Making Outlook 2007 work for me.
Below are some simple tips how I use Outlook 2007 to keep me organized.
(I have to give credit for the tips to my wife Heidi who is always showing me great ways to streamline my business.)
1. I use multiple monitors. Although this has little to do with Outlook specifically, using multiple monitors caused me to have a better relationship with Outlook. Why?
Check this simple trick out:
Open your Outlook 2007. Make sure your Mail tab is active on the left so you can see your Inbox messages as you normally do.
Now, let’s say you just got an email from a client that wants to meet with you multiple times in a few weeks, but you are not sure what would be the best dates and times. Instead of flipping back and forth between the email message and you calender, (personally I cannot remember dates, let alone multiple dates) simply “Right Click” the Calender Tab and choose “Open in new window”. Click and drag the the entire Calender window over to the other monitor!
Now you have one monitor showing your inbox, and the other monitor showing you calender. Nice.
2. I organized my 2007 Outlook mailbox with sub-folders. Then, for each sub-folder, I (sometimes) set a rule to make Outlook automatically send the inbound mail to the folder respectfully.
So for example, I subscribe to various newsletters but instead of crowding up my Inbox with newsletters, I make a “sub-folder” called Newsletters. I then set a rule to let Outlook know that when one of my prescribed newsletters gets delivered to me, to place it in the Newsletters sub-folder. Nicely tucked away to read later, when or if I get time. 
This is how I do it:
To make a sub-folder:
a. Open Outlook 2007
b. Right click on your Inbox and choose “New Folder”.
c. On the pop up window Name your new folder, under the “Name” text box.
d. In the Drop Down window called “Contains” choose the appropriate content for your new folder. Click OK.
Your new folder should now be listed under you Inbox. You can as many sub-folders and sub-sub-folders as your heart desires!
Watch out!!! – if you add too many sub-folders, you can get disorganized again!
To set a rule to make Outlook sort your mail automatically:
a. With your Outlook 2007 open, view your Inbox mail.
b. Right click on any inbound email that you would like to send to a folder or sub-folder.
c. Choose, “Create Rule…”
d. In the Create Rule window, under “When I get e-mail with all the selected conditions” choose the boxes that you want applied. Under “Do the following”, click the box that says, “Move the item to folder: ” Then click the “Browse” button to find the respected folder. Easy!
Note – I do not set rules for all of my In-bound mail. I will explain below.
3. As I read my email I either immediately Delete the mail I will absolutely never need again, or I Save and Sort it. Saving and sorting is very easy. As explained above, I create sub-folders with different subjects. This time however, I make sub-folders with no rules attached, which means that I have to “Manually” place emails into the appropriate folder. But that is a good thing.
For example:
All my emails from my clients come into my main Inbox. As I read an email, I determine that I need to do some design work on a website next week. I look to my open calender (in the extra monitor) and make myself an appointment to work on the update. I then go back to the main monitor,and click and drag the email to my “To Do” folder I created for my clients.
Now here is the best part, as I place the read email into the folder it could be easy to miss the contents of the folder. However, you can change that problem by right clicking on the folder, and choosing “Properties”. In the Properties window, under the General Tab, choose the option, “Show total number of items”. Now, whether you have read the email or not, the total number of emails will be listed in the folder. So in the example used above, I would show an additional “To Do” item in my folders. Nice.
4. Lastly, I also use Xobni within my Outlook program. Xobni is a a free application that compliments and enhances many features of Outlook. (Heck even Bill Gates said he liked Xobni)
The best feature of Xobni, is it shows a detailed history of past conversations with each contact with pinpoint accuracy and cool statistics. At a glance, it lets me know how long ago I talked to the client , friend or family member, and how often we exchange emails.
Well, I hope some of this information helped you with your organizational needs! If you have any questions let me know. Thank’s again Heidi!
If you have a tip, feel free to share it!
