You think you are productive. You think you zoom around Gmail, answering emails, archiving, keeping Inbox zero. You are an amateur – unless you have mastered the keyboard shortcuts.

View a full list of shortcuts.

While viewing a list of threads (i.e. Inbox, All Mail, Drafts, search results, etc.):

• c to compose a new mail
• j and k to move the cursor down and up
• x to select/deselect the current thread that’s pointed to by the cursor
• e to archive all threads that have been selected
• [Enter] to go into the thread pointed to by the cursor
• “g i” to go to my Inbox
• “g a” to go to All Mail
• “g d” to go to Drafts

While inside a thread:

• n and p to browse down and up messages inside a thread (move the cursor up and down)
• a to reply all (or r to reply individually, but that’s rare) to the message currently pointed to by the cursor
• f to forward the message that’s pointed to by the cursor
• u to go back to the previous thread list view, which could be your Inbox, All Mail, Drafts, etc. This is the same as the back button:
• s to toggle through the stars on the message currently pointed to by the cursor

Other useful shortcuts:

• / to make the search bar active
• “* u” to select all unread emails
• “* n” to deselect all emails
• Shift+i to mark all selected emails as read
• Shift+u to mark all selected emails as unread
• While inside a thread, Shift+u will bring you back to the previous thread list view and marking the current thread as unread.