How to Setup Gmail Vacation Autoresponder

Emails haunt us in an out of the office; even if you are on a vacation, they are at the back of your mind. What if there is a way to take care of your emails while you are on a vacation? We are not talking about your assistant replying to your emails; this is a very bad idea to give access to your personal email account to any other person. We are talking about Gmail vacation autoresponder.

Gmail vacation autoresponder is a feature in Gmail that automatically notifies the sender that you are out of office. Let’s talk about how you can set up this feature in Gmail.

Reduce the email traffic before you set up Gmail vacation autoresponder

Before setting up your vacation autoresponder and even before leaving for a vacation, it is important that you respond to all the pending (important) emails in your inbox. Moreover, you can edit your signature to notify people about your vacation and mention the dates you will be away in. This will help reduce the load on your inbox while you are away.

If you emails are in thousands and you can seek email from email management applications which manage your emails by hiding the irrelevant emails temporarily, pass on the tasks that are not in your JD, scheduling the tasks in to-do lists if they take longer than a few minutes, and automatically solve the tasks that are solvable in minutes.

Another tip to declutter your inbox is to unsubscribe from newsletters and promotional emails; especially if you are going away for a longer period of time.

Tips to Prepare an Effective Gmail Vacation Autoresponder

Even after notifying people through your email signature, and using an email management app to reduce the load in your Gmail, you are still going to receive emails.  Some senders won’t care reading the signature and will try to connect with you, and some would try to get in touch to address an emergency situation.  To better manage such situations follow these tips:

• In your Gmail vacation autoresponder script, add an emergency contact; a number or a social media handle, or an email address of a colleague. This will help people reach you in unavoidable circumstances.
• Set the Gmail vacation autoresponder for people in your contact list only. Otherwise, the autoresponder will be of no use because everyone will have access to your emergency contact and you will receive emails or calls continuously and will eventually spoil your vacation.
• If you are expecting a very important email from a specific sender, you can set automatic forward feature for that specific sender. The email will be automatically forwarded to one of your colleagues who will respond to the email in time.

Set Up Gmail Vacation Autoresponder

Follow these steps to set up Gmail vacation autoresponder

• Log into your Gmail account and go to the Settings by clicking on the Gear icon.
• Click on General tab and scroll down to find Gmail Vacation Autoresponder.
• Clicking on the vacation autoresponder will open a pop-up window; add details such as dates, your autoresponder message.
• Turn the autoresponder on.
• Remember to check the option that says only send a response to people in your Contacts. This will prevent random people from getting the automatic response and spam you on your emergency contact.
• Set the first day and last day of the vacation responder. After the last day is over, the Gmail vacation responder will automatically be turned off.

Test Your Gmail Vacation Autoresponder

You don’t want to come back from your vacations only to find out that your Gmail vacation autoresponder didn’t work. Not only will your inbox be clogged up, but you would have certainly missed a few important emails. For this reason, testing your autoresponder is a must.

After you complete the setup process, it is better to check your autoresponder by adding a secondary email to your contact list and sending a test email, if you get the automated email, your Gmail vacation autoresponder is functioning right.  Moreover, you can also check for the errors in the text, and verify the emergency contact number.

Have you tried Gmail Vacation Autoresponder before? Are you facing any problems in setting up your vacation responder? Feel free to comment below and we will love to help you.