So you’ve created a Gmail account, and are happily using it for your personal stuff.  You subscribe to a thing or two, and before you know it, your mailbox is flooded with emails.  Newsletters, breaking news, helpful local happenings.  You do want to be in the know, just need to manage them a bit better.

Enter Gmail filters.

These filters are analogous to rules on other email systems, and are really easy to set up.  To the right of the search box, right after Search Web and Search Mail, you will find a small link that reads ‘Create A Filter’.  Click on the link to start creating a filter.

Step 1: Select Emails

Fill in one or more of the boxes to decide which emails to filter: From, To, Subject, Has The Words, Doesn’t Have The Words, and even Has Attachment.

In the From and To you can use actual email addresses or just names.  In the Subject and Words boxes, you can enter words in either upper or lower case, and the search will pick them up anyway.

Step 2: Test Selection

To make sure you’ve selected the right emails, click on Test Search.  Hopefully, the filter rules will have picked up exactly the ones you were targeting.  Once you are satisfied with the result, click on Next Step

Step 3: Decide What To Do

You now have a choice.  Trash the emails, archive them (Skip Inbox), label them (my usual choice), or even (gasp!) forward them to another unfortunate mailbox.

Note that you can also have a combination.  I find a good set to be Skip Inbox and Apply Label.  For example, I select all my newsletters from Tech Republic, choose Skip Inbox, and Apply Label, choosing “Tech Reading” from the drop-down list (note: you have to create label the first time).  This way, they don’t clutter my Inbox, and I can find them easily for reading when I have time.

Step 4: Create The Filter

Click on Create The Filter to complete the work.  You can optionally check the “Apply Filter to Conversations Below”, which will immediately apply it to your Inbox.

Repeat steps 1 to 4 for each category of email.  Some examples of my filters:

• Tech Reading for all my geeky newsletters and feeds
• Local Info for stuff from local media such as TimeOut Dubai, ExpatWoman, Arabian Business etc.
• Network Nag for Twitter, Facebook et al

You will likely tweak and revisit a few of the filters as time goes on, and before you know it, you will have a beautifully clean Inbox, where only “real” email lives.