Snoozing emails in Gmail

When you snooze in Gmail, you are temporarily archiving a message and telling Gmail to bring it back to your inbox at a specific time. Similar to snoozing an alarm, it leaves you alone for a set amount of time and then comes back to your attention later. 

How to snooze an email

1. Hover over an email you want to snooze and click the clock icon
2. Select a pre-set time or click Pick date & time to select another option and Save

The email will move from your Inbox to a folder called Snoozed, and then it will reappear in your inbox at whatever day and time you chose.

Reasons to snooze your emails

You're not putting something off because you don't want to deal with it, you are putting something off because it makes more sense to do it later and you don't want to lose track of it. 

It helps you to manage tasks at the right time

Snooze can be used as a reminder to manage the email at a time when you set aside to do it. Instead of seeing it every time you look at your inbox, it will show up when you need to do it. Tip: block time on your calendar at the same time you snoozed your email so you really get it done.

It keeps emails from getting lost in your inbox

Because snoozed emails pop back up at the selected time at the top of your inbox, you are less likely to lose sight of them. I snooze emails from Zoom when I'm the alternative host and emails that are related to upcoming meetings. 

Snoozing tips

Snooze multiple messages:  

1. Select the messages
2. At the top, click Snooze

Find snoozed emails:

• Click Snoozed in the left navigation menu
• To search for snoozed emails, enter in:snoozed into the search bar

If someone replies on a thread, it will un-snooze the email.  If it's an email with an active conversation, you may not want to snooze it. 

Article by Karen Matthes, Extension Learning Technologies, klm@umn.edu