One on the BEST TUTORIALS ON THE RUclips! Almost 10 years old but STILL RELEVANT TODAY! Just started a new job and revisited this tutorial to re setup my outlook at my new company. Big time saver!!!!
This the best information I have received on Outlook. I thought Outlook was a joke and I thought G-Mail was the way to go. Now I see the value in purchasing Outlook and why it is the best. My whole life has changed from this information. I am now a BEAST! Keep coming with the videos!
Thanks for this video. It's very life changing! I just changed the ARCHIVE folder slightly. I choose to ""remove the categories"" as well whenever I select archive. Otherwise, they pile up in the ACTION folder.
This was an eye opener for me. I already use quick steps but it never occurred to me to make them do more than one thing! Marking them read, changing their importance level, clearing flags, assigning categories, moving folders all in one go! Powerful stuff and I've been at inbox zero for 3 weeks. Many thanks.
2:08 Having NO system causes stress 2:49 How I manage my E-mail 4:56 Creating folders to organize E-mail 6:25 Creating categories in E-mail 7:50 Creating & applying Quick Steps 12:25 Scheduling action categories 13:13 Customize Outlook's Start folder 14:00 Summary pt 1 15:00 Stay focused, minimize distractions 16:04 The 4 D's Model 19:02 You make the RULES 20:12 Creating RULES 23:45 Summary pt 2
It's a personal preference, but you may want to follow the suggestion to Archive any completed action. You may also create a quick step to archive and clear the category in one shot.
Awesome tips! But I still have one question. I receive a lot of emails which correspond to the same conversation. When checking your inbox, do you assign the category to all of them one by one? Or only to the last one received? I’m struggling a bit at this point. Thanks!
Thanks for taking the time to reply. In my Outlook set up I'm only able to see the cats in the Data File inbox emails and not in my Gmail or Yahoo accounts in that same Outlook.pst file....I hope that makes sense. I was forced to create rules to move a copy of all incoming mail to the data file inbox and it's been working, but I would like to do it from the account I'm working from. I guess having multiple accounts is not the way to go. Let me know if there is anything I should know, Thanks!
Is it possible to organize this voor outlook on a macbook? For example with scrips? I use an macbook at home and can't use the quick steps. Hopefully there is a solution? Thanks in advance! Greetings Frank
Hi there! Thank you very much for the videos. Is there a way to add email templates to quick steps? So I can access them much faster. I work in an environment where I have to use the same type of emails over and over again.
its nice video ,,including some useful tips ,,but he is talking more about his way on organizing and managing emails more than talking about the outlook features itself ,,
I like to view my emails by conversation mode. When you are in the .Action folder, is there anyway to view your emails by Category > Conversation? It looks like Outlook separates out all my conversations and now its hard to sort through.
There's actually no "paid version". What's available for purchase is not the videos, but training files, which includes a license-free PDF of the slide show you see in the videos as well as the training script for instructors who wish to deliver the same training session out of the box.
@@Surface7Associates , havíng a gmail acocunt which i have imported into outlook using IMAP, when would you suggest, when you say "you can operate just fine with IMAP". Do you know of a similar system for gmail/IMAP accounts ? Have been using this setup for the past 5-6 years professionally, i have finally decided to get my private email account into this system as well. But i am unsure how....?
How about Some one who is receiving 3000+ email per day, because he is a part of DL in the company and he get lot of alerts and from people who are sending email on group DL. How can he manage his inbox
Hello , I would appreciate if you could guide me on what is the best approach to follow up on mail i send to my team if they don't respond. sometimes , i receive request from client , then i forward to one of my team member which i expect their answer, now if they dont respond , i get escalation from client as sometimes i dont remember to follow up with the team on it , in the reply or forward mail, I don't see the quick steps. awaiting your inputs and advise Please
Maybe you can set a reminder? With Quick Steps you could decide to send the email to your team and at the same time, set a reminder alarm for within two or three days?
I would suggest for "Action - Urgent" also Add Action in Quick Step to "mark message as unread" - this way you also quickly get a count of Urgent mails to action upon.. and you can aim to make it 0 asap... you can do the same to Read as well
Awesome technique , I have been using this workflow for a few years now and this has saved me so much time and effort. Thank you. To take this a step further, are you able to follow the same workflow on an iPad? How?
