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Top 10 Tips to Help You Get a Better Grip on Gmail

Stay on top of your Gmail inbox with these must-have tips and tricks that will turn you into an email pro.

Texting has likely alleviated some of your email traffic, but I’d wager your email inbox is still like mine — a bit chaotic and disorderly. If you use Gmail daily on a computer for work or personal use, are you making the most of Google’s free email client? Gmail has a host of features that can help you better manage the constant flow of messages to and from your inbox. 

Here are the 10 tips that I have found most helpful in keeping on top of my email correspondence. You may already be using some of these, but hopefully you’ll find a few here that you can work into your routine to help manage the constant flow of messages to and from your Gmail inbox.

1. Mute annoyingly noisy email threads

Getting stuck on a group email thread can be as annoying on a laptop as a group text on your phone. You’ve got enough distractions during the workday that you certainly don’t need to see a group email continually calling out to you at the top of your inbox as new replies arrive. 

If you have an active group email and no longer care to follow the back-and-forth chatter, you can opt out. Open the thread, click the triple-dot button at the top and click Mute. The conversation will be moved to your archive, where it will remain even when more replies arrive. 

If you later get curious about what you missed, you can always find it in the All Mail view of Gmail, which includes your archived messages. You can then unmute the conversation if you so choose by opening the conversation and clicking the X button next to the Mute label at the top of the page. Once unmuted, the next time you receive a reply, it will show up at the top of your inbox.

Gmail mute buttonGmail mute button
Matt Elliott/CNET

2. Block unwanted messages

One step further than muting a message is blocking the sender. If you are getting needless and unwanted emails from someone, you can reroute their messages from your inbox directly to the spam folder. Open up a message from the unwanted sender, click the triple-dot button in the upper-right corner and select Block [Username]

3. Snooze so you don’t forget

Just like the snooze button on your alarm that you smash when you aren’t ready to get out of bed, Gmail has a snooze button for messages you aren’t ready to respond to but don’t want to lose track of in your inbox. Hover over a message in your inbox and click the little clock button on the right and pick a later time and date — later today, tomorrow, next week or a specific time you set — for it to appear back at the top of your inbox.

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4. Schedule messages to send later

With the popularity of remote work, it’s likely you work with people in various locations and time zones. Instead of an email that will disrupt someone’s evening or early morning, you can easily schedule your message to be sent at a later time. To do so, click the little down-arrow next to the Send button at the bottom of the compose window and click Schedule send. You’ll be able to pick a time in the future for your missive to arrive. You can keep tabs on your scheduled emails in the Scheduled folder under the Sent folder — it gets created once you schedule your first email.

5. Enable auto-advance and thank me later

I spend a large chunk at the beginning and end of each workday deleting unwanted emails. I prefer to open most emails before deleting them so I can take at least a quick glance before discarding them. By default, Gmail sends you back to your inbox instead of the next message when you delete an opened message, which requires more clicks and time to clean out your inbox. You can change this behavior in settings, however, so you advance to the previous or next message after you delete an opened message. 

In settings, click Advanced and you’ll see Auto-advance at the top. Click the radio dial on the right for Enable to turn on. And if you head back to Settings > General and scroll down to Auto-advance, you can choose to go to the next (newer) or previous (older) conversation. To save, scroll down and hit the Save Changes button.

gmail-auto-advance-settinggmail-auto-advance-setting
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

6. Choose your tabs

Gmail does an admirable job of filtering your inbox so the messages you care about go to your inbox while the rest get relegated to the Social or Promotions tabs. Click the gear icon and then click See all settings. On the Settings page, select Inbox and in the Categories section at the top, you can choose which tabs you want at the top of your inbox. Or if you simply ignore all tabs other than your Primary inbox, then you can uncheck all but Primary for a streamlined, tab-less Gmail experience. To save, scroll down and hit the Save Changes button.

7. Reading pane for an Outlook-like look

If you’ve got a big display, I encourage you to make use of your luxurious screen real estate and use Gmail’s reading pane. It makes Gmail look and feel more like Outlook, where you can view and respond to messages without leaving the inbox. Click the gear icon in the upper-right corner to open the Quick Settings panel, scroll down to Reading pane and select Right of inbox or Below inbox to split your view horizontally or vertically.

Gmail reading paneGmail reading pane
Matt Elliott/CNET

8. Save space by deleting messages with large attachments

Running out of space? If you are up against Gmail’s 15GB free storage cap (shared across Google Drive and Google Photos), then you can either pay Google for more storage or delete some messages and keep using the free plan. Search for size:5m or size:10m to see any messages that are larger than 5- or 10-megabytes. These are likely to have some big attachments. From this list, you can download the attachments you want to keep and then delete the message so it’s not taking up precious space with Google. Or just delete the old messages and attachments you no longer need.

