Why the Gmail Archive Button Changes Email
My wife just told me she needs to switch to gmail. A few times recently she has deleted a message from yahoo and then wished she could have it back a couple days later.
The archive button in gmail is great in that you don’t need to delete messages anymore. Instead of deleting, simply archive. 2.XX GB is a lot of space.
However, being able to save messages you don’t know how to categorize isn’t the best thing about the archive button.
The best thing about the archive button is how it changes the mental state of email users.
One of the biggest problems with email is having to decide what to do with each email. It’s so time consuming. It’s also a major brainpower consumer.
Not any more.
The archive button can be used to say:
Get this email out of my face, I don’t want to deal with it.
or
I don’t know what to do with this email, so just get it out of my inbox so I don’t have to think about it.
Mentally, it allows you to get your inbox back again.
It allows you to get rid of emails, without having to figure out if you should delete, respond, categorize, group, filter, …, …, an email.
It allows you to think about more important things than a stupid email that isn’t going to help you in life.
If you haven’t read Getting Things Done yet, you need to. It will change how you think about what you keep in your head.
Email is a major contributor to thought garbage (the dumb thoughts you keep around in your head, trying to remember stuff or thinking about unproductive things, things that aren’t going to help you in any way) and the archive button helps get rid of it.
I’m not sure google really realized how effective the archive button was going to be. For me, it’s so effective, that I’ve turned my inbox over to someone else to filter my mail before I see it. I can let someone else safely archive all the emails that they think I shouldn’t see.
If they get it right, great. I don’t have to see the emails I didn’t want to see.
If they get it wrong, ok, that’s fine. The emails are still there. I just have to look at “all mail”, or search for the important email (if it’s really important, it’l get through to you).
If you’re not using an archive button, you should be.
It’l free up your brainpower to think about more important things.
Comments on Why the Gmail Archive Button Changes Email »
I agree. This one feature is what make gmail far superior to all other email solutions I’ve ever used. I used to worry about deleting emails I might need later and as a result my inbox was always cluttered with emails that I probably didn’t need to address, but I kept around just in case. Now if I an email doesn’t require my immediately attention I just archive it, and as a result my inbox is a lot more orderly and manageable.
I agree completely with the concept of Archive, the convenience of, and postponement of decisions ‘to keep or not to keep’ in Inbox or Favorites etc. Now that i have Archived one of the most beautiful emails i have ever received, i cannot retrieve it…. How in the world do you get it back… I cannot understand any of the so-called help i have found! Can/will you help.
HOW DO I RETREIVE AN EMAIL AFTER “ARCHIVE”?
THANKS
I’ve just discovered the archive button, and am now trying to figure out how to put the “Paper” button alongside “Archive”. Does anyone know how to do this?
Retrieving archived email can be done just by searching. Of course, the limitation is that if you forget who sent you, what the key information, or other relevant search keywords, then you might be SOL. Searching, “archive” doesn’t work unless the word archive is in the email text.
urg… Google Paper. Not only did I get fooled by a Google April Fools joke, I got fooled one-year, one-month after the joke came out.
I still don’t know how to retrieve my emails once I’ve moved them to the archives??? How do you search for it???
Please give me instructions urgently fo RETRIEVING ARCHIVED emails
many many thanks
You can get emails back after clicking the “Archive” button by either going to the “All Mail” link on the left side, or by searching for those messages.
John
I agree. BUT, my question is how do you get a message you already archivedback so you can read it? does anyone know, please email the answer 2 adryanne101@GMAIL.com, thank you!
There is no way to do this (retrieve only archived messages). Perhaps Google could create a Lab tool to do this? I put this question on Experts-Exchange and no one even answered it!! I suppose Google would say we’re not supposed to be able to list archived messages exclusively. My response: why not!!
Please give me instructions urgently fo RETRIEVING ARCHIVED emails
to retrieve your archived emails, simply click on your “inbox” and then click on “search mail” above the inbox emails … it will bring up anything in the inbox, that includes the archived items … no search words needed.
HOW DO I fordward one emails to multiples contacts? please help
I don’t have an archive button. Have looked everywhere.
Tina – You are brilliant! Thank you!
Thanks Tina, Great job…. it worked! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa