Several days after Google increased their webmail storage from one to two gigabytes, I wondered whatelse could I make use of my free invites and huge amount of email space. One year ago, Google released this search-based webmail service called Gmail. It has distinctive features that include a labeling system, a spam reporter and a system for filtering your mail as it comes into your inbox. They're currently offering Gmail as part of a preview release and limited test, that's why not everyone could get it unless you have invites from friends and family. Today, those accounts that I had previously setup have now at least 50 invites coupled by multiple accounts so roughly, I've got at least hundreds of invites left. Not so long ago, I remember they even offer gmail account on ebay for 50 to 100 dollars or some even trade it for cookies or something just to get one.
Just recently, I got inspired with this post on how to maintain Notes using gmail. The concept is to email yourself with some notes and Gmail will handle these emails and organize them for you using their filtering system. Of course, not everyone would like to email themselves but the point is, we could make use of this free email and use it as a private tool to keep important notes. So if you're feeling down or high, grumpy or happy, some ideas pop up into your mind and you need to write down a list, email it to yourself!
What I did basically is to setup an account and use it as a journal. Yes, a journal using Gmail. But before setting up an account, list down the categories you'll include in that journal. For my journal, I signed up an account using XXX.journal[at]gmail[dot]com. The next thing that I did is set up nine additional accounts for my categories. It could be named as links, life, ideas, goals, notes or whatever you'd like it to be called as long as its gonna be part of XXX.journal[at]gmail[dot]com. To make things easier in setting up additional accounts, add the category name at the end of your main journal username, that would be XXX.journal.links[at]gmail[dot]com, XXX.journal.life[at]gmail[dot]com, XXX.journal.ideas[at]gmail[dot]com and so forth.
The next step is to create labels and filters inside XXX.journal[at]gmail[dot]com. Go to settings, Labels, create a new label-- links, life, ideas, goals, notes, etc. These will serve as the category listing for my journal. Then create filters for the categories. From settings, go to Filter, click on create a filter, choose search criteria-- To, write XXX.journal.ideas[at]gmail[dot]com, press Next Step, check Skip the Inbox(archive it), check the box before Apply the Label(drop down menu) Choose label Ideas . You need to do this filter for all the other eight categories I mentioned. The filters will be applied to all incoming mail from this set of category. So basically, anything that you email to any of these categories will be automatically forwarded and archived to these labels as long as its part of the filtering system. You now have a journal using Gmail containing all the posts you want to keep archived in each label(like categories) and they are completely private and searchable.
Be sure to add the 9 other emails to your contacts at xxx.journal[at]gmail. To import the addresses, I used OpenOffice by creating a spreadsheet for the list of contacts for my journal categories. I used three headings: First Name, Last Name and Email. Follow Google's instructions for more information. After importing the csv file, typing a new message from your main journal in the "to" line is easier because it will list all my journal categories, all I have to do is pick amongst the list and type the subject and my journal entry then it will be archived automatically to the labels created.
Just recently, I got inspired with this post on how to maintain Notes using gmail. The concept is to email yourself with some notes and Gmail will handle these emails and organize them for you using their filtering system. Of course, not everyone would like to email themselves but the point is, we could make use of this free email and use it as a private tool to keep important notes. So if you're feeling down or high, grumpy or happy, some ideas pop up into your mind and you need to write down a list, email it to yourself!
What I did basically is to setup an account and use it as a journal. Yes, a journal using Gmail. But before setting up an account, list down the categories you'll include in that journal. For my journal, I signed up an account using XXX.journal[at]gmail[dot]com. The next thing that I did is set up nine additional accounts for my categories. It could be named as links, life, ideas, goals, notes or whatever you'd like it to be called as long as its gonna be part of XXX.journal[at]gmail[dot]com. To make things easier in setting up additional accounts, add the category name at the end of your main journal username, that would be XXX.journal.links[at]gmail[dot]com, XXX.journal.life[at]gmail[dot]com, XXX.journal.ideas[at]gmail[dot]com and so forth.
The next step is to create labels and filters inside XXX.journal[at]gmail[dot]com. Go to settings, Labels, create a new label-- links, life, ideas, goals, notes, etc. These will serve as the category listing for my journal. Then create filters for the categories. From settings, go to Filter, click on create a filter, choose search criteria-- To, write XXX.journal.ideas[at]gmail[dot]com, press Next Step, check Skip the Inbox(archive it), check the box before Apply the Label(drop down menu) Choose label Ideas . You need to do this filter for all the other eight categories I mentioned. The filters will be applied to all incoming mail from this set of category. So basically, anything that you email to any of these categories will be automatically forwarded and archived to these labels as long as its part of the filtering system. You now have a journal using Gmail containing all the posts you want to keep archived in each label(like categories) and they are completely private and searchable.
Be sure to add the 9 other emails to your contacts at xxx.journal[at]gmail. To import the addresses, I used OpenOffice by creating a spreadsheet for the list of contacts for my journal categories. I used three headings: First Name, Last Name and Email. Follow Google's instructions for more information. After importing the csv file, typing a new message from your main journal in the "to" line is easier because it will list all my journal categories, all I have to do is pick amongst the list and type the subject and my journal entry then it will be archived automatically to the labels created.
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