9. Email large attachments via Google Drive

There’s a little Drive icon at the bottom of Gmail’s compose window. It lets you attach files you have stored in Drive or simply send a link. For Google Drive formats — Docs, Sheets, Slides and so on — your only option is to send a link to the file. For other file types — PDFs, Word docs, images — you have the option of sending them as an attachment or a Drive link, which lets you share files larger than Gmail’s 25MB size limit for attachments.

10. Hiding in plain sight: Advanced search

With Google behind Gmail, it’s no surprise that Gmail offers powerful search tools. You’ve likely used the search bar above your inbox to dig up an old email based on a keyword or sender, but it can do so much more. Click the little down-arrow button on the right of the search bar to open Gmail’s advanced search panel where you can search for date ranges and attachment sizes, by subject line and with other filters.

Need more Gmail help? Here are 15 Gmail shortcuts you should know and six Gmail tricks to minimize regret, frustration and spam. To stay safe, this is how you can secure your Gmail account in four easy steps.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for June 8, #728

Here are some hints and the answers for Connections for June 8, #728.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.


Today’s NYT Connections puzzle could be tricky. The purple category is one of those «sounds like» groups, that can be really tough to figure out. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Keep at it.

Green group hint: Think Wall Street animals.

Blue group hint: Online encyclopedia subheads.

Purple group hint: $$$.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Persist.

Green group: Animal metaphors in economics.

Blue group: Sidebar info on a person’s Wikipedia page.

Purple group: Homophones of slang for money.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is persist. The four answers are hold, last, stand and stay.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is animal metaphors in economics. The four answers are bear, bull, dove and hawk.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is sidebar info on a person’s Wikipedia page. The four answers are born, education, occupation and spouse.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is homophones of slang for money. The four answers are bred, cache, doe and lute.

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Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for June 8, #1450

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle No. 1,450 for June 8.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.


Today’s Wordle puzzle isn’t too tough, especially if your first guesses are heavy on vowels. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has one repeated letter.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

There are two vowels in today’s Wordle answer, but one is the repeated letter, so you’ll see it twice.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with L.

Wordle hint No. 4: Ending

Today’s Wordle answer ends with a vowel.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer refers to a contract where someone is given the right to use something for a specific time and payment.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is LEASE.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, June 7, No. 1449 was REUSE.

Recent Wordle answers

June 3, No. 1445: ADMIN

June 4, No. 1446: CEASE

June 5, No. 1447: DATUM

June 6, No. 1448: EDIFY

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Technologies

Resident Evil Requiem Revealed, but Where’s Leon Kennedy?

The Resident Evil 9 trailer showed off a new character, but not the much-rumored return of Leon.

After a fake-out earlier in Summer Game Fest on Friday, Resident Evil Requiem, or Resident Evil 9, was shown for the first time. 

The new title is the first mainline entry since Capcom released Resident Evil Village in 2021, and is rumored to feature series stalwart Leon Kennedy. In the trailer, the only person we saw was a character named Grace Ashcroft, who works for the FBI and appears to have ties to Raccoon City.

For the most hardcore Resident Evil fans, the name Ashcroft will ring a bell. Alyssa Ashcroft was one of the survivors of the online-only title, Resident Evil Outbreak for the PS2. Alyssa was a journalist who was trapped in Raccoon City during the events of Resident Evil 2, and she, along with other survivors, had to escape the city before it was destroyed.

Grace is Alyssa’s daughter, and in the trailer, she is going to visit the Remwood Hotel, where Alyssa was murdered. Later in the trailer, images from what appears to be the remnants of a destroyed Raccoon City are shown — including the police department from RE2 — so it appears Resident Evil 9 will return to where the series started. 

Leon’s (rumored) return is a big deal for the series, which has made some of its best games with him in the starring role. He first showed up as a rookie cop in Resident Evil 2, which built on the original game’s success with more story and improved monsters and level design.

He showed up again in Resident Evil 4, which took the series in a new direction by introducing an over-the-shoulder perspective, instead of the usual static camera angles and tank controls. Leon was also one of several playable protagonists in Resident Evil 6, a game that seemed to forget about its survival horror roots. We mostly don’t talk about that one.

But the 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2 was an excellent return to form, bringing RE4’s gameplay and much better graphics to a fan-favorite entry. The RE4 remake was a similar success.

Resident Evil Requiem is set to drop Feb. 27, 2026, for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series consoles, but we’re hoping to get our hands on it this weekend. If you want to catch up on older Resident Evil games, Capcom is having a sale that includes basically all the games, including Village and the three remakes.

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