Spring is here and it’s time to start cleaning out the clutter in our lives. Gmail has been cleaning up its own interface with the new compose window and it’s a perfect time to look at how to make using Gmail even easier for frequent users by reviewing time-saving and easy to use shortcuts.

The first thing to note is that there are 2 types of shortcuts in Gmail. The first are the automatic shortcuts, such as adding a CC to an email by pressing ‘ctrl+shift+c’ (or for a Mac ‘⌘+shift+c’). The second category are shortcuts that you have to turn on yourself, but have many more flexible options.

To turn on keyboard shortcuts simply log in to your Gmail account and click on the ‘Settings’ button, which can be found in the settings drop down on the right hand side of your inbox.

Now, on to the good stuff. Here are my 10 favorite time-saving Gmail keyboard shortcuts:

1. Move Around & Select Emails

This is the building block for all of the other shortcuts because it allows you to easily move between emails in your inbox and to find the email you would like to focus on. Move between emails by pressing ‘j’ or ‘k’. Once you are on the email that you want, select the email by pressing ‘x’. If you are in an email, you can use ‘j’ and ‘k’ to move between emails in the conversation (in conversation view).

2. Update an Email Conversation

If you’re already in an email conversation catching up and see that a new message has been sent, you can update your view to see the newest conversation by pressing ‘shift + n’. This way you will never be far behind the email thread.

3. See Emails That You’ve Sent

Want to double check what you just sent or details of an email chain? Use a combo key to quickly navigate to your sent mail. In order press ‘g’ then ‘t’ to see what you’ve already sent out.

4. Star an Email

Want to star an email or conversation to mark it for later or so that it automatically appears in your starred inbox? Once you are on the email that you want to mark, simply press ‘s’ to star it.

5. Mark an Email as Important or Unimportant

Need to quickly scan through your inbox and prioritize? Use the ‘+’ key to mark an email as important, while a ‘-’ marks it as unimportant. This will allow you to quickly choose emails to focus on or highlight, without needing to open up each email or click around between them.

6. Mark an Email Read or Unread

Already clicked on an email, but realizing you don’t have time to read it? Want to mark something as read or unread so that you will come back to it later? While on any email simply press ‘shift + u’ to mark an email as unread and ‘Shit + i’ to mark it as read. While ‘shift + u’ makes sense as a shortcut for “unread”, we’re not quite sure where the ‘i’ comes from. That said, it’s still faster and simpler than choosing Read or Unread from the dropdown above.

7. Mark an Email as Spam or Trash

While you’re going through your emails, don’t forget to throw out emails by pressing “shift + 3’ (or ‘#’). This will help you keep your inbox clean and prioritized. You can also mark emails as spam by pressing ‘shift + 1’ (or ‘!’), which alerts Google that this email is spam and should not appear in your inbox again. If it is an email from a subscription, you may also have the opportunity to unsubscribe at that time.

8. Archive an Email

One of the best things about Gmail has always been the essentially unlimited storage space users have. Don’t need an email right now but want to be able to find it later? Simply archive it by pressing ‘e’.

9. Search Chats

Wondering where you promised to meet your friend for drinks? Pressing ‘q’ will instantly move your cursor to the chat search box so that you can look up old conversations and find out.

10. Label an Email

Pressing ‘l’ will open the labels menu and allow you to select a label or labels for a given email. This will help you keep related emails together and to prioritize when and how to respond to emails.

There are a lot more Gmail keyboard shortcuts and tips and tricks that you can use; share your favorite below. You can find the complete list of shortcuts in Google support and more of my favorite Gmail tips & tricks here.