[I wrote this post for faculty in my department at school then figured my friends online could use the info. Definitely check out Boomerang — it just saved my butt by reminding me of an important followup I needed to make. –Meg HG]

Here are five different tools for Gmail that might make your email life a bit easier.

Want to yank back a message you regret sending? Enable Undo Send. I enabled it with the default delay of 10 s, which I found too short — I’d never realize my mistake that quickly. User-configurable cancellation period goes up to 30 s. There is no way to pull back an email once it’s delivered to an inbox.
unnamed

Looking for something? That search bar at the top can also search your files under Google Drive. Enable Apps Search, also under Google Labs.
unnamed-1

Did you like seeing unread message counts? Enable the icon, under Google Labs.
unnamed-2

Get an email to pop up again later with Snooze. I haven’t tried this but plan to because I used to use the “Follow Up” feature in Outlook all the time to pop up later with a “hey, doofus, don’t forget this thing you said you’d do later.”
unnamed-3

Delay sending an email so no one knows you’re up at 3am working. Or, so that folks think you’re at school at 3pm when you’re not. Install Boomerang. I’m not using this one yet but absolutely want to delay sending emails to parents for boundary-setting reasons.
unnamed-4

Not a Gmail thing but may help if you have trouble staying focused. Stayfocusd is a browser plugin that blocks websites you choose at times you choose. I have a 30 minute timer set on weekdays that blocks after I use up my Facebook time.
unnamed-5

What do you want to do in email?