Keeping your inbox organized can feel like an impossible task. Every time you think you have a handle on it, more messages keep pouring in and messing up your system. Luckily, Gmail offers several organization tools to help you keep things under control. One under-utilized but useful option is Gmail labels.

What Are Labels?

In Gmail, labels act similarly to folders by sorting similar messages together and making them easier to search. One major difference is that you can attach multiple labels to the same message, which makes it easy to sort emails that discuss more than one topic.

How To Create a Label

Making a new label is easy regardless of whether you're accessing your email through Shift or directly through your browser. Simply go to the menu on the left side of your screen and scroll down until you see the option for "More." Select that, and you will see an option that says, "Create new label." When you click on that, you'll be able to enter the name of your new label in the box. After that, just click "Create" and get to work.

How To Use Gmail Labels

Once you have your labels set up, you can attach them to emails that arrive in your inbox. This helps in two major ways. First, you can find a list of all your labels on the left side of your screen. If you click on the label, it will bring up a list of all your emails in that category.

You can also use labels to filter search results when you search for certain key terms or names so you're only seeing conversations related to the topic you're looking up. This tool is particularly useful in Shift, which allows you to search multiple accounts at the same time.