Best practices for Outlook

Comments · 100 Views

If you have more than 20 items in your Inbox, process the last week of messages and then select the remaining messages and move them to your 1-Reference folder.



expert Outlook tips by FixTechGuide

After you finish processing your messages, you should have a clean Inbox and can switch your focus to your calendar and tasks. If you find that you are repeatedly applying the same categories and flags, create a new Quick Step that flags, categorizes, and files. Quick Steps give you the ability to perform multiple actions in one click. They are a useful tool to help you keep a clean inbox repair corrupted OST in Outlook and to generally be more efficient at using Outlook.

How can I manage complicated tasks?



expert Outlook tips by FixTechGuide

Fortunately, with Outlook, you can view multiple accounts simultaneously. In addition to your work email account (Exchange Server), you can add other accounts such as Outlook.com or Gmail to the same profile in Outlook. As you go through your task list and your calendar, do similar tasks together.

I have 10 minutes: What should I read first in my Inbox?



  • For example, if you have only a few minutes, make all of your phone calls (if you have just a few).
  • For example, there might be a lengthy series of messages where the last one simply states, "Thanks, that answers my question," so you can just delete the whole conversation.
  • 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.
  • Sentences prefaced with the Microsoft 365 logo are references to other Microsoft 365 products, such as Microsoft OneNote, and Microsoft SharePoint Server.
  • Rather than using Bcc to inform a third party of an issue, forward the message after you send it.
  • If you are taking notes or minutes for the meeting, you can also use OneNote to insert meeting details from Outlook into your notes.
  • Categories aren’t a required aspect of this system, but they will make your life easier if you are diligent about using them.
  • Use the Bcc feature to remove extra people from an email conversation when you deem that they no longer need the extra email or if the conversation topic has changed.


To do this, select the Recurrence button and change the end date. If you find that you are often performing searches across your whole mailbox, you can set the default search scope to always search across all folders by going to the Backstage view. All search terms are additive, so if you want to find a message from someone with attachments, select the commands on the ribbon (From, Has Attachments) to build your search.

expert Outlook tips by FixTechGuide

Fix Tech Issues Fast





CiraSync allows you to sync shared mailboxes at your company, shared mailboxes at another company, public folders, and Salesforce contacts. There a tons of postings listing tons of errors, but Microsoft didn't fix any of them and will release it anyways. The third office file system is the "Perennial file" and I’m not talking about flowers here. These would be your Archive Folders at the bottom of the reset cached Exchange mode Navigation (Folder) Pane. They would probably contain contract files, corporate records, tax records, etc. In the days of "paper offices" (pre-computer age), we had 3 filing systems.

Advanced: How do I create a Search Folder for email messages?



I don't manage his inbox but I did help fix Outlook after Windows update issues him get the Stack method set up and he's blown away by how awesome it is, so now thinks I'm an Outlook wizard. I'm decent but certainly not an expert - so I figure before I actually lead a training I should brush up. It’s liberating to depend on Outlook instead of your overtaxed brain to keep track of your tasks.

Recommended Reads



That's not to say that there isn't a need for browsing through messages that are all on a particular topic or project. Outlook provides better tools — such as categories and search folders — so you can search effectively. By viewing your messages in conversation view, you can easily see which conversations have had the most back-and-forth discussion. In those cases, you might want to read and respond to only the last message in the conversation.



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. 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.
Comments