Author Archives: Laura Mae Martin

A productivity expert’s tips for returning to the office

Two years ago, as many of us were thrown into remote work, I wrote a blog post about tips for working from home. Now, as many of us find ourselves returning to the office or preparing to do so soon, I wanted to talk about a few ways we can transition productively to (yet another) new (er, maybe old?) working environment where some of us are in the office, some aren’t…or some combination of the above.

Here are my top 10 tips for being productive in a hybrid work environment:

Make sure people know where you are. Nothing screams inefficiency more than hundreds of emails and calendar invites (and invite changes) where everyone is trying to figure out who is where, when and on what days. Take the guesswork out of it by setting yourworking location and yourworking hours in Calendar, and RSVP to meetings with your location.
Add other responsibilities to Google Calendar. Do you have commute time? School drop off? Moving to a different office campus mid-day? Add it to your Calendar now; consider making theseOOO events so they auto decline if they are scheduled over.
Optimize your calendar for connection and focus. Chances are good that you either find it easier to focus at home or in the workplace. As you consider the hybrid work options available to you, think about where you want to get your best focused work done and build it into your calendar. Wherever it happens, minimize distractions (mute notifications, use noise-canceling headphones) and schedule Focus Time in your calendar so colleagues know that you’re heads down.
Keep your “hot spots” and your “not spots.” Our brain makes associations with the sights, sounds and smells of places and when we do an activity in the same place regularly, it makes it easier to "get in the zone" each time we go back to that same spot. Keep “hot spots” in your house and at work where you do certain things. “I always code at my desk,” “I always answer customer emails from this cafe in my building,” “I always sit on my front porch to read industry news.” Your brain will associate those spots with those things and make switching between tasks easier. Similarly, safeguard your “not spots” — places you NEVER work. If you’ve never worked in a spot, like your bedroom, it’s easy to relax there because your brain only associates it with relaxation.
Group meetings by type, content and location wherever possible. Many people think of their schedule like a puzzle: “Sure, wherever you find a 30-minute slot, throw a meeting in there!” But your energy and focus are changing (and challenged) when you bounce from a one one one meeting to a brainstorm to a project check-in…the list goes on and on . Be intentional about when you place meetings as much as possible. Group meetings of similar type and topic, especially given the new variety in location. Theme your days and minimize switching topics and types of meeting. Call Tuesday your “Project A” day, and place work time and meetings for that project on that day. If Wednesday morning is your manager’s staff meeting, block time afterwards to digest updates and trickle down information to your team as needed.

Two side by side images, one showing a calendar with various color-coded, unorganized meetings. This is labeled "what most people do." The other images shows all calendar meetings organized by color in blocks. This is labeled "time grouping."

6. Build in some things that happen every day. To give yourself some consistency, try finding 1-3 things that you do every day, no matter where you’re working. If you commute from 8:15 a.m.-9 a.m. into the office and listen to an audiobook, go on a walk and listen to your book during the same time period. If you always take a walk at home after lunch, do it at work, too. Always get an afternoon coffee at the office? Make yourself a latte at home. These signals help you keep your flow and make it a consistent “work day” no matter where you are.

7. Make adaily planevery night. At the beginning of the pandemic, I saw a surge in the use of the planning resources. People had gotten used to “showing up” in an office every morning, then deciding what to do with their time. Working from home required people to figure out exactly what they were doing and when. This type of planning is still important as you bounce back and forth to different work environments with different types of schedules. Fill out daily plan *the night before* to make the most of the following day. What you intend to do will marinate while you sleep and you’ll approach the day focused and intentional.

8. A new “season” of work calls for spring cleaning . A new schedule at the office, much like the New Year or a new job, is a great time for a “spring cleaning” of your work life. Do you need to keep that recurring meeting you set up two years ago to keep in touch with people you'll now see in the office? Should your team be meeting in-person on a different day given everyone’s locations? Do you need to lighten up your schedule to make more time for travel?

