If as part of your day to day work in the office you receive, read and reply a lot of outlook emails, then you should take a closer look at your workflow. You can save a lot of time by considering how best to use outlook, either by grouping the emails you sent consistently to a group of recipients or by keeping track of your growing inbox (most outlook users fail to do this)
1. Categorize
Outlook has numerous built-in organisational functions. This can work as part of a dual-approach strategy, which is ideal.
First, you’ll need to create a very simple system:
- Boss your inbox, using rules and action folders.
- Schedule email management periods throughout your day.
- Delete where possible, as quickly as possible.
Schedule
Daily schedule on how often you should check and respond to your emails can help, I recommend twice a day. This may not work for everyone but it can help save a lot of the time spent analysing what, when and who to respond first. Having and differentiating email times works like a batch file process, nothing is left unattended, and everything is taken care of once. Later during the day you repeat the same process again and be on top of the email curve.
Rules
Next in the categorical organisation section are your Rules and Action Folders. We all have folders. You’ll have them for clients, topics, and personal emails. Maybe even a few person-specific folders, so you don’t miss an email from your boss.
Important to maintaining the flow from your inbox to these folders are “rules.” These are small if/is logic statements Outlook will periodically run while the program is open, automatically moving any emails with matching criteria to their newly designated folder.
 |
| outlook rule |
For instance, I receive emails from my uncle and cousin, who obviously use different email addresses. Instead of manually moving each email, I’ve created a rule requesting Outlook scan for their respective email addresses and, if found, will be automatically moved into the “Family” folder.
To create a rule, right-click the email and browse to Rule. If you regularly receive emails from this single address, and you’re simply moving it from your inbox to a separate named folder, you can select Always move to, then browse to and select the respective folder.
 |
| creating rule |
If you have multiple criteria for email filtering, choose to Create rule. From here you’ll be able to select from numerous options, including from a specified sender, using the subject bar, and who the email is sent to. If you open the Advanced Options, you’ll be able to filter based upon an email being flagged, sensitive, or requiring action, or even down to very specific words used in the body of the email itself.
Action Folders
Action Folders mark the second part of email placement and work very well with a little lower volume of email. For each main folder, create three subfolders, named To Do, Pending, and Finalised. When a new email enters the main folder, respond appropriately, and decide where it should then go to:
- To Do: Communication/situation ongoing, no immediate action
- Pending: Have responded, awaiting response or further action
- Finalised: Communication/situation has ended, email awaiting deletion or archive
2. Colours and Flags
Colour Categorisation really is key to Outlook productivity. Apart from your actual folder management, you can make your inbox vastly easier to maintain by using colour-coded categories and follow-up flags.
Color Categories
Colour categories can be used to bring immediate definition to your inbox, but I would suggest taking it relatively easy. You don’t want your inbox looking like the rainbow road!
Note that colour categories have one major issue: they’re unsupported by IMAP accounts. This means you’ll have to create a separate POP3 email account to use, or alternatively, create a “this computer only” folder.
 |
| colour categories |
To begin your colour classification system, go to the Home tab, and locate the Tags section. Here you should be able to navigate to Categorise > All Categories, which will open a current list of active categories. Now you can edit the colours, names, and shortcut keys as it suits you.
 |
| properties |
If you already have a POP3 account, but cannot use colour categories, it may be you need to turn them on. Locate the email address in the sidebar. Right-click the account name, and select Data File Properties. At the bottom of the properties, the panel should be an option to Upgrade to Color Categories.
 |
| colour category upgrade |
Depending on the size of your existing inbox, this could take some time, but once completed you’ll have access to the full range of colour categories.
Flags
Flags act as a priority system. As emails arrive, you can assign them a priority level, automatically adding them to a dynamic to-do list you curate as you work. Priorities range from Today through to No Date, with an option for Custom… flags. You can also use Add Reminder to set a timed notification.
 |
| flags |
Access the dynamic list by clicking Follow Up on the Menu tab. You can search for all flags, only certain priority levels.
