GMAIL SPECIAL...............5 GREAT FREE GMAIL ADD-ONS TO MAKE YOU MORE PRODUCTIVE

5 GREAT FREE GMAIL ADD-ONS TO MAKE YOU MORE PRODUCTIVE

SNOOZE YOUR MESSAGES, GET TO KNOW YOUR CONTACTS BETTER, CUT DOWN ON JUNK MAIL, AND MORE.

Ah, email. They said social media would kill it off, but still it remains. It’s arguably the sturdiest nerd of the tech world.

Assuming you live in Gmail, let’s shake things up a bit. These free add-ons will help you tame your inbox, making you more productive in the process.

1. LOOK BUSY PROCRASTINATING

If you’re only going to try one Gmail add-on, try Boomerang. It lets you temporarily clear messages out of your inbox, to return at a time and date you specify. It’s a dead-simple way to turn messages into individual reminders. You can also use it to prewrite messages and schedule them to be sent later. Want that client to think you’re working hard on their big, important project? Schedule an email to send out at 3:30 a.m. even though you’re writing it at 2 p.m. They’ll think you’re burning the midnight oil, even though you’re really burning a grilled cheese before a Netflix binge. The free version lets you play God with 10 messages each month; paid versions add mobile access, recurring messages, and other goodies.

2. GATHER INTEL ON YOUR CONTACTS

Rapportive scans the LinkedIn profiles of people who email you, turning Gmail’s right-column advertising area into a helpful sidebar with their photos, job titles, and recent social updates. You can also see your shared connections, link quickly to their LinkedIn profile page, and even attempt to meet up if you’re both in the same general area.

3. HOLD EMAIL OFFICE HOURS

Newsflash: email pouring in all day can become distracting. BatchedInbox helps you maintain some semblance of control by only permitting messages to make their way into your inbox during certain time windows. Deal with email from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. every morning, for instance, and then shut it off until after lunch. The service creates a filter to hide your messages under a special label, so they’re accessible if you really need to access them. You can also create your own filters to ensure you don’t miss mail from important contacts.

4. MINIMIZE THE JUNK

Chances are, you probably spend a fair amount of time dealing with mail from various services you’ve signed up for. Unroll.Me provides you with an overview of all your subscription emails, letting you unsubscribe with a click. If you’re not quite ready to say goodbye, you can have your remaining subscription messages sent to you in one big "rollup" message each day instead of dealing with them one by one.

5. RECLAIM YOUR STORAGE

Gmail offers 15 gigabytes of space to share across all Google products. If you’re perpetually running low, Find Big Mail does just what it sounds like. The service scours your Gmail account for overly voluptuous messages, returning a list of the worst offenders so you can decide whether or not to nuke them for good—clearing up valuable space in the process.

BONUS APP!

Sometimes you just need a break altogether. Inbox Pause adds a big blue pause button to your Gmail interface, queuing up your messages for whenever you click the big blue unpause button and, if you like, it can tell the senders that you’re temporarily indisposed.

BY DOUG AAMOTH