9. Write down three things you learned from working from home and take them with you. Working from home was a time of discovery for many of us. Let’s not lose those insights as we head back to the office. Maybe you realized you work best after a mid-morning workout, or that you get burnt out if you start work before 9 a.m. Take a moment to write down three things you learned and build them into your new schedule.

10. Take time to adjust. Two years ago, no one had any idea we’d be at home for so long. And during that time, many of us became great at being productive while working remotely. Others realized they definitely wanted to go back to the office. Whatever your preference, we gave each other grace. Let’s do the same this time as many of us transition yet again, and continue extending it to those who will remain remote.

Source: The Official Google Blog

Your hybrid meetings could be better — here’s how

As we explored in a recent global survey we commissioned from Economist Impact, employees around the world are looking for new ways of working and connecting with each other and their organizations as remote and hybrid work models continue to evolve. Creating a blueprint for more inclusive and collaborative meetings can help teams feel more connected—wherever and however they work together.

Scheduling meetings

If you work with people in other time zones, then you know scheduling can be a logistical headache. At Google, we follow a few guidelines to optimize participation.

Share information for better scheduling: Encourage your team to add working hours, location and focus time into Calendars.

Only invite those who can contribute: If you aren’t sure, invite less meeting-essential teammates as “optional.”

Choose dates and times that work for more people: For teams in distant time zones,add other timezones to your calendar to schedule global meetings well in advance and discuss alternating host time zones for regular calls.

Add an agenda to the Calendar invite: Let people know at least 24 hours in advance what a meeting will be about — for example: “This meeting will be successful if we leave with four great ideas from the brainstorming session” — so participants can prepare. And don’t forget you can schedule send the agenda to arrive right before the meeting or at the correct time for different timezone attendees.

Encourage RSVPing with location: Have attendees share whether they will attend “in a meeting room” or if they are “joining virtually” so everyone, including the organizer, knows what to expect.

Rotate facilitator and note-taker roles: Having team members alternate roles lessens the burden on one person and gives everyone a chance to participate more fully.

Prep with Spaces

Spaces is Google Workspace’s central place for team collaboration. It works closely with tools like Gmail, Calendar, Chat, Drive and Meet so coworkers can digitally work on projects, share ideas and even connect on a personal level better. Participants can prepare for meetings by reviewing documents and presentations side-by-side and collaborate with questions and suggestions, with everything saved in Spaces for future reference.

A screenshot showing Google Spaces in use.

Accessing content directly from Spaces can help meeting attendees stay up to date.

During the meeting

Good hybrid meetings shouldn’t feel like two different conversations that happen in the room and remotely. To keep them feeling like a single inclusive experience, try the following:

Help virtual team members connect: Acknowledge when remote teammates join and use the first five minutes to connect. Some Google teams start by asking questions like “what was the best thing you ate this weekend?” or playing interesting YouTube videos.

Keep and share meeting notes: Notetakers can use a pre-populated notes Doc in the Calendar invite or even meeting recordings to share what happened with attendees and anyone who couldn’t attend.

Collaborate with Companion mode: Google Meet’s Companion mode can help everyone participate, no matter where they are. For people in the conference room, Companion mode turns off the video and audio on laptops so participants can use functions like chat, screen sharing, hand-raising, polls, host controls and more, while avoiding feedback with the conference room hardware. Additionally, team members can also enable captions and translations in their preferred language and view presentations up-close on their own device.

Foster inclusivity: Facilitators can make sure everyone feels heard by encouraging remote contributions, avoiding “in the room” side conversations and reminding mixed language teams to use translated captions.

Provide multiple ways to give feedback: Not everyone is comfortable speaking in a meeting, so make sure people know they can use the chat option, or try using the poll feature to engage everyone in offering input.

Use virtual rather than physical whiteboards: With Jamboard or the Jamboard app, remote attendees can also view and contribute.

