Life Unflaked

  • Start Here
  • About Me
  • Latest From the Blog
  • Planning
    • Paperwork Series
    • Time Savers
    • Meal Planning
      • Recipes
  • Cleaning & Organizing
    • Cleaning
    • Organizing
  • Yardwork

March 1, 2019 · Leave a Comment

How To Clean Up a Keyword Search In Gmail

Paperwork Series

In a previous post, How to Keep Track Of … Everything!, I talked about using a keyword (I use “YYY”) when I send myself To Do emails.

Well, I also use a keyword to send myself other emails, such as entries to my food journal. And I don’t want those entries cluttering up my search results when I’m trying to gather my To Dos.

I also don’t like to delete any of my YYY emails that are To Dos.

Call me an email hoarder, but I don’t see a reason to delete them once they’re done or recorded. I’ve found them useful.

That said, I do not want to inadvertently overlook the YYY emails that require attention this week because they get lost in all that clutter.

So what do I do?

Decluttering the List By Hoarding Emails In the Attic. Clutter In the Attic Doesn’t Count.*

Here’s how I keep my list of search results uncluttered.

Set up a To Do label (folder) in your Gmail.**

Set up a sub-label called “CLEAN UP” or anything else that makes sense to you. I call mine “RECORDED and/or DONE.” It’s not an accurate name, but that doesn’t matter. This is just a folder to hold anything you don’t want to see every week.

You can search for all of your YYY emails anytime you want by typing “YYY” (without the quotes) into the Search bar.

The One That’s On His Dog Tags

Find out the “official” name of your label. The official name can be found by clicking on the label itself. The name appears in the Search bar. Here’s what the screen should look like (the black box in my image was added by me to hide my insanely odd label names):

screen shot of gmail folders showing to click on "to do" "recorded" folder and showing that "label:to do recorded and or done" will show at top - arrows with text "full "official" label name shows here" pointing at top and "click on label name" pointing at the "recorded"folder on left

If you only want to see the decluttered list, type this:

yyy NOT label:to-do-recorded-and-or-done

Where the above text says “to-do-recorded-and-or-done,” substitute the official name of your label.

In essence, this tells Gmail you want to see every email with YYY except for the ones you moved to the cleanup folder.

Apparently Gmail Wants You to Yell to Prove You’re Serious

NOTE: It’s very important to capitalize NOT. Capitalization doesn’t seem to matter, otherwise, but the search won’t work with “not” or “Not.”

Gmail Also Wants You to Only Have Conversations With Yourself

This search will only work if Conversation View is turned off. Conversation View is the view that threads messages together.

Gmail defaults to Conversation View, so you will probably need to turn it off.

Here is how you change the view:

  1. Click on the Gmail Settings gear-shaped icon.screen shot of gmail with arrow pointing to gear icon for settings
  2. On the Setting page, scroll down to the Conversation View section. If the “Conversation view on” radio button is selected, click on “Conversation view off.”screen shot of gmail settings with radio buttons "conversation view on" and "conversation view off" circled and the words "choose 'off'" and arrow pointing to circle

Did You Achieve Closet Hoarder Status?

Once you have these set up, send yourself some test messages using your keyword. Use various subject lines such as “YYY test 1,” “YYY test 2,” “YYY rubber chicken.”

Then move some of the test messages into the new cleanup folder.

Try the search to confirm that the ones you moved no longer show up in your search results.

NOTE: The search may not be clean right away. I’ve noticed that sometimes it takes a few minutes to get the results you want.

To find out more about how I use keywords along with this filtering method to keep my life from derailing, read How to Keep Track Of … Everything!.

*Neither do French fries if consumed alongside diet soda. Nor does any dust or cat hair that’s under the sofa.

**There are really good tutorials (better than I would write) out there on how to set up folders (Gmail calls them “labels”) and how to filter into them. So I’m going to gloss over that part.

Previous Post: « Test
Next Post: No More Wet Towels On the Bathroom Floor + More Tips »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Join the Others

Privacy Policy

Welcome

I'm Joni, a somewhat scatterbrained mom of 3. I believe organizing isn't the end goal in itself - it's a tool to get you to the good stuff without pulling your hair out. Because I tend to step left when I'm supposed to step right (usually not on purpose, it just kinda happens), I've figured out lots of workarounds to help me get out of my own way. Whether you are ADHD or not, if organizing doesn't come easy, maybe I can help. Let's do this together. More about me...

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Contact Me

Copyright © 2022 · captivating theme by Restored 316

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. For more information on how we use cookies, please see our privacy policy.
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT