For most of us, managing our inbox takes serious logistical planning and organization. Not only are we attempting to read messages and respond in a timely manner, but we are also thoughtful about when the recipients of our emails will have access to the information we’re sending.
If you’ve ever logged into your email on a Sunday morning and saved an email as a draft to send out first thing Monday morning, or written a thoughtfully worded email in advance of a big announcement and kept it in your draft folder until the announcement was made, Google (once again) has added a feature to Gmail that will simplify your life!
You may have noticed when composing an email message, that Google has quietly added a small arrow next to the blue “send” button. If you click the arrow, you have the option to “schedule send.” From there, Google suggests several dates and times to send the email, or the user has the ability to customize the date and time.
This relatively small tweak in Gmail has the potential to increase productivity in a big way. Read below to see how our team suggests taking advantage of this feature:
- Have an important deadline scheduled?
- When sending initial emails to team members regarding a project or deadline, schedule a future email to check on completion status.
- Did you just register for a workshop or buy tickets to an event that won’t take place for a couple of months?
- Instead of keeping those confirmation emails in your inbox, forward them to yourself a day or two before the workshop or event.
- Sending logistical information for a big event?
- If you’re sending an email with logistical information in advance of an event, schedule a forwarding of that same email a day or two before the event. This prevents confusion by allowing everyone to read through the information just prior to the event. It also prevents the recipients from having to sort through their inbox for the email that was sent weeks or months before they needed the information.
- Sending a calendar invite?
- When sending an initial calendar invite, also schedule a friendly email reminder for attendees a day before the event.
- Looking to be more purposeful with praise and/or appreciation?
- Schedule a future email to be sent to a colleague or client on a day you know will be stressful. We often don’t have time to take out of our busiest days to send notes of appreciation, but we can now plan for them!
- Trying to remember birthdays?
- Dedicate one day per-year to scheduling a special email to all of your friends, family, and colleagues on the morning of their birthdays.
- Looking for another failsafe reminder?
- Schedule a future email to yourself as a reminder. (We know, there are lots and lots of reminder apps– and even a built-in reminder system in G Suite– but sometimes there is no replacement for sending yourself an email.)
How are you using the delayed send within your organization? We’d love to hear the exciting and interesting ways you’re using this new feature! Click here to tell us more.