Every Friday, my goal is to reach Inbox Zero. I brag I have an excellent track record of accomplishing this.
I believe I’m able to do this because I’m good at organizing my inbox and replying promptly.
It’s also because I use something called Boomerang, a platform that I pay for and LOVE. However, Gmail has the Snooze feature as well, and below I explain how and why you should use it.
Who can Snooze?
If you don’t use Gmail (WHY!?) then this blog post won’t apply to you. I think most email providers have a snooze function, but everything below is specifically for Gmail users.
What is Snooze?
Snooze is a temporary archive of an email and tells Gmail to bring it back to your inbox at a specific time. Much like your morning alarm, when you snooze, it’ll leave you alone for a little while and come back to annoy you later.
Here’s how to Snooze:
From your inbox, hover over the right-most side of the email you want to snooze and click the clock icon that pops up. (If you're already looking at the email, the clock icon will be above the subject line.)
Select one of the pre-set days and times, or click Pick date & time to select another option.
If you're selecting another option, set the day and time, and click Save.
The email will disappear from your inbox and go to a folder called Snoozed. It will reappear in your inbox at whatever day and time you chose as if it were a newly received message.
(Note: On the mobile app, select the email first and then use the 3 dots to find Snooze.)
Why Snooze?
Why would you snooze an alarm? Lots of reasons. You're putting something off because it makes more sense to do it later.
Here are some reasons why you really want to Snooze:
1. It prevents things from slipping through the cracks
If you inexplicably leave all your emails in your inbox, it's 100% guaranteed that something will slip through the cracks. Snooze makes sure the important ones don't get lost.
When you Snooze, the message will pop back up at the top of your inbox and will show that it’s been snoozed.
So even if you have hundreds of emails, the message will be un-buried.
2. It helps you tackle tasks at the right time
If your inbox acts as a to-do list, Snooze is a reminder. Instead of the task sitting there waiting for you, it only shows up when you need to do it.
It's kind of like time blocking: you're setting off a specific time to get a specific task done.
Ex: I wanted to pay a bill when I knew I’d have the money to do so. I snoozed the invoice for the date I knew I’d get that money into my account.
3. It functions as a deprioritized to-do list
Let’s say you love my newsletters and want to read them, but not right now. You'd usually either leave it in your inbox to slowly be buried or move it to another folder where you'd promptly forget about it. If you Snooze it for a time when you know you'll have a little more bandwidth, it’ll help you get to it AND keep the inbox tidy until that time comes.
Plus, if you magically finish your to-do list for the day and are looking for other things to tackle, you can always go into your Snoozed folder and see if there's anything that you could look at now.
Snooze Tips
If someone replies on a thread, it'll un-snooze it. This takes a little bit of learning, but basically, you just want to re-Snooze if needed.
Make sure you're not snoozing when you should be scheduling. Snoozing is great for tasks that come through as emails. But if all you're doing is putting off responding to a message, remember that if it takes 2 mins of your time, just do it now. If not, make sure it goes into a folder that you regularly check and remember to reply to.
If you snooze something more than three times, move on. If you snoozed my newsletter 3 weeks in a row, it's probably time to admit you're not going to read it. Go ahead and delete it. I won’t cry…much.