My Favorite Gmail Label

Ever since I discovered labels in Gmail, I've been using them like crazy to organize my ever-growing inbox. The best part about labels is that you can create filters to automatically attach labels to new messages as they come in. Additionally, you can attach more than one label to a conversation.

My favorite label is one called "Me". I know, I'm so self-centered!

But it comes in so handy! What I did was I created a filter that matches messages where the "from" address is my own e-mail address and applies the label "Me".

Matches: from([my e-mail address])
Do this: apply label "Me"

Now, each time I reply to an e-mail or write a new one, the label "Me" is automatically applied.

This means when I look at my inbox I can easily see which conversations I was a part of because they will have the "Me" label. This is especially useful because I belong to a lot of mailing lists, but only participate in a handful of the threads.

So when I see a new message show up at the top of my inbox and it has the label "Me", I immediately know that I was part of that conversation and am more than likely to be very interested in reading the new reply.

However, clicking the label to view all messages labeled with "Me" is virtually identical to viewing the "Sent Mail" folder. So viewing this label on its own isn't all that useful. 

To add your own "Me" label to Gmail, follow these quick steps:

1. Log into Gmail and click the "Settings" link
2. Click the "Filters" tab 
3. Scroll down and click the "Create a new filter" link
4. In the "From" box, enter your own Gmail address
5. Click the "Next Step" button
6. Check the box next to "Apply the label"
7. Click the "Choose label" dropdown box and select "New Label"
8. Type in "Me" (or whatever you want to call it) and click "OK"
9. Optionally select "Apply filter to x conversations below" (recommended)
10. Click Create Filter

That's it! Now every single conversation you are a part of will be labeled.