Inbox Overload? Here's Six Quick Outlook Tips
March 7th, 2018 by admin
Every office has that one person who just has it all together. From their color coded Outlook calendar and scholar-like emails, to their crisp inbox and record breaking response time, you can’t help but wonder, “How does Karen do it?” While, most Karen’s are born that way, chances are they are also using shortcuts and tools to increase productivity. We have tips that will have Karen asking YOU how you stay so organized and efficient! You don’t need to waste your time searching through hundreds of Outlook tips – we’ve done the work for you! Here’s the list of tips we came up with for the everyday Outlook user..Quick "Second Savers"
1. Keyboard shortcuts
If you’ve ever seen some power user dominate you on speed, it’s probably because they’re ignoring their mouse and cruising along with keyboard shortcuts. Outlook has a ton of shortcuts you could study forever, but this is real life and you will probably get bored so here are 5:- Create New email Ctrl + N
- Send email Alt + S
- Reply to email Ctrl + R
- Reply to all Alt + R
- Forward Email Alt + W
Reduce Alerts & Clutter
2. Set up an “Important” folder
If you’re like us, you may not care right now about anything that says “PTA” or “Family Reunion Committee” in the subject line. First, create a special sub-folder named "Important", then go to Rules > New Rule… Click “Advanced Options”. Select “where my name is in the To box” and then “move it to the specified folder”.3. Reduce Outlook alerts
The default desktop alerts are a bit much. You don’t need your Outlook lighting up like a Christmas tree because Eugene ate Daphne’s Yogurt again. If you configure the alerts to only trigger when an email hits your important inbox you can stay on top of your email without getting a thousand alerts a day. To do this disable all email notifications from Outlook, then create a rule for inbound emails and set the condition “Sent to” and then select “Me only”. Then under “Do the following”, select “Display in the New Item Alert window”. Now whenever you are emailed directly you get an alert, and the message appears in a special inbox.Reduce Repetitive Tasks
4. Save template emails & phrases
Highlight the text you want saved, go to Insert > Quick Parts > “Save Selection to Quick parts gallery".5. Save emails on your desktop
Do you have emails that you consistently reference? You can drag and drop any Outlook message (even a draft message or an appointment) to your desktop or other folder. When you want to re-use it, just fill out the “To:” field and it’s ready to send!6. Delay delivery of emails
Delivering Emails at a future date comes in handy for all sorts of situations. You can schedule emails to auto send to clients and coworkers for reminders, deadlines, birthdays, etc. To do this in outlook, get your email ready, and then click the Options tab > Delay Delivery. That’s all we are going over for now. Hopefully you can save yourself trouble with some of this information. Let us know if you enjoy these articles and find the tips useful! We will be covering more ways to save time and increase productivity with other applications this month, so check back each week. -Kender OstlundPosted in: Tech Tips, Productivity