An image of a person looking into the camera and smiling in a Google Meet call.

Join Companion mode by selecting “Use Companion mode” under Other joining options.

After the meeting

Many of us have experienced meeting fatigue as our teams became more distributed during the last two years. But it’s always crucial to make sure attendees feel like their time is well spent, and there are a few ways you can do that. For starters, try sending a follow-up note thanking attendees for coming, asking for feedback and sharing any notes, recordings, action items, and decisions. You can also post meeting assets to the relevant Spaces so absent team members can contribute. It’s also a good idea to gather general feedback for recurring meetings — try polling people once a quarter using Google Forms, possibly anonymously — about how the meeting could be made more productive and inclusive.

Discover more tips and best practices

As hybrid meetings become the norm for millions of people, discovering and encouraging best practices that make meetings more inclusive is an essential part of the evolving future of work.

Discover more hybrid work tips and best practices on our future of work site.

Source: The Official Google Blog

Make the most of hybrid work with Google Workspace

As Google’s Productivity Advisor, I’ve spent a lot of time over the past 18 months advising people on how to be their most productive selves while maintaining their wellbeing and working from home. With hybrid work emerging as a new model for many of us, it’s especially important to get the most out of each place you work.

In our recent Google Workspace Guide to Productivity and Wellbeing, I talked about how you can plan your days, and even create themes for them. For example, maybe Monday is your “ramp-up day” with lots of meetings and collaboration in the office, and Friday is your “consolidation day,” when you work from home and cross things off your to-do list. The guide also gets into the importance of knowing your tools inside and out. With that in mind, here’s a deeper dive on how to make the most of hybrid work with Google Workspace.

Participate from anywhere using Google Meet

Google Meet has a few new features designed especially for hybrid teams, so you can collaborate wherever you’re working from — even if it’s in a different time zone.

Add your location to meeting invites: When you’re responding to a meeting invite, you can let everyone know whether you’ll be attending from the meeting room in the office or if you’re joining virtually. Knowing where people are located helps presenters set up the meeting so everyone can participate equally.

Use companion mode (coming in November): Hybrid meetings often feel like there are two different meetings happening — one in the office and one online. Companion mode lets you join a meeting in the office from your personal device, while using the audio and video systems in the physical meeting room. Companion mode also lets every in-office participant send chat messages, raise their hands for a question and vote on polls.

Start a Google Jamboard: A Jamboard is a virtual whiteboard that lets people brainstorm live with others. It’s a great tool for hybrid collaboration and you can launch it directly in Google Meet.

Animated GIF illustrating Jamboard in Companion Mode.

Streamline collaboration with Spaces

Spaces (formerly Rooms in Google Chat) are a central place for teams to collaborate in Google Workspace. Spaces work with all the Workspace tools like Meet, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Tasks.

Spaces allow people to work in real time on a project, or on their own when they have time. All conversations, context and content in Spaces are preserved for future reference, so team members can jump in and out of the project when it works best for them. This is a great way to organize your team’s projects, so you can stay focused on what needs immediate attention while still making progress on group efforts.

Let people know your availability and location with Calendar

Google Calendar has been updated to meet the flexibility required for hybrid work. Working from home on Tuesday? Your Calendar now allows you to show where you will be working on specific days. You can also set your availability on specific hours of the day in Calendar, allowing you to block off periods to focus on your own projects or to take care of personal responsibilities.

Animated GIF showing the cursor selecting available hours within Google Calendar.

Remember to take care of yourself

Remote work can sometimes feel like a deluge of meetings and notifications that never stop. And now, as many of us begin navigating hybrid work, here are a few ways to ease any pain points in the transition.

Find your focus: Meeting fatigue can be exacerbated by the fact that you have a little image of yourself on the screen during video meetings. You can turn that setting off in Meet so you can focus on presenters and their presentations.