How do you manage the conversations using the Quick Steps? Let's say for example that in processing my inbox over a period of 3 days, I have 7 action items with 7 replies each. In processing my inbox, I'll end up tagging 49 messages, when actually there are only 7 actionable items. I'd really appreciate your advice on this.thanks
How would you recommend handling the sent items? Leaving them or archiving them? Thanks so much I have found this so useful I am finally on top of my emails *****
Very good presentation!! There are two things I am missing: 1I how you deal with the outgoing emails. Does everything stay in the outbox, do you archive and what do you delete? 2) How do you manage attachments? Best regards!
Do you know how to disable Alt + S auto-send shortcut key? I made terrible mistake at my job because of this stupid function.. I disabled CTRL+ENTER, but it is still not disabling ALT + S!! I would really appreciate your help. (I use OUTLOOK 2010)
SpiritWaker You can prevent this from happening by not addressing the mail yet although this might not be practical, especially when replying to an e-mail. Luckily Outlook 2013 allows you to configure what happens when using CTRL+ENTER but for earlier versions of Outlook or for the ALT+S keyboard shortcut you’ll have to configure it in the registry.
One of the better email management videos I've seen. One item you may want to bring up, however ... If you create folders that are subfolders of your Inbox, they will be deleted if IT makes any updates to the Outlook server. My IT dept recommended I create folders within my mailbox, not as subfolders to my Inbox. In that case updates would not result in a cleansing of my organized folders. Great video.
Excellent stuff! I'm Outlook user for more than a decade and by my opinion this is by far the most useful series of video clips about this subject I have seen. And now one question: What of that you presented in videos can be redone in Google Office tools (Gmail and Google Calendar) ?
Danijel Kramarić Thank you so much for the kind words, and so glad you found it useful! GREAT QUESTION. Google allows for categorizing, folder creation, auto emailing .. but perhaps we here at Surface7 should get started on the Google version of this, huh? Great input!
I have a problem with folder management - I'm working on different computers at work. I use mainly one station but from time to time I have to change the place. On the 'main' station I've created a folder "important", I've put few e mails in it and when I'm working on a different computer I can't see the folder at all - how can I synchronize it? I have tried to find the emails I've placed there but I couldn't find it at all - did I somehow deleted them? I will be very thankful if someone could help me with my problems.
what about follow up after delegating!! and in case one mail is used to be action-urgent then a new reply is received from any of the copied personel, it will be catogrized by default as urgent although it is still in the inbox and may be you want to change the action type?
Quick steps is nice, but problem is that Microsoft needs to make it available on all platforms. It's missing from Mac / mobile apps. So until that's not available across platforms it doesn't give me the necessary plus when I'm mobile. Until that's available i'm using Touchdown on mobile to make sure i can easily use my old multi subfolder approach. It still gives me easy access when i need previous email. Quick steps only available on my windows outlook i would run into issues. Or of course I'm missing something...let me know if anyone has solution for this.
After watching some videos about systems of how to handle the outlook inbox, this one seems to me as the first that is really helpful for a big amount of daily mails without scattering the information too much, but still keeping it divided in a good manner. I need to keep the important information gathered for later discussions, so I like the Archive as a source for later searches. I will try and adapt your system to my needs by using your subfolders per project and the quicksteps for the main project. Thanks for the video!
Hi. Excellent guide, just have one question. It seems when mails are sorted in the action folder, and the sorting is done by categories, it does not allow showing mails in conversations as i have in the inbox and other folders. Is there any way to activate or accomplish this? Problem is that conversations that i'm waiting for answers to, are split up in several mails from my "one" mail conversation in the inbox. That kinda clutters up the whole thing if you understand...
'Ignorance is not bliss' in the case of email management ... I really want to do a better job at managing my emails and am going to try out the suggested tips. I have a question though.. I see the folders are still in the .ost file. Most companies have a limited Server space which quickly runs out. What are your thoughts on applying rules and quick actions directly so they land on .pst?
ooh, good Q. You should configure a message rule to deliver the Exchange emails to a pst-file. Apply rule on message I receive through the specified account click on Specified to select your Exchange account move it to the 'Specified' folder click on specified to select a folder in a .pst-file Optionally, you can now set the Inbox folder of the pst-file as the default startup folder via: File-> Options-> Advanced-> Start Outlook in this folder
Surface7Associates After following your workflow tips for a few days, I'm feeling on top of the world. A suggestion for a fantastic follow up would be how to utilize this workflow when checking your e-mail from your iPhone.
This is exactly the type of help I have been looking for to help with my inbox! Thank you so much for producing this video. It has already immensely helped me out! I have one question. When I am in the .Action folder, is there any way to sort it by category, and then by conversation? That way I can view the thread of emails pertaining to that one issue, and then when I am ready to archive, i can click one and it will move all emails, just like the inbox. Thanks so much again!!!
You are VERY welcome and thanks for commenting!! Interesting question! I will double check this as I'm not at my desk at the moment. I assumed you tried sorting by convo first, then right-clicking the column heading to sort by category -- but if it didn't work it seems it might mean you're imposing two conflicting sort criteria. If anyone else wants to weigh in, please do!
I don't believe I even have the option to do that. Yea I'm not sure this is possible for whatever programming reason they have. Hope to hear back though. Thank you again
PS: just trialing outlook 2016 for mac, also there quick steps are missing (for now) Would be great quick steps are server steps which automatically be visible across all apps. Seeing the sessions at Ignite in Chicago I think MS is going the right way. Universal apps across platforms, but I'm afraid they still have a long way to go.
How can I export quick steps, rules, quick parts, search foldes ? How can I add it (create) quick steps, rules, quick parts, search foldes using Powershell ?
Great video!!! many great ideas!!! I will start working on these techniques ASAP. Some questions for you and the rest of the subscribers: 1- Do you keep categorizing emails through the day or you do this only at the beginning of your day? 2- How much time should be spent categorizing emails? I support a lot of customers, and I get hundreds of emails daily, with a lot of action items I need to work on. I can picture myself spending hours categorizing them. I want to prevent spending too much time categorizing constantly. Maybe I'm missing some automation concepts.... :) Thank you!!!
gabysz As for Q#1 Categorizing happens each time I check email, at the time that email comes in. It becomes counter productive otherwise. As for Q#2 -- you can always set up a RULE to auto-categorize, say from a specific client, or to identify words in the subject line. Easy-breezy actually.
This is a nice tutorial. I'm an engineer and I usually have between two to three project at a time and beside email from those projects, I also have the regular emails. How would you do in my scenario?
Great video! Keep them coming! Is it possible for items to be sorted into sub folders once sent to the 'filing' folder. Is it possible to attach rules to the 'filing' folder only? Id like to keep emails in my inbox and have them sort into sub folders once sent to filing.
This video has actively reduced my stress at work - thank you so much! I'm a an advanced user of all kinds of weird and wonderful niche software but I've never bothered to sit down and learn how to use Outlook properly. I recommend this video to all!
This is very nice, thinking how to manage emails that are in sent folder. Take a case I sent a email to someone to do same task and want to track if the response is arrived or not.
Is this training presentation still available for purchase? link is not working. Although, the outlook version is outdated, most material is still great and relevant. Thanks
Great video! I learned a lot. This may be a stupid question with an obvious answer, but why do you flag the items that you put into the action folder? It seems that the categories serve the purpose of prioritization. You also filter out the email flags in your list of tasks. So, I'm not following what the flags are doing for you.
Great question Danny Gentry . A matter of preference maybe. But by flagging, it automatically appears on your Calendar and To-Do list. (When I clear email flags, sometimes it's because someone else's flags are attached when sent to me). Did you check out the second video in this series "Managing Tasks"?
Today I've tuned my Outlook for this approach, it seems to give much more control than what I did before (simply flagging each letter that required follow-up work). Thanks! It seems interesting to try e-mail classification by projects, but I haven't succeded in it by myself this far :)
You're welcome! As far as viewing both by category and conversation, I don't believe you can do both; it's either one view or the other. One solution, however, is to create a search folder which filters by category -- within this "category" search folder you can then View by Conversation.
before I had no system to organize emails. currently the workload at my work increased tremendously and I'm overwhelmed with so many emails. this helped me so so much!!
Steven, I have to admit I laughed out loud when I read this. NEVER has anyone asked this. What a great challenge. However, since the messages are already out in the universe, I may actually associate them to milestones associates to broad goals. As in, these messages cumulatively helped me reach goal of x, e.g., as in a particular business deal, contracting job, prospecting to sale of home, etc. Great question!!!! Anyone else?
