Working from home? Here’s how you can get the most of Gmail

Rise of coronavirus cases is forcing companies to ask their employees to work from home. A lot of these companies use Gmail for their official communication.

While Gmail is primarily used as an emailing service, it is loaded with features that enable employees to better communicate with one another.

If you too are working from home, here are some Gmail features that you need to try:

Create a calendar: Do you have a meeting scheduled with your boss or team members? Do you have all the details of the meeting in your Gmail account? Now, you no longer have to open the calendar separately to set a reminder. When you receive an email, open it and click on three vertical dots. After this, browse to Create Events.

You will be directed to a new page that will have a calendar tab. The subject of the email becomes the event title, those marked "to" or "cc" are added as guests to the event. The most recent reply to the thread is embedded in the description.

You can specify location and select how much time before the event you wish to be notified. Click the save button and you will receive the notification about the same.

Schedule sending messages: Sharing emails on Gmail is easy. You compose a message and send it. But what if you need to send a message at a particular time but you don't have time to write the message at the very instant? Well, Gmail comes with a feature that allows users to draft a mail and send it at a later time by scheduling it.

To do so, follow this path: draft an email and select the mailing address > click on the arrow right next to the send button on Gmail > tap on Schedule Send option > select a date and time.

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Send and archive emails: Many times you want to archive an email that you are sending to your team members. Through Gmail, you can send a reply to an email and archive it at the same time.

To do so, follow this path: go to the general tab of Gmail settings > tap on Show Send and Archive button > save the changes before exiting from the page.

Now, when you compose an email, you will see the send and archive button at the bottom of the page, just before the send button. By tapping on it, you will be able to complete both the actions - send the email as well as archive it.

Prioritise emails: Your mailbox is often flooded with messages and at times you receive an email that you want to reply with ease. To help you remember, Gmail has the snooze button next to the email that gives you a reminder.

By clicking on the clock-like button, you can set a reminder by choosing date and time when you want a nudge from Gmail about a message.

Gmail offline: Working from home can be painful if there is no internet connection but there's a way out now. You can use Gmail even when you are offline. You can read, reply and search for Gmail messages.

Go to the settings menu on Gmail and enable offline mail. Choose for how many days you want the mail to be synched and then select save changes.