Gmail Snooze: How Does It Work and Why You Should Start Using It

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January 10, 2020
Business Operations

Gmail Snooze: this fantastic new feature has the potential to revolutionize the way you use your email. Are you tired of emails coming in whenever they want to, rather than when it’s convenient for you? Have you missed out on all too many important reminders because you were too busy to check your email at that precise moment in time?

If these common conundrums have been an ongoing problem in your life, consider how the Gmail Snooze feature can help streamline your communications and make it easier for you to take care of those important emails that might otherwise slip through the cracks. 

What is Gmail Snooze?

Rather like hitting the snooze button on your alarm, Gmail Snooze allows you to pause important notifications until you’re ready to deal with them. In this case, however, instead of rolling over and going back to sleep, you’re issuing a fresh reminder for emails that need your attention–only at a time when it’s actually convenient for you to deal with them. Instead of keeping those emails in your inbox and hoping that you will remember to deal with them, Gmail Snooze literally sets them aside and sends them to you again later.

Thanks to this simple method, you can easily get reminders about emails that need your attention–and prevent yourself from having to scramble to deal with them when you’re in the middle of another task. Sometimes, you may want to snooze an email for just a few hours, having it sent to you at a later point in the day. Other times, you might want it to come to you a few days later. There are plenty of incredible uses for this new feature–and using it to full advantage will enable you to improve your time management skills. 

How Does It Work?

In order to use Gmail Snooze to full advantage, you’ll want to have Gmail installed on your phone. Then, follow these simple steps:

  1. Look to the right of the email. See the Snooze button? Click it. 
  2. Choose when you would like to receive the email. You can set it to come at a particular date and time–whenever it will be most convenient for you. 
  3. When you get the email, respond to it as you intended. 

You can also snooze multiple emails at the same time, setting them to come back to your inbox at a specific time. Simply select the emails you want to snooze, then select the Snooze option at the top of the page. Done!

Can I Access Snoozed Emails Normally?

When you snooze an email, that email is removed from your inbox, which means that you’ll no longer have it readily visible when you open up your email. That doesn’t mean, however, that it disappears into the void, returning only when your future date and time arrive on the calendar. Simply pull up your Gmail account on the computer, select the menu option, and go down to “Snoozed” to view any emails that you have snoozed and checked the dates and times assigned to them, if necessary. 

Scenarios for Using Gmail Snooze

Gmail Snooze is a great feature–and whether you’re a small business owner or a busy manager, you may want to use this feature to full advantage. Consider some of these benefits to the feature. 

Scenario #1: You Just Got an Important Email from Your Lawyer or Accountant

You don’t get emails from your lawyer or accountant often, but when you do, you want to be sure that you respond to them. Unfortunately, when the email arrives in your inbox, you simply don’t have time to take care of it the way you should. Maybe you’re in the middle of something else, and you need more time than you can devote to answering that email–especially if it’s your accountant looking for important financial documents. Perhaps you need to look up information that you don’t have access to while you’re at work, or you simply need more time to respond. Enter Google Snooze.

If you leave that email in your inbox, simply promising yourself that you’ll get around to dealing with it later, you might forget about it altogether–and as a result, your lawyer or accountant will have to follow up with you to get the necessary information. By snoozing the email, on the other hand, you can get an automatic reminder that will cause it to pop up at a later, more convenient time. You might, for example, want to have that email show up at the end of the day, when you’re at home, instead of in the middle of the workday. 

Scenario #2: You’re on a Trip

When you head out on a trip, you want to be able to get lost in the occasion. Unfortunately, in today’s highly connected society, all too many people choose to take their devices along with them–and of course, it’s almost impossible to fully avoid the temptation to check your email. Unfortunately, you’re not at work, nor do you have access to the same information you would if you were at home.

When an important email comes through, you don’t just have little motivation to deal with it. You also don’t have the ability to deal with it at precisely that moment. You don’t want to forget about it, but you do need to put it off for a little while.

Google Snooze makes this situation simple. Instead of having to sweat about an email that you can’t answer while you’re on vacation, you can simply snooze it for a time when you’ll be back at home or back in the office. Set it to appear the day you’ll get back from vacation, and you can easily take care of that important item on your To-Do list without ruining your vacation or creating more stress because you’ve forgotten something important. 

Scenario #3: You’re in the Middle of Another Task

You’re in the middle of a major project or task. Perhaps you already know that you shouldn’t be opening your email when you’re in the middle of something else, but you choose to open up your inbox anyway. Maybe you needed to check your email for something related to the project and found an important email sitting there, waiting on you–but you just can’t deal with it right now.

Often, those emails aren’t just a minor distraction from your current task; they may, rather, require a great deal of time and attention to deal with them effectively. Just hit the snooze button! Instead of taking time and energy away from your current task, send yourself an automated reminder in the form of a seemingly fresh email when you’ll be ready to take on that task. You might have the email pop up near the end of the day, so that you’ll remember to take care of it before you leave work, or you might decide that you prefer to deal with that particular email tomorrow. Whatever you decide, Gmail Snooze makes it easy. 

Scenario #4: You Want to Handle All of a Particular Kind of Email at Once

Some types of emails are simply easier to handle when you tackle all of them at the same time. Dealing with customer service emails, for example, is often simpler when you can dedicate a few minutes to take care of them. Other times, you might want to wait until you have all the emails collected for a particular project before you dive in and start dealing with them. You don’t have to store those emails in your inbox and hope that you’ll be able to find them when you’re ready for them. Instead, snooze them so that they all arrive at the same time. This will also serve as a potent reminder that you have a task you need to take care of. 

Scenario #5: Send Emails to Yourself as a Reminder

Sometimes, you want to share more information with your future self than you can include in a simple phone or calendar notification. There’s something that you need to deal with, and you want to make sure that your future self has all of the relevant information. Gmail Snooze can help! Just write yourself an email, outlining all the details or attaching any needed documents. Then, send that email to yourself. When it arrives, snooze it for a later date. When it shows back up, you’ll have all the information you need right there in your inbox. From grocery lists to detailed documents for future meetings, Gmail Snooze makes it easy to get those details in your own hands–and if you have your notifications turned on, it will pop up on your phone as a reminder.

Gmail Snooze is an incredible tool that offers the ability to snooze important emails until you have time to tackle those important tasks. You can’t always use a snooze button for life, but you can use a snooze button for vital emails, thanks to this latest Gmail feature. Try it out today to discover more about how this feature can transform the way you deal with your email. Want to learn more about making business management tasks easier? Contact us today.

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