I have two embarrassing confessions to make.
1. I’m a fail at using Gmail labels and categories. I’ve made them – even color-coded them! – and I do occasionally use the “Move To” dropdown box and send an email into some folder. But it’s all rather pointless because when I need an email, I just go to the search box, type in a bunch of words I know are in the email, and voila.
2. I’m a fail at using bookmarks. The ones up there in the toolbar, the ones that let you bookmark a webpage, add tags, add to your toolbar, organize your Internet life, simple as can be. I add one, I tag, and more often then not I can never find it again. Like socks put in the wash to be devoured by the laundry monster.
The former isn’t a biggie – I’ve never been unable to find an email I needed, and while the way my inbox sags under the weight of 2,000 emails would probably send an obsessive-compulsive organizer into convulsions, it works for me.
The latter is more frustrating. I earn 100% of my living online, which naturally includes a lot of online research. Often I need to go back and find a website, but I can’t remember the name of it, or the title of the article, and going through your browser history can be a lot more work than you may realize.
Enter Recall Monkey, a free add-on designed by Mozilla Labs. Download it (takes about three seconds, no restart required), then click control/command + shift + m. A separate tab opens with a search box.
On the left, you can filter by time range. Once Recall Monkey has listed your results, click the “x” next to any that come from a website you wish to exclude, and all results from that site are gone. You can also click the triangle sign to prioritize a site.
It’s honestly one of the most useful free tools my anti-organizational self has come across in recent memory. Mozilla, please put a Gmail Monkey next on your to-do list.