If you haven’t been paying attention to the new features in Gmail, one of the newest is multiple inboxes.  I don’t think this is an satisfactory description.  It’s more like multiple views.   I have implemented it and after a week of using the new feature, I confess I think it’s useful for being productive and efficient.  I have heard mostly lukewarm or negative reviews of this feature, but my application of it works perfectly for me.

I use my mail inbox for my main stream of emails through my three main email accounts (adding multiple accounts to my Gmail account).  Then I create two views beneath my main inbox. 1) A To-Do box for items that need to be attended to on my next work day or when it gets a bit cluttered. 2) A future-consideration box for items that need attention within the future (the next month).  Things I don’t want to archive into a folder/label and not stumble upon again.  This way I can keep my inbox always empty, as I sort items into short and long term use.  If it just needs to be kept and archived, I can label and archive for future searches.  Also, I can email myself and sort my message to serve as a to-do list for the upcoming week.  Overall, this addition to Gmail will help me to be more productive and make sure I perform my duties more effectively.

I’m thinking my next new tweak might be to use the star feature as my To-Do box and that way I can easily move items to and from my To-Do box.