Schedule speedy meetings: In the Calendar, you can change the default meeting from 30 minutes to 25 minutes. Or schedule meetings to end five to 10 minutes before the top of the hour. It might not seem like a lot of time, but it can often seem like an unexpected gift, letting people mentally reset before their next meeting.

Use Time Insights in Calendar: Time Insights in Calendar lets you analyze how much time you’ve spent in meetings over the last days, weeks or months. Understanding how you’re allocating your time can help you plan ahead.

For more tips on how to optimize for hybrid work environments, visit our Workspace Support pages. And if you want to keep up with all the ways work is changing, our new Future of Work site can help.

Source: The Official Google Blog

Make “work from home” work for you

In my job at Google, I advise people on how to use their time as efficiently as possible. When working from home, my productivity strategies are even more important because I don’t have the ordinary structure of a day at the office, like commuting to work, walking to meetings, or running into coworkers. When your house becomes your office, you need to learn a whole new routine.

Getting work done when your teammates aren’t physically with you has been the norm at Google for a while (in fact 39 percent of meetings at Google involve employees from two or more cities). But it might not be for everyone, and many people around the world are now finding themselves in new work situations. So I put together some of my go-to productivity tips—no matter where you’re working—and a few things I’ve learned about how to get it all done from home.

Designate your “spot” where you work (and where you don’t)

It’s easy to pull your computer up to your kitchen table or plop on the couch and start working. But a consistent room, spot, desk or chair that you “go to” every day to work helps your brain associate that spot (smells, sights and sounds) with getting work done. Put up some things you had at your desk, like pictures of your friends or family. Get a new mousepad you love. Stock your go-to snacks on a little shelf. And just as important as creating your "work spot" is determining the areas where you don’t work. Maybe you never bring your computer upstairs or into your bedroom. This helps create mental distance and allows you to relax often even though your work is at home with you.

Use Hangouts Meet like a pro.

You’ll probably be spending more time on video chat—in our case, Hangouts Meet. Here are a few tricks for Meet at home: lower your video quality when you’re experiencing bandwidth restrictions or delays, dial into a video call but get audio through your phone, andcaption your meetings to make sure everyone can follow. If you’re needing some (virtual) human interaction, set up an agenda-less video chat with your team or friends in the office—it’s not a formal meeting, just time to chat and check in with each other.

Practice “one tab working.”

If you don’t have a large monitor or your usual screen setup at home, it’s even more important to focus on one Chrome tab at a time. If you’re on a video call from your laptop, minimize all other tabs and focus on the conversation—just like you would put away your phone or close your laptop in a meeting to stay engaged.

Act the part.

Resist the urge to wake up and start working in bed—it doesn’t help your brain get in the “mood” of being productive. Stick to your usual routines like waking up, getting dressed, eating breakfast, then “commuting” to your new work space. Staying in your pajamas, while comfortable, will make you feel less like it’s a regular workday and make it harder to get things done.

Play around with your schedule and energy.

The good news about working from home? No commute. Think of this as a time to experiment with alternate schedules and finding your “biological prime time.” If you’re a morning person, try waking up and working on something for a bit, then taking a break mid-morning. If you’re a night owl who prefers to sleep a little later, shift your schedule to get more work done in the later afternoon when you may have been commuting home. Productivity is not just about what you’re doing, but more importantly when you’re doing it.

Working from home does not mean working all the time.

One of the hardest things about working from home is setting boundaries. Leave your computer in your workspace and only work when you’re in that spot. Pick a time when you’re “done for the day” by setting working hours in Google Calendar to remind people when you’re available. Take mental breaks the way you would in the office—instead of walking to a meeting, walk outside or call a friend.

Create your daily to-do list the day before.

Part of staying on track and setting a work schedule at home is listing out what you have to do in a day. I created a daily plan template (you can use it too!) that helps me create an hour-by-hour plan of what I intend to do. If you fill it out the night before, you’ll wake up in the mindset of what you need to do that day.

