Gmail is great at handling the basics, but once you start dealing with dozens of emails a day, the limitations show up quickly—even with Gmail’s wildly powerful search bar.
Thankfully, Google allows you to install add-ons for Gmail, which can save you a significant amount of time. These small but powerful tools plug right into Gmail to automate repetitive tasks, streamline workflows, and give you features Google never built in.
Mail tracking game changer
MailTracker is available as a free extension that tracks when an email has been opened. Being able to track email read receipts has helped me save a lot of time and mental energy on figuring out whether or not to follow up with important emails.
Before MailTracker, I was constantly wondering whether my messages had even been seen. Now, instead of wondering for days whether I should follow up or the recipient was just busy, I can send follow-ups as needed.
It also tracks individual read receipts in group emails. This way, you know exactly how many recipients of an email group have opened the email and seen your message. This alone saves me around 30 to 45 minutes a week of unnecessary follow-ups and mental bandwidth.
Never miss another important email
Boomerang has quickly become one of my most important add-ons that helps me track, send, and receive important emails at just the right time. With email inboxes getting increasingly more crowded every day, Boomerang helps you focus on what’s important, when it’s important.
The add-on has three mail features:
- Response Tracking: The extension reminds you to follow up with people if you don’t hear back from them within a given amount of time.
- Boomerang Reminders: Lets you set reminders on important incoming emails so you remember to respond at a later time.
- Send : Lets you schedule messages to send at a later time. Works similarly to Gmail’s Schedule send feature.
It’s Boomerang’s automated reminders that help me save the most time. It’s nice to be able to mark an important email and be reminded to respond to it later when I have the mental bandwidth. There are Gmail features that help you respond to emails, but they’re nowhere near as easy to use as Boomerang.
Document signing made simple
If you sign a lot of documents received via email, you know just how annoying the process can get. You have to download the email attachment, print it, scan it, and then email it back. Sure, some tools can help you sign digital documents, but being able to do it in Gmail is far easier.
DocuSign takes care of that dilemma for me and has been a massive time-saver for client contracts and agreements. I don’t sign documents every day, but as a freelancer in several different fields, I have a regular influx of documents and invoices that need to be signed.
It does offer other features such as tracking document progress, sending reminders, and more. However, the free plan lets you sign unlimited documents, and that’s all I use DocuSign for. It does one thing and it does that well.
Inbox organization that actually works
If your inbox is starting to feel overwhelming, Sortd can help sort that out. You get drag-and-drop email organization, Trello-style Kanban Boards, contextual team chats within email threads, share emails with teammates, set up follow-up reminders, and get a unified task and email tracking system in one workspace, among other features.
You can create Gmail filters to organize your inbox, but I find them limited and clunky to use. Sortd’s drag-and-drop organization system is far simpler and faster to use. I mostly use Sortd for its organization capabilities, as the other features are more focused on teams. Regardless, it saves me a lot of time and hassle when going through my emails.
The email cleanup hero
Ever get tired of unwanted emails and try to unsubscribe? I’m sure you would have quickly realized what a mammoth task it is to go through every individual email and click the unsubscribe button. Well, InboxPurge takes care of that for you.
This is a mass unsubscribe tool that also lets you delete any unwanted emails at the same time. It links multiple actions to a single button, meaning you can clear out the clutter from your Gmail inbox in seconds. It also keeps a record of all blocked senders so you can unblock specific senders effortlessly.
InboxPurge can do more than just mass unsubscribe and delete emails. The add-on can also group your favorite newsletters by topic or preference for easy reading. You can create multiple, customized email digests that combine newsletters across your interests to provide information in a much more organized manner.
This is one of those additions I recommend everyone use. Even if you’re not depending on your inbox being clean to get through your workday, it’s always nice to rid yourselves of unnecessary emails that can both clog up your inbox and take up your Google Drive storage.
Gmail may be one of the most popular email services in the world, but it doesn’t have to be the most basic. With these add-ons, you can automate tasks and focus more on the emails that actually matter. Try them for yourself, and you’ll be surprised at just how much smoother your workflow becomes.
