Search Multiple Labels in Gmail

Yesterday I posted a podcast Digital Productivity Strategies for Developers where I talk about using Gmail for implementing the concepts found in the book Getting Things Done. I talk about not being able to search inside multiple labels and thus needing two accounts for managing “things to do”.

Just as I suspected I had missed something and Alberto and Dean Pendley were kind enough to point out that it’s easy to search multiple labels in Gmail...

Find Messages with Multiple Labels

Consider messages marked with the labels “personal” and “calls”. Finding your personal call list is as easy as typing the following Gmail’s search box:

l:personal l:calls

Should you want to find something specific within this list you simply add additional search terms at the end of the query. For instance if you want to find all the calls you need to make about bills labeled as personal you use:

l:personal l:call bills

Find Messages in Multiple Labels

If you are looking for messages in both labels, all you have to do is add the OR keyword. So looking for all your items labeled as personal and calls would be:

l:personal OR l:calls

It’s that simple!

Consolidation?

I still haven’t decided yet if I will consolidate my personal and work accounts based off this information. My concern is that this may be a lot of typing queries to make sure I am only looking at what I want. I will try it out with new personal projects and next actions for a while though.