4 Gmail Tips for Outgoing Email

We all receive too many downright frustrating emails. But for some, we’re also required to send and reply to many emails every day, which can be extremely tedious and a major detriment to our productivity.

In this blog post, we’ll share four useful Gmail hacks to help increase your email productivity when sending and replying to emails. 

• Create Email Templates
• Undo Sent Emails
• Schedule send
• Confidentiality Mode

Email Templates

Do you often find yourself composing a new email only to type up the same message over and over again? Or wasting time responding to a request with the same reply multiple times a day? 

Don’t fret! This is not uncommon in the professional world. Truth is, we all have our line of work with our distinct roles and responsibilities. As a result, we’ll end up receiving the same frequent inquiries and requests every day. It’s just the nature of work. 

Fortunately, Gmail has a time-saving feature that lets you create and reuse email templates for commonly used messages and create automatic replies. 

How to create an email template in Gmail

To create an email template, you’ll have to turn this feature on. 

To activate templates, open your Gmail and click on ‘Settings’ at the top right corner of your inbox. From the sidebar menu that appears, click ‘See all settings’. 

Once you’re on the Gmail settings page, click ‘Advanced’ on the top bar menu. See the image below. 

Then, in the ‘Templates’ section, select Enable and click ‘Save’.

Now to create an email template, select ‘Compose’ email and write your frequently used message, as if you were writing an actual email. Once you are finished writing your message, select ‘More Options’ in the bottom-right corner of your composed email (next to the Delete icon). 

Then select Templates  > select Save Draft as Template > select Save as new template. See the image below. 

Then name your template and select Save.

Now, you’re all set! Next time you have to compose or reply to an email with the same message, simply select the ‘More options’ in your email window > select Templates > and choose your saved template.

Undo Send

Unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock for the last decade, you’re probably aware that Gmail allows you to retract a sent email shortly after hitting send. It feels like a life-saving feature, especially if you happened to see a typo last second, or you forgot to include a specific recipient and/or attach a file. 

To undo a sent email, you can click ‘Undo’ in the bottom left hand of your inbox immediately after hitting ‘send’. 

However, it’s worth noting that you only have a few seconds to perform this action. By default, Gmail allows 5 seconds for you to retract your sent email.

If you want to increase the buffer time of undoing your sent emails, you can do so by going to your Gmail settings in the top right corner of your inbox > and then click ‘See all settings’ > go to the ‘General’ tab. 

Scroll down to Undo Send and change the Send cancellation period to your personal preference. Gmail allows you to undo a sent email for up to 30 seconds. 

Schedule Send

Have an email you want to send, but aren’t sure if it’s the right time to send it? Perhaps it’s better if you sent the email tomorrow morning? Or perhaps you want to follow up with your client 5 days from now, but are worried that you might forget to send them an email? 

Well, Gmail’s Schedule Send feature has you covered! It allows you to do exactly that… schedule emails to be sent in the future. The amazing email feature lets you pick the exact day and time you want your email to arrive in your recipient’s inbox. (Fun fact: Gmail allows you to schedule an email up to 49 years in advance!). 

‍

How to Schedule Send an email

After you’re done composing the email you want to send, select the More Send Options button next to the blue Send button, and then click ‘Schedule Send’. (Note: to schedule send, you will have to make sure there is at least one recipient in the ‘To:’ field of the email)

You will be able to choose from 3 suggested times in the near future, or you can schedule a specific date in the future by clicking ‘Pick date & time’. 

How to cancel a scheduled email? 

Having doubts about the email you want to send? Don’t panic! You can locate, edit, and cancel all of your scheduled emails on the sidebar menu of your Gmail mailbox. All your scheduled emails will be within the Scheduled folder located under your Sent emails. 

Confidential Mode

Need to send confidential or sensitive information over email, but nervous that someone else might access it? It’s okay, we’ve all been there. Sometimes we have to send sensitive documents quickly.  

To put your mind at ease, try sending your sensitive emails using Gmail’s Confidential Mode. With Confidential Mode turned on, you can send an email message and attachments to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access. 

You can set an expiration date for your email message, which will delete the email forever on the recipient's end at the set time. Additionally, you can delete the email at any time beforehand so the recipient won’t have future access, including the ability to forward, copy, or print the email. 

‍

How to turn on/off Confidential Mode

Before you send your email, go to the bottom menu of the composed email and click ‘Turn confidential mode on/off.  See the image below. 

You can then set the expiration date of the email. Currently, Gmail provides five different options for expiration dates. You can set emails to expire in either 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, or 5 years. 

What if the recipient of your email is not a Gmail user? Not a problem. You can require a passcode, which will be generated by Google and sent to the recipient via email or SMS text message. 

Gmail’s Advanced Features make it easy take control of your inbox better than ever before when it comes to sending email. When it comes to receiving email we recommend you tap into InMoat’s Smart Filters to regain control of your inbox by managing your incoming emails. With InMoat, you can select your email priorities so that only important emails are delivered to your inbox while everything else is filtered away to a folder to be reviewed when it’s convenient for you. Want to manage your inbox? Try InMoat for free for 30 days.

‍