Need help for label names and sorting practices in Gmail

[lsquare]

So recently I've decided to take advantage of Gmail's feature of centralizing all of my e-mails into one account. The nice thing about Gmail is that it'll receive e-mails going into my hotmail account and then send e-mails like as if it was sent from the hotmail account. The problem is that I'm still very much hooked on using folders. The unfortunate thing about Gmail and its ability to handle multiple e-mail accounts simultaneously is that all incoming e-mails are sent into one inbox. How do you guys know which account the e-mails are going into?

Does anyone here have any suggestions on how to sort e-mails going into different e-mail accounts?

For labels/folder names, what do you guys usually use? Alot of my e-mails cover a range of topics and I'm not sure what are the best categories to use to sort my e-mails. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[shihchiun]

I just make filters and have them automatically label incoming emails. It really makes no difference to me, but I still do it.

As for sorting emails... I used to do that, but gave up. I just search if I ever need to find anything.

[lnmnky]

Here's mine... most have filters too for auto labelling. (Not auto-move, I use the inbox still)

Charity (12 conversations)

eBay (60 conversations)

Facebook (571 conversations)

Friends and family (243 conversations)

From me (70 conversations)

For stuff I send to myself from work, reminders etc

Info and settings (28 conversations)

Passwords and settings for email / websites etc

Legal | Car | Bike (18 conversations)

Car and bike insurance

Lynz (139 conversations)

girlfriend

Marketing (290 conversations)

The spam that welcome

Problems and Letters (6 conversations)

For when I complain to companies

Shopping (93 conversations)

Travel Blog (3 conversations)

old drafts from travelling

Travel documents and info (72 conversations)

Flights, hotels etc

Update of information (110 conversations)

Flickr and twitter friend updates mostly

[lsquare]

What if one day, I want to move those non-gmail emails to another account? Without proper labels now, the task of sorting those emails would be immense!

[MitchyD1989]

about the closest you can get to folders are 2 ways:

1: set up a filter, to label your emails addressed to other accounts, with a label youll know for that one, and tick the option "Skip the inbox". your emails will show when you click the label, and in "All mail", but not "Inbox".

2: use firefox and install the "Better Gmail" addon. in that, theres an option there to make the labels more like folders. dont know how good it is as i havent tried that, but it would be worth a shot.

[evo0o]

Just make a filter and put the respective accounts as fields?

Like all hotmail.com into 1 folder, gmail.com into another and so on.

[lsquare]

  evo0o said:

Just make a filter and put the respective accounts as fields?

Like all hotmail.com into 1 folder, gmail.com into another and so on.

Good idea, but I find that to be a bit messy as I like to group messages together like if it's related to travel, I want to put it all together under travel. Otherwise, I can imagine it'll be difficult to find that message further down the line.