Some email providers provide a “Notes” function to let you maintain a list of notes. For example you might keep Web site links, random thoughts, etc. Gmail doesn’t offer this feature, but by using some of Gmail’s other features, you can set up a very nice, easy to maintain group of notes…

Basically, the concept is to email yourself the notes, but Gmail lets you at least better organize and handle these emails. Here’s what you do:

First, create a Contact with a Name of “Notes” and an Email Address of “[email protected]”

Next, create a new Label called “Notes”

Finally, create a Filter to add the “Notes” Label any email addressed to “[email protected]”. Also, check the “Skip the Inbox (Archive it)” checkbox.

The effect is this:

When you email yourself from an email account other than your own Gmail account, address the email to “[email protected]”. When the message arrives in your Gmail account, it will automatically be archived into your “Notes” Label view, bypassing the Inbox. Nice and organized.

When you want to email yourself from your own Gmail account, click “Compose Email”, and just type “Notes” in the “To” field and hit “Tab” or “Enter”. Because you used the name “Notes” in the Contact, Gmail will fill in the email address automatically eliminating the need to enter a long address. Then, when you click send, the email gets sent to yourself, and is auto-archived in the Notes Label, just like above.

You now have a Label containing any notes you want to keep, and they are completely searchable!