Organizing and productivity

Aug 20

Organizing Microsoft Outlook by Emptying Your Inbox

By Sherry Borsheim Home Office Organization, Organizing Microsoft Outlook No Comments

Microsoft Outlook is a great tool to use for organizing your email and time. Outlook has many functions that will give you great advantages in staying organized. This article is part of a series of articles that will help you as begin organizing your Microsoft Outlook.

Maybe you’ve been using Outlook for awhile now but you haven’t been taking advantages of any of the helpful functions. Have you realized it is time to start organizing your Microsoft Outlook? Is your inbox overflowing? Then it’s time to get started. And the best place to start is an empty inbox.

Start by doing a quick clean up of your inbox, here is how. First create a folder for old emails. Right click on the inbox, and select new folder. Type Old Emails in the name field and click ok. Now move any email in your inbox that is two weeks old or more. This isn’t the end of the road for this email, you still have to sort it. Schedule a small chunk of time everyday to sort through your folder of old emails until you’ve emptied it. This means you’ve acted on, filed, or deleted all of your old emails. Shift +delete will permanently delete any emails you’ve selected. You can keep emails you have deleted for a week to two weeks before you permanently remove them.

Your email is not a system designed for filing. You may have left an email in your inbox because you needed the attachment connected to it. When you receive an email with an attachment you should save it outside of your email right away. You can save this email attachment using one of two methods. You could either open the email, click on “save attachment” in the file menu, or you could right click on the attachment and then select “save as”. When you save your attachment give it a name that will remind you what the content of it is. It is a waste of your time to have to open up multiple attachments searching for what you need because of unclear file names. When you are organizing Microsoft Outlook it is important to save the files you need outside of your email service so that you can effectively empty your inbox.

If it feels like an entire email should be saved and filed you can do that in a couple ways. The first is you can save it as a word document. In order to do this you are literally going to copy and paste from an email into a document. Or if you prefer you can go through a different process to save the email in my documents. First select the email you want. Then select “file”, followed by “save as”. Search for “my documents”, or a different location in your computer if you want. Enter in the file name you have chosen that will clearly identify your email message. In the “save as” type field click on the down arrow and choose Outlook Message Format (*.msg), and then save. You’ll notice the icon next to your file in my documents will show you have saved an email.

Organizing Microsoft Outlook should begin with a clear empty inbox. In the future remember your inbox is not a filing system! Once you have cleaned out your inbox of your old emails by acting on them, saving them, or deleting them stop the problem from reoccurring. The Rules Wizard in Microsoft is a great place to start. This will help you organize your incoming emails into appropriate folders so they are easier to sort and act on. Then you will never be buried in email again! Take the first step and start clearing them out today.

Jul 24

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The Secrets to Organizing Microsoft Outlook- Rules Wizard

By Sherry Borsheim Business Organizing, Home Office Organization, Organizing Microsoft Outlook, Quick Organizing Tips No Comments

Microsoft Outlook can be an extremely useful productivity tool when it comes to prioritizing the time you spend on email. However if you are unfamiliar with Outlook’s functions you may not be getting any of the benefits it has to offer to you. This article is part of a series of articles that will help you as begin organizing your Microsoft Outlook.

Email should be used as a tool to help manage and process the projects that are important for your life and work. But with the hundreds or even thousands of emails coming into your mailbox it’s difficult at times to effectively use and process email. Microsoft Outlook Rules Wizard helps you manage your incoming emails. You can use Rules to automatically sort, prioritize, and reduce the flow of your email.

Why you should use rules when organizing Microsoft Outlook

If you have a ton of email to go through using Rules Wizard can be like having a personal assistant to help you organize Microsoft Outlook. There are a number of different ways to use the Rules Wizard. You can use it to have emails sorted into different folders based on who sent the email, the type of message or subject line, even whether you are CC’d or the primary recipient on the email. You can flag messages that come in from certain people or have an alert set for when you receive an email from a specific person. Use it to plan ahead with a function that can even delay the sending of a message.

I suggest this super helpful way using Rules. If you are receiving multiple e-newsletters, direct all of your e-newsletters into a folder to be read. Create an Action folder titled “.Read” and then follow the instructions below to create your rule that will direct your newsletters there. This will help reduce the flow of email in your inbox. It is important to schedule a time each week to go through this folder and read what has come in. The goal of this folder is to help you organize your time and inbox, not to create a place for emails to pile up and collect cyber dust! If you find you receive an e-newsletter that you don’t read over and over again consider unsubscribing. Being honest with yourself about what email you do and don’t need will help you while organizing Microsoft Outlook. Don’t waste time glancing at and a deleting an email every week or month that isn’t pertinent to you if you don’t have to!

