These still apply to today’s world but have been lost in the flurry of digital organizing. "Working less" means you touch each piece of correspondence one time only. Whether it’s an actual paper envelope with a letter or whether it’s an email. "Correspondence" means Incoming Information, not necessarily "follow-up tasks". In this article, we’ll give you some of the best Outlook hacks for digital office management, along with some awesome Outlook tips and tricks featured in the resolve Outlook not sending emails fast program. I told my boss I'd like to give a (voluntary) company-wide training in something someday as a self-development goal and he suggested Outlook/inbox management.

How can I manage complicated tasks?

In these cases, reply and include the person you're delegating the message to on the To line. If you find you're doing this often, consider creating a Quick Step that replies and adds the delegated person to the To line. If you need it as reference (even if you have decided to defer it), move it into your reference folder.

I have 10 minutes: What should I read first in my Inbox?

• Each additional person you invite to a meeting adds to the complexity of the meeting, making it harder to control.
• These statistics show the importance of efficiently managing your inbox.
• Search folders are useful for gathering information from across different mail and RSS folders.
• You can’t read every message you receive — nor should you try to.
• The tool that you use to collaborate during a meeting depends on the location and access of your participants.
• Reviewing your past week and upcoming week is also a useful way to help you prepare for a weekly meeting with your manager or help you prepare a status email message.

Any time you find yourself repeatedly doing the same steps in Outlook, try creating a Quick Step. Collapse the top-level Contact Group folder so that you aren’t distracted by the unread messages in the folders beneath it. For example, we saw how to use Quick Steps, keyboard shortcuts, and calendar reminders.

Fix Tech Issues Fast

The Bcc recipient might not realize that he or she has received Exchange connectivity diagnostic a Bcc and might respond to everyone, exposing that he or she received a Bcc message. The following rules will help you look professional and get your message across. To find a message with an attachment, select the Search box and on the Search tab, select Has Attachments. Or, start by typing the name in the Search box, and then press the down arrow key to select From to narrow the results. After you have processed your messages, the best place to do work in Outlook (reply to messages and so on) is in Tasks. By switching to Tasks, you won’t be distracted by messages arriving in your Inbox.

Advanced: How do I create a Search Folder for email messages?

To apply the "Work Less" theory, have Outlook automatically file an email. Then you can read them all at one time without distraction. If you just want to remember a few related tasks, list them in mailbox not updating on imap the body of the task. If you have more than 20 items in your Inbox, process the last week of messages and then select the remaining messages and move them to your 1-Reference folder.

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That's not to say that there isn't a need for browsing through messages that are all on a particular topic or project. Outlook provides better tools — such as categories and search folders — so you can search effectively. By viewing your messages in conversation view, you can easily see which conversations have had the most back-and-forth discussion. In those cases, you might want to read and respond to only the last message in the conversation.



When you switch between working online and offline, all email accounts within your Outlook profile are changed. You can schedule this time for yourself with regular appointments and meetings on your calendar. Your calendar should be treated as your real plan for your time — if you have scheduled it, then that is what you are committed to doing at that time.