this number bullet, Happy August! (I can't believe it.)

**updated with pictures after lunch. Also, also! After pizza, we went next door to try some cheese. We ended up with baguettes fresh out of the oven. Armed with that and a small wedge of soft, double creme brie we sat next to the icecream truck man and had our second lunch. I was in love. (Not with the icecream truck man - I meant with the bread and cheese - though a lifetime supply of icecream wouldn't be too bad.)

More pictures here.

A few randoms, II

I'm still alive, though it's been a while since I've posted. I meant to post Gmail tip #2 yesterday, really, I did, but instead I got distracted by Maria's guy friends from church giving us tips on boys. (And as cool as Gmail may be, boys are more interesting. Sometimes.)

I still intend to post on Gmail, but for now I just need to clear my system of a few randoms floating around. (Anna observed the "piles" accumulating when she saw my whiteboard at work, filled with todo items as well as random quotes, ideas, phrases.)

So, here's to erasing things off my whiteboard! (As well as the virtual whiteboard that is a blank Notepad file.)

1. "I should take you..." Since Sarah has gotten back from Zambia, we keep telling each other about the places we want to make sure we go to together before I leave, because we love checking out new places. I say, "I should take you to Pizziolo," she says, "I should take you to Kabana." Or Mama's. And on and on it goes. Somehow we're supposed to make this happen in the less than 15-20 days we have before she leaves for Denmark. It's been our running joke now to start every sentence with "I should take you...", but we know we really can't do it all. What I really want to be able to do is just stop there after the first four words. "I should take you." (Period.) Sarah, come with me! (And all the rest of you, for that matter!)

2. We checked one thing off the list today. Yay for amazing $2.99 breakfast at the Faculty Club. What could be better? I guess, at least in Anna's or Sarah's opinions, if we could have just laid there in bed and had the faculty serve us, that would have been better. But, all in all, I think we enjoyed ourselves, more so because of the Southern accents we adopted on the way.

3. Do you ever have that experience when someone gives you the word you're looking for to describe your feelings about something and consequently you feel immense peace? (Or is that just me?) For me, I can't remember who said it or in what context, but it hit the nail on the head so I wrote it down. It was this word: mealy. Not that I didn't know the word existed. But I'd been trying to figure out what it is about apricots that I don't appreciate. And now I know. It's that they're mealy. Ah, it feels so much better now.

4. Simple prayers. Lately I've had the experience of having friends pray for things for me (e.g., teaching InDesign, meeting with a friend) and I've been blown away at how God has answered above and beyond. It makes me wonder, as a wise friend once posed, "Are they just more plugged in than me?" It's true, I feel like these people are just more in touch, more spiritual, more whatever. And maybe it's true to an extent, or at least in some cases. But more often than not, that's not the case, and even so, it's not like God gives His good gifts to those who "merit" them in some shape or form anyway. But, still. So all that, in simple ways, has given me encouragement to pray for others - simple prayers, often. That, perhaps, even if I don't feel super spiritual or plugged in, I can still speak to a God who died for me even while I was yet a sinner.

5. Dorian Gray. Amusing quote from Lord Henry's Uncle George: "Examinations, sir, are pure humbug from beginning to end. If a man is a gentleman, he knows quite enough, and if he is not a gentleman, whatever he knows is bad for him."

6. My high school 5-year reunion is next weekend. Umm, yeah. (Weird!) But I'm going to be hitting up Palos Verdes with Sharon and hopefully David, too. (P.S. Yes, I'm coming to play. Have you asked my parents yet if it's okay?) (P.P.S. Didn't mean to make the shout-outs even. And even with the InDesign and Dorian Gray lines, neither has yet the advantage. Sharon 2, David 2.)

7. I love Digsy. Donna's comics are always great. And I particularly enjoyed this one from recently.

btdubs, all of your comments on the last post were hilarious. I think I have to say, Molly's hypothetical conversation is the best. Thank you all for reading and leaving your thoughts!

"Being confident of God's provision"

Oh, my. I laughed out loud when I saw this today. I filled out my RSVP for new student orientation today. Check out the check boxes where I've circled in red:


I quickly sent that screenshot off to Sharon the Creeper* and Slai asking them for witty captions. (Sorry, DEB - hadn't meant to leave you out!)

Slai wrote:

they should reword it as "i am looking for" and you can check as many as you want.

"i am looking for a child"? skeetttchyyyy

Sharon the Creeper wrote:

i don't have a caption, but my dad's caption is: "being confident in God's provision" or "trusting in God's provision"

lisa, i'll give you 50 cents if you check that box.

So I reworked it. If I hadn't already turned it in, this is what I would have sent:


And even if God didn't provide a spouse by then, at least I'd be 5o cents richer.

Thanks, Pastor TQ! Sharon, you don't know how lucky you are to have a pastor for a dad - I have not a doubt that you are always to be inspired, not discouraged, when filling out such forms. (FYI, I stole from Mr. Bennet the rhythm of that last sentence; Vol III, Ch. 55. Thanks, E. Reese! Slash, maybe there's another quote I'm thinking of.)

So, I guess I've now got a month and three days to find a spouse-to-be. Anna and I were talking about how I could start a Google Form inquiring of all potentials on certain topics:

• Beverage of choice: Coffee? tea? herbal tea? (That was for you, Soofie.)
• Food: quantity or quality? I mean, it's important that a guy can appreciate quality food - I couldn't have it otherwise. But everyone needs help clearing leftovers (i.e., when you go into Trash Can Mode), and every once in a while it's necessary to hit up something a little less than gourmet. So we came up with the perfect balance: Trash Can With Taste.
  

Okay, that's all for tonight, folks. The planned Gmail tip will come later, but in the meantime I hope you'll tickle yourselves crazy making all kinds of great Google Forms for your friends. Or your potential spouses-to-be.



* I feel that in order to write about my friends, they need to have nicknames, like Donald Miller's friend Tony the Beat Poet. Right now, only two of my friends have such names: Sharon the Creeper and Josh the Pen Pal. (Sharon, you can be Sharon the PK if you really want.) So I suppose if you want a shout-out in the blog (David, I know you need to catch up in the contest), then you best be sending me your submissions. So, post a comment and sign off with your nickname.