How to use Microsoft Outlook rules

Creating a rule:

Before you begin create the folder you will be directing your email into, or confirm that it already exists.

1. Select Tools, then Rules and Alerts, and then New Rule

2. Select Start From a Blank Rule

3. Highlight, Check Messages after Sending, and then click Next

4. Check off with specific words in the subject. Next click on specific words and choose a unique keyword for your rule, for example “newsletter”. Click Add, OK, Next.’’

5. Uncheck move a copy to the specified folder. Then click on specified folder and choose from the list. Click Finish.

A quick tip

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Don’t abuse the Rule Wizard. If you overuse the Wizard by creating a ton of folders this tool will become a hindrance. Instead of being a helpful personal assistant your Rules will become a time waster!

Organizing Microsoft Outlook by creating rules to better sort and filter your email today means less wasted time, energy, and money tomorrow!

Jul 05

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The Secrets to Organizing Microsoft Outlook – Contact Categories

By Sherry Borsheim Blog, Business Organizing, Home Office Organization, Organizing Microsoft Outlook No Comments

Microsoft Outlook is a powerful productivity tool, when used correctly. When you aren’t sure how or why to use Outlook, it can be a source of frustration and anxiety! This article is part of a series of articles that will help you on your journey to organizing your Microsoft Outlook.

Categories are a way to group certain contacts together. Using categories makes it easier to find, sort and filter your contacts. For example, you receive a new email from someone you want to add to your contact List. Typically, you would add all their contact information. I suggest that you take it a step further and select a category for the contact, like Vendor, Client, Prospect, Advertising, Resource, Family, Personal, etc. Microsoft Outlook already has a list of categories in the Master Category List. You can add, change or delete any of these categories to suit your unique situation.

Why you should organize Microsoft Outlook Contacts

There are a several reasons for categorizing your contacts. Firstly, you can drag and drop an entire category or several categories over to your Inbox and all the email addresses will automatically appear in the To: field of your message. Make sure you cut and paste these email addresses into the BCC field before you send the email (this is to comply with privacy laws, as well as common courtesy). Secondly, it groups and organizes your contacts for easy retrieval. A group of contacts can easily be selected for a mail merge. Categories are also useful for those times when you export your Contacts into other programs.

The most important reason to categorize your contacts is to help you stay on top of your follow-up. In any business, the fortune is in the follow-up! Categorizing your contacts streamlines your marketing and follow-up efforts. You will also be able to easily sort, filter and print contacts by one or more categories.

For example, create a category called “Prospect” and flag it for follow-up on a specific day, or create an appointment from within the contact and select the date you want to follow up on that valuable lead. You could also create a category for different events that you have (a product launch, fundraisers, Christmas party, grand openings, products customers purchase, etc.). After the event you could sort your contacts by the category and show your appreciation by following-up with a thank you card to each person who attended the event.

How to use Microsoft Outlook Contact Categories:

My three step process when creating your initial categories

1. Plan your categories on paper first

2. Create the new categories in the Master Category List

3. Assign Contacts to the appropriate category or categories

Creating categories:

1. Select Categories from the Edit menu

2. Click Master Category List

3. Type a category name in the New category box

4. Click Add

5. Follow steps 3 and 4 to create additional categories

6. Click OK twice

Assigning a category when creating an item:

1. With the item open, click Categories (in an email click Options, Categories)

2. In the Available categories list, click on the boxes next to the applicable category or categories

3. Click OK

Assigning a category to an existing item:

1. Select the item

2. Click Categories on the Edit menu

3. In the Available categories list, click on the boxes next to the applicable category or categories

4. Click OK

A few quick Time-Saving Tips

1. You can assign several categories to one contact. For example, you may have a client who is in your Client category, as well as you Christmas Card List category.

2. When you export your contacts to other database programs, make sure you export the Category field. The category will map over into the new database and save you data entry time.

3. When you receive emails that are new leads it is important that you create a system to follow-up. Whatever your situation, categories and follow-up is critical to an effective contact list.

Taking the time to organize Microsoft Outlook by planning and creating your categories today will save you time and money tomorrow!