Finish that one thing you’ve been meaning to do.

Working in the office can be go-go-go and rarely leaves alone time or downtime to get things done. Working from home is a chance to catch up on some of your individual to-do’s—-finish those expenses, brainstorm that long term project or read the article you bookmarked forever ago. Set up an ongoing list in Google Keep and refer back to it when you have pockets of downtime.

Cut yourself (and others) some slack

Some people only have a one bedroom studio and are spending their days there. Some people have spouses who are working from home, kids at home, or dogs at home (I have all three!). Connectivity might be slower and there might be some barking in the background, but just remember everyone is doing their best to make working from home work for them.

Source: The Official Google Blog

Make “work from home” work for you

Designate your “spot” where you work (and where you don’t)

Use Hangouts Meet like a pro.

Practice “one tab working.”

Act the part.

Play around with your schedule and energy.

Working from home does not mean working all the time.

Create your daily to-do list the day before.

Finish that one thing you’ve been meaning to do.

Cut yourself (and others) some slack

Source: The Official Google Blog

Make “work from home” work for you

Designate your “spot” where you work (and where you don’t)

Use Hangouts Meet like a pro.

Practice “one tab working.”

Act the part.

Play around with your schedule and energy.

Working from home does not mean working all the time.

Create your daily to-do list the day before.

Finish that one thing you’ve been meaning to do.

Cut yourself (and others) some slack

Source: The Official Google Blog

The Suite Life: 4 tips for a more manageable Gmail inbox

The average person receives 120 emails a day, which means keeping your inbox under control can feel like an impossible task. Fortunately, G Suite gives you the tools you need to stay focused and organized. Welcome to the Gmail edition of The Suite Life, a series that brings you tips and tricks to get the most out of G Suite. In this post, we’ll provide advice to help you save time and get more done—right from your Gmail inbox.

Tip 1: Write now, send later with Schedule send

Whether you’re firing off a reply outside of normal work hours, collaborating with teammates across time zones, or want to send your future self a reminder, there are lots of reasons to schedule an email instead of hitting send right away. With Schedule send, you can plan exactly when your email will be sent in Gmail. This means your emails can reach teammates at a time that's convenient for them.

Here’s how:

When you’re done writing your email, click the arrow to the right of the Send button in Gmail.
Select “Schedule send.”
Choose a date and time that works for you.
Once you’ve scheduled at least one email, you’ll see a new box called Scheduled where you can view emails set to be sent, change times, or cancel the send.

Pro-tip: Curious to know how Googlers stay on top of things? Try out these tips.

Tip 2: Turn emails into Tasks in one step

A lot of emails require some sort of follow-up. With Google Tasks, you can quickly turn that email into an item on your to-do list without ever leaving your inbox.

Here’s how:

Click and drag your email into the Tasks list located in the Gmail companion bar.
Type the text that describes your task, and a link to the email is attached to the bottom. You can also press SHIFT + K when you’re in an email to automatically add it to your Tasks list.

If you’re new to Tasks, check out this article to help you get started. Or if you’re used to using Google Keep, try out some of these tricks of the trade.

Tip 3: Send and archive emails at the same time

The secret to a tidy inbox is archiving emails when they’re no longer needed. Gmail gives you the option to reply to an email and archive it in the same step, which means you can get to Inbox Zero faster than ever.

Here’s how:

In Gmail settings, click the General tab, then click the “Show ‘Send & Archive’” button.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes. Now, when you write an email, you’ll see the “Send & Archive” button at the bottom of the page; clicking on it will complete both actions at the same time.

Tip 4: Create a Google Calendar event in one click

Ever find yourself thinking “I should set up a meeting about this” after reading an email? Schedule it right from Gmail—no need to open Calendar separately.

the suite life create an event in gmail.png

Here’s how to create Calendar events from emails in one single step:

When you’re in an email, navigate to the three dots and click Create Event. This will open a new Calendar tab. The subject of the email becomes the event title, anyone in the “To” or “Cc” line is added as a guest to the event, and the most recent reply to the thread is embedded in the description.
Click “Save,” and you’re done!