3. Setup Quick Parts, Use the Scheduler
These two features are sometimes the most overlooked but can remove some of the more tedious moments of your email communications.
Quick Parts
If you regularly reuse standard phrases that make your fingers ache with their repetition, this will save you a whole lot.
 |
| Quick parts |
Save your reuse phrases as a quick part by highlighting the text in the composer window, click the insert tab, click the quick parts drop-down menu, and save selection to to quick parts gallery.
Subscribe to get more
 |
| Saving a Quick part phrase |
In future, when you start typing the phrase, it will pop-up as an auto-complete suggestion. Now you’ll only have to read the phrase over and over again 😩
 |
| Future Quick part |
Schedule
The scheduler is another Amazing feature, and I must admit here that I’ve only used this feature on this instance. If you realise that you wouldn't be at work to send some work specific emails due on a given date due to unavoidable circumstances, create the email, attach the relevant files, and schedule for the required date.
Write your email, then switch to the Options tab. Click Delay Delivery. Under Delivery options, check “Do not deliver before”, and enter your requirements, then Close.
 |
| Delivery Delay |
If you’re using an Exchange server, you can close Outlook the mail will auto send at the scheduled time. However, if you’re using not using Exchange server, the outlook is either configured on IMAP or POP account, Outlook must remain running until the email schedule time is met.
 |
| Scheduled Delivery |
4. Create a Search Folder
You could create a Search Folder, Instead of always typing out the same search using the Outlook search bar,. You can specify the Search Folder to search for a variety of criteria using one of the Outlook templates, or create a custom search to suit your needs.
 |
| Creating a search Folder |
Go to the Folder tab and under New select New Search Folder. This will open the New Search Folder criteria panel.
The Outlook templates complete regular tasks, such as moving flagged mail, or mail from specific people, but if you’d like more control, the custom search folder provides an immense array of detailed options for customization.
 |
| Search folder criteria |
5. Make Your Inbox Your Own
Emails can be an undoubted distraction. Especially in large organisations, individuals can end up being included in long email chains, although the subject has nothing to do with them.
If you find yourself in this situation, you can use custom rules to filter any email that doesn’t include you as a direct sender to a separate folder so you can check them later.
On the Menu tab, select Rules, Create rule, followed by Advanced Options. Put a check next to where my name is in the Cc box and select Next. Put a check next to move it to the specified folder, and then click the link to define a folder.
 |
| Customising Inbox |
Change the Junk Email Filter Level
Fortunately, Outlook has its own spam filter. But it doesn’t always filter some of the obvious trash coming through to our inboxes, and dealing with this rubbish literally takes away minutes of our time. By default, the Junk Email Filter is turned on but set to low.
 |
| Junk mail filter |
To change the level of junk email protection, go to the Mail tab, where you’ll find the Delete options. Select Junk, followed by Junk Email Options. You can now select the level of filtering you feel is appropriate for your inbox, on an account-by-account basis, if you more than one account.
 |
| Junk email options |
Please note that setting the junk mail filter to High could result in some of your regular mail being removed from your inbox, so check your Junk Mail regularly!
If moving junk emails doesn’t suit you, there is an option to permanently delete suspected junk email instead of moving to the junk email folder check box. Please note that when used with a High filter level any legitimate mail accidentally moved to that folder will not be retrievable.
6. Create Backups
Outlook contains a lot of data, unfortunately, many of us are unaware of this. Chances are you have several important emails in your account somewhere that you want to backup to a secure location but haven’t done so yet. Well, now is the appointed time DO IT NOW!
 |
| Export PST file |
Exporting is extremely easy in Outlook. Select the account you wish to backup and go to File > Open & Export > Import/Export. Select Export to a file, followed by Outlook Data File (.pst). Next, you’ll select which folder(s) you’d like to backup, or you can back up the entire root of the email directory. Finally, choose where to save the backup. Use the advanced options if you only want to backup specific aspects of your account.
Summary
Follow every bit of the tips and tricks listed here
No comments:
Post a Comment