Outlook Tips and trick

Outlook :: Set up the Shortcuts pane with the Trusted Trio

Set up the Shortcuts pane with the Trusted Trio

Outlook's default sidebar displays all the folders and areas you can store stuff in the application, a distinguished and lengthy list that spans email folders, to lists, to notes, and RSS. First thing you want to do is toss all the stuff you don't need staring at you and just set up the containers you DO want to see. Best place to do that is using the Shortcuts pane. Open the Shortcuts pane by clicking on it on the bottom of the sidebar, or pressing Cntrl+7. Once you're there, use the "Add new shortcut" link to place the folders and areas in Outlook you care about, like the Inbox, Archive, Follow Up, Hold, Tasks, Calendar, and Sent Items.

Give Your Outlook Account Friendly Name

To assign nice and memorable name to your Outlook email account:

· Select Tools | Account Settings... from the menu in Outlook.
· Highlight the desired account with its old name.
· Click Change....

· Now click More Settings ....
· Go to the General tab.
· Under Exchange Account, enter the name you want the account to go by.
· Click OK.

· Now click Next >.
· Click Finish.
· Click Close.

Use the "Four Ds for Decision-Making" model

The "Four Ds for Decision-Making" model (4 Ds) is a valuable tool for processing email, helping you to quickly decide what action to take with each item and how to remove it from your Inbox.

Decide what to do with each and every message: How many times have you opened, reviewed, and closed the same email message or conversation? Those messages are getting lots of attention but very little action. It is better to handle each email message only once before taking action—which means you have to decide what to do with it and where to put it. With the 4 Ds model, you have four choices:

1.     Delete it

2.     Do it

3.     Delegate it

4.       Defer it

1. Delete it

Generally, you can delete about half of all the email you get. But some of you shudder when you hear the phrase "delete email." You're hesitant to delete messages for fear that you might need them at some point. That's understandable, but ask yourself honestly: What percentage of information that you keep do you actually use? If you do use a large percentage of what you keep, your method is working. But many of us keep a lot more than we use. Here are some questions to ask yourself to help you decide what to delete:

·         Does the message relate to a meaningful objective you're currently working on? If not, you can probably delete it. Why keep information that doesn't relate to your main focus?

·         Does the message contain information you can find elsewhere? If so, delete it.

·         Does the message contain information that you will refer to within the next six months? If not, delete it.

·         Does the message contain information that you're required to keep? If not, delete it.

2. Do it (in less than two minutes)

If you can't delete the email messages, ask yourself, "What specific action do I need to take?" and "Can I do it in less than two minutes?" If you can, just do it. There is no point in filing an email or closing an email if you can complete the associated task in less than two minutes. Try it out—see how much mail you can process in less than two minutes. I think you will be extremely surprised and happy with the results. You could file the message, you could respond to the message, or you could make a phone call. You can probably handle about one-third of your email messages in less than two minutes.

3. Delegate it

If you can't delete it or do it in two minutes or less, can you forward the email to an appropriate team member who can take care of the task? If you can delegate it (forward it to another team member to handle), do so right away. You should be able to compose and send the delegating message in about two minutes. After you have forwarded the message, delete the original message or move it into a specific folder.

4. Defer it

If you cannot delete it, do it in less than two minutes, or delegate it, the action required is something that only you can accomplish and that will take more than two minutes. Because this is your dedicated email processing time, you need to defer it and deal with it after you are done processing your email. You’ll probably find that about 20 percent of your email messages have to be deferred. There are two things you can do to defer a message: Turn it into an actionable task, or turn it into an appointment. When you're using Outlook, you can defer emails that require action by dragging the messages to your Task List to turn them into tasks. Name the task to clearly state the required action so that you don't have to reopen the email message. The result is a clearly defined list of actions on your Task List that you can prioritize and schedule to complete on your Calendar. Or you can turn the message into a meeting request by dragging it to your Calendar.

Use the 4 Ds model every day: Using the 4 Ds model on a daily basis makes it easier to handle a large quantity of email. On average, people can process about 100 email messages an hour. If you receive 40 to 100 messages per day, all you need is one hour of uninterrupted email processing time to get through your Inbox. Statistics show that of the email you receive:

·         Fifty percent can be deleted or filed.

·         Thirty percent can be delegated or completed in less than two minutes.

·         Twenty percent can be deferred to your Task List or Calendar to complete later.

Of course, if you have a backlog of hundreds of messages, it will take time to get to the point where your daily routine keeps you up to date. It's important to get that backlog down, then, you can really enjoy processing your messages every day using the 4 Ds.

Increase the Font Size While Reading Mail

Unfortunately, monitor resolutions also increase where it does not necessarily make sense, with laptops, for example. On an average notebook-sized display, a resolution beyond 1024x768 is hardly bearable for the eyes when it comes to reading text — emails — using the default font sizes. To read mail in a larger font in Outlook:
Hold down Ctrl while turning the scroll wheel on your mouse down. In Outlook 2007 and later, open the message in its own window, click Other Actions, select Zoom... from the menu. Choose the desired zoom level and click OK.

Outlook will not remember the zoom level. Since this does not work with plain text emails (the mouse wheel does), also select Tools | Options... from the menu, go to the Mail Format tab, click Fonts... and use the Choose Font...button under When composing and reading plain text: to choose a bigger font.