We’ve got plenty more tips to help you better use G Suite tools like Gmail, Docs, Calendar, and more. Check out all the videos from The Suite Life.

Source: Gmail Blog

The Suite Life: 4 tips for a more manageable Gmail inbox

Tip 1: Write now, send later with Schedule send

Here’s how:

When you’re done writing your email, click the arrow to the right of the Send button in Gmail.
Select “Schedule send.”
Choose a date and time that works for you.
Once you’ve scheduled at least one email, you’ll see a new box called Scheduled where you can view emails set to be sent, change times, or cancel the send.

Pro-tip: Curious to know how Googlers stay on top of things? Try out these tips.

Tip 2: Turn emails into Tasks in one step

A lot of emails require some sort of follow-up. With Google Tasks, you can quickly turn that email into an item on your to-do list without ever leaving your inbox.

Here’s how:

Click and drag your email into the Tasks list located in the Gmail companion bar.
Type the text that describes your task, and a link to the email is attached to the bottom. You can also press SHIFT + K when you’re in an email to automatically add it to your Tasks list.

If you’re new to Tasks, check out this article to help you get started. Or if you’re used to using Google Keep, try out some of these tricks of the trade.

Tip 3: Send and archive emails at the same time

Here’s how:

In Gmail settings, click the General tab, then click the “Show ‘Send & Archive’” button.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes. Now, when you write an email, you’ll see the “Send & Archive” button at the bottom of the page; clicking on it will complete both actions at the same time.

Tip 4: Create a Google Calendar event in one click

Ever find yourself thinking “I should set up a meeting about this” after reading an email? Schedule it right from Gmail—no need to open Calendar separately.

Here’s how to create Calendar events from emails in one single step:

When you’re in an email, navigate to the three dots and click Create Event. This will open a new Calendar tab. The subject of the email becomes the event title, anyone in the “To” or “Cc” line is added as a guest to the event, and the most recent reply to the thread is embedded in the description.
Click “Save,” and you’re done!

We’ve got plenty more tips to help you better use G Suite tools like Gmail, Docs, Calendar, and more. Check out all the videos from The Suite Life.

Source: Gmail Blog

The Suite Life: 4 tips for a more manageable Gmail inbox

Tip 1: Write now, send later with Schedule send

Here’s how:

When you’re done writing your email, click the arrow to the right of the Send button in Gmail.
Select “Schedule send.”
Choose a date and time that works for you.
Once you’ve scheduled at least one email, you’ll see a new box called Scheduled where you can view emails set to be sent, change times, or cancel the send.

Pro-tip: Curious to know how Googlers stay on top of things? Try out these tips.

Tip 2: Turn emails into Tasks in one step

A lot of emails require some sort of follow-up. With Google Tasks, you can quickly turn that email into an item on your to-do list without ever leaving your inbox.

Here’s how:

Click and drag your email into the Tasks list located in the Gmail companion bar.
Type the text that describes your task, and a link to the email is attached to the bottom. You can also press SHIFT + K when you’re in an email to automatically add it to your Tasks list.

If you’re new to Tasks, check out this article to help you get started. Or if you’re used to using Google Keep, try out some of these tricks of the trade.

Tip 3: Send and archive emails at the same time

Here’s how:

In Gmail settings, click the General tab, then click the “Show ‘Send & Archive’” button.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes. Now, when you write an email, you’ll see the “Send & Archive” button at the bottom of the page; clicking on it will complete both actions at the same time.

Tip 4: Create a Google Calendar event in one click

Ever find yourself thinking “I should set up a meeting about this” after reading an email? Schedule it right from Gmail—no need to open Calendar separately.

