Outlook’s Calendar Reminders feature helps users keep their calendars in order so they don’t miss any crucial appointments or fix Outlook after Windows update issues meetings. This is a simple feature that is perfect for any professional who is constantly in and out of meetings every day. If possible, keep your personal and business tasks in one place. Keeping one list reduces the number of places that you need to look for what needs to be done.

• It’s a best practice to have a central repository for your messages, so that you can refer to them after you've "dealt" with them.
• Treat these streams of information much as you would a large newspaper — there might be a useful or interesting article, but reading the whole paper would take considerable time.
• Sometimes you receive a message that is really meant for someone else to deal with.
• Otherwise, consider using an online meeting app such as Microsoft Teams or meeting by phone.
• This becomes even more complicated if there is more than one appropriate folder per message.
• Rather than using Bcc to inform a third party of an issue, forward the message after you send it.

Delete it

Corporate-level messages with important news (for example, from the CEO) and messages from your IT department about server downtime should not go into a folder. Messages to a Contact Group that only occasionally contain useful or interesting content, regardless of frequency, should have a rule and a folder. It’s a best practice to have a central repository for your messages, so that you can refer to them after you've "dealt" with them. The Navigation Pane folder list should be reserved for folders you use often.

Which Contact Groups should go to a folder instead of my Inbox?

The same category set applies to all items, so if you use a category for contacts, keep it. Messages sent to large distribution lists and to RSS feeds can easily overwhelm your Inbox. Treat these streams of information much as disable faulty add-ins in Outlook you would a large newspaper— there might be a useful or interesting article, but reading the whole paper would take considerable time. Let rules help you to read what is most interesting and pertinent to you. Read and unread states in Outlook help by showing you quickly which messages have been read at least once and which have not.

Daily review: Managing your time and tasks

Learn how to unlock AI-powered presentation creation and boost your productivity. Use your organization’s solution in place of AutoArchive, and as always, follow your corporate policy. If your corporate policy dictates that you have multiple folders for each type of item, follow that policy. Create a SharePoint calendar for group activities that everyone has access to, rather than sharing your calendar.

When to create a Contact Group in Outlook

Sometimes you receive a message that is really meant for someone else to deal with. 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. The goal is to reduce the number of times you touch each message. Once you set up your system, you are ready to begin managing incoming messages.

Repair Outlook OST File Not Working in Office 365 – Complete Fix (

The second file system was contained in the old and dreaded "4-Drawer File Cabinets". (I still cringe at the memory of those heavy, metal drawers slamming shut.) Well, these have essentially become the Inbox folder system which automatically alphabetizes the folders. These are your active customers, the most urgent vendors, you name it. So we don’t file them into the A-Z folder system; instead, we keep them handy in the "Favorites" folder at the tip-top of the Outlook Navigation Outlook Profile Repair And Recovery Steps Pane. To apply the "Work Less" theory, have Outlook automatically file an email. Then you can read them all at one time without distraction.



Once an item has been flagged, it will appear in the To-Do Bar. By flagging it and filing it into your reference folder, you have processed it, and now you can move it out of your view. But because it’s in your task list, you can move on to your next message, knowing that you will return to your flagged items later. If you receive a large volume of messages (more than 200 messages a day), search folders might be a good way for you to parse mail from different senders. If you are short on time, for example, between meetings, you can read the messages in blue – messages sent directly to you. Often these messages are waiting on you for the next step and are the most important.

What if I have retention policies or an Exchange Server Online Archive?

However, the read and unread states of messages can be easily be triggered by clicking around your messages so they aren’t a perfect record— just a tool. Create Contact Groups (formerly known as personal distribution lists) in Outlook when you want to make it easier to send messages to a group of people outside your corporation. For all groups inside your corporation, create a public Contact Group (ask your IT administrator about how to do this). Send your calendar in a message when you set up meetings with people who can’t see your free/busy information, such as people outside of your company. Create a single task, mark it with the @Meeting category, and set the Start Date or Due Date to the date of your meeting. As the meeting date approaches and discussion points come up, add comments, bullets, and thoughts to the task as they occur to you.