If you use Gmail and access other email accounts through your Gmail account, you probably know that Gmail checks the other accounts based on how often they get email. So if you don’t get a lot of email through the other accounts, they might only get checked once an hour. That can be annoying. You know that someone has sent you an email, to one of those other accounts, and to get it you have to manually go into the settings and force Gmail to check the account.

There’s no way — yet — to get Gmail to check those accounts, but this little tip will let you check them much faster. Go into Labs (in your Settings) and enable “Refresh POP accounts.” Then click Save Changes and go back to your Inbox. You’ll see a “Refresh” link to the right of the “More actions” button at the top of the list of your emails.

Now, all you need to do is click on that link and Gmail will check your other email accounts.