Here’s how to create Calendar events from emails in one single step:

When you’re in an email, navigate to the three dots and click Create Event. This will open a new Calendar tab. The subject of the email becomes the event title, anyone in the “To” or “Cc” line is added as a guest to the event, and the most recent reply to the thread is embedded in the description.
Click “Save,” and you’re done!

We’ve got plenty more tips to help you better use G Suite tools like Gmail, Docs, Calendar, and more. Check out all the videos from The Suite Life.

Source: The Official Google Blog

Master your email with these essential Gmail tips

Your email can feel like a never-ending to-do list. And in a world where technology makes you more connected to work than ever before, how do you set ground rules to keep your energy up, your focus sharp and your sanity intact? As a productivity expert at Google, I help Googlers use products like Gmail, Google Drive and Google Calendar to get more done during their busy days. Email in particular can be a source of stress, but it doesn’t have to be.

Gmail had its birthday earlier this week, and for 15 years, it’s been a helpful sidekick for billions of people around the globe. Part of my job is sharing Gmail-related tips with fellow Googlers—here are my top 10 email management tips for you:

Cut down on notifications: Don’t bother your brain with notifications for every new email—proactively check your email instead. On your phone, you can set up notifications for certain emails—say, the ones from your boss. This will help you identify important emails and disconnect when you want to.
Respond within 24 hours, even if it’s only to check in:You probably can’t get to all emails within 24 hours, but you can avoid getting another follow up email from a coworker. Giving a status update—“Hi, I got this email but not going to get to it until later this week!”—is a great way to set expectations and show them you’re on it.
Close out your email 1-2 times a day: Email is necessary to get your job done, but it’s also the ultimate distraction. Most people leave it open all day and check it every 30 minutes (if not more). Try closing your email tab when you have time to do deep work: the ability to focus without distraction on a demanding task.
Don’t click on an email more than twice: If you read an email then mark it as unread, you’ll have to read it again to remember what to do with it. Read it once to scan and tag your future action (for example, labeling it as “must respond,” or “to do this week,”) then one more time when you answer it.
Sorting, reading and answering emails should be separate activities:Most people bounce between sorting one email for later, reading one, answering one and repeating. We lose so much energy switching between these activities. Instead, tell yourself “right now I’m sorting everything.” Then when you’re done, read everything you need to read.
Keep emails that require clear action—otherwise archive or delete:When your inbox contains emails without clear action items, it gives your brain the false sense of having too much to do. Be ruthless about deleting, archiving, or snoozing emails that don’t require an immediate action from you in some way.
Skip some emails: Every email you see takes a tiny piece of your energy, so each item in your inbox should be something you need to look at. Gmail lets you create filters so that certain emails “skip your inbox” and won’t appear as new emails. For example, if you get a lot of email newsletters, set up a filter with “Has the words:unsubscribe”—now, those emails won’t distract you, but you can search for them later.
Don’t mix your read and unread emails:Combining read and unread emails in your inbox is a recipe for anxiety. New emails should come into one section and emails that you’ve already read and require an action should be in a different section. You can create a Multiple Inbox pane or “move” emails to different label that denotes a specific action (such as “To Do” or “Follow Up”).
To stay focused, keep new email out of sight. It can be hard to answer pressing emails when you’re constantly tempted to open the bright and shiny new emails that just came in. Open up a section like your “Snoozed emails” (emails that you’ve saved for later) or your “Starred emails” (your high-priority emails) so you can stay focused on those tasks, instead of getting distracted by new email.
To find what you need, just search: Email labels can help you stay organized, but think about how Google got its start … Search! Searching your email—instead of digging through labels—is actually a faster way to find the email you’re looking for. You can search by date, sender, subject (and more) and you can get even more specific with queries like “has:attachment” or “older_than:6m” (m=months).

For those of you new to using G Suite, there are loads of ways to stay productive in email. Learn more or try it out for yourself. Now go forth, and tackle that email.