This system changed the way I work and I often forward it to my work associates. A Construction site's work flow is fast and intense. Details cannot be forgot at the bottom of an inbox and prioritization is essential. Thank you
@Surface7Associates Hello! I have a few quick questions, I am interested in your opinion regarding the following: 1) If I have several large projects going on at the same time, do you recommend avoiding folders altogether and sticking with this method? 2) I was thinking of taking your quickstep/action method and stuffing it inside a folder for each respective client in order to contain the emails pertaining to several large projects. But am unsure of how to manage it in the most efficient way possible as this would mean I need to create A LOT of quicksteps to redirect everything to the appropriate folders. 3) In your opinion, how would you advise someone working in a hectic (consulting firm type) environment to structure their email? I know there is some redundancy in these questions and I do apologize. Any guidance is greatly and truly appreciated. I will await your response.
Thanks a lot for all these precious advices! I am using Outlook 2013 and I do not have the AutoPick button in the Calendar when I want to schedule an email. Did you do something special or does this option has been removed or changed between Outlook 2010 and 2013? Thanks for your help!
You mention that you could analysis the time you spend on each category , can you still export this information using Outlook 2013 - would be very useful. Great video, almost how I've been using my email with a few addition tips :) Thanks!
The problem with this method is whenever i need to find a specific email, i have difficulty going through each of the folders all over again...triple works...wonder how to overcome this
Thanks for the comment. Actually, the video does not promote creating unnecessary folders -- we show you how to get organized without them! Have a look. And if you need to find something in a pinch, have a look at our video here: ruclips.net/video/VKLJeitIbrk/видео.html
guranomo It can be an amazingly effective organizational tool if the entire company adopts the system. We've done it for many firms, and with incredible results.
Without knowing too much about the type of email and where they originate from, I'd suggest creating folders for specific functions (e.g., Staffing, Customer Service, Operations, Reporting, etc.) and then set up rules to filter and forward to those folders. Organizing "By Task or Function" instead of "By Manager" will be more reliable to filter, particularly when an email may be important to more than one manager. Hope this helps some. If you want to share specifics, pm me!
So your ".Action" folder is in fact what could be the Tasks tab in Outlook? How do you use the tasks? And also, why don't you use the "Archive" feature in Outlook? Why set an Archive folder?
One on the BEST TUTORIALS ON THE RUclips! Almost 10 years old but STILL RELEVANT TODAY! Just started a new job and revisited this tutorial to re setup my outlook at my new company. Big time saver!!!!
Amazing! Thank you so much for letting me know...was just considering whether to update the series...and I'mm thinking maybe YES!
This the best information I have received on Outlook. I thought Outlook was a joke and I thought G-Mail was the way to go. Now I see the value in purchasing Outlook and why it is the best. My whole life has changed from this information. I am now a BEAST! Keep coming with the videos!
YOU ARE A BEAST! LOL We love hearing this stuff! Keep it up :)
Harry you walked right into that one, can't even help you smh.
6 months later I am still using this and loving it.
How cool is that, thank you!
Thanks for this video. It's very life changing!
I just changed the ARCHIVE folder slightly.
I choose to ""remove the categories"" as well whenever I select archive.
Otherwise, they pile up in the ACTION folder.
This was an eye opener for me. I already use quick steps but it never occurred to me to make them do more than one thing! Marking them read, changing their importance level, clearing flags, assigning categories, moving folders all in one go! Powerful stuff and I've been at inbox zero for 3 weeks. Many thanks.
We love hearing this kind of feedback, glad it's helped!
Highly recommend this outlook tutorial.
Danna Gomez Good luck, let us know how it's working out. Is it down to 3k yet??? I'd call that success!!
Excellent content. Probably the best on youtube. Has helped me no end. Thank you
Great video : Clear , practical, great slides and presentation.
so good advice! right to the real pains
Thanks for your feedback! The functionality existed as Quick Parts in 2007.
Thank you. This is a great VDO that help me manage my email.
This is just brilliant! Thanks for sharing!
2:08 Having NO system causes stress
2:49 How I manage my E-mail
4:56 Creating folders to organize E-mail
6:25 Creating categories in E-mail
7:50 Creating & applying Quick Steps
12:25 Scheduling action categories
13:13 Customize Outlook's Start folder
14:00 Summary pt 1
15:00 Stay focused, minimize distractions
16:04 The 4 D's Model
19:02 You make the RULES
20:12 Creating RULES
23:45 Summary pt 2
+Kei Korono thanks for taking the time for this. Note: We have these available as separate videos as well ;)
How-to you did the index with minutes ?
Add it in video description, please
24:57 why am I writing this lol
It's a personal preference, but you may want to follow the suggestion to Archive any completed action. You may also create a quick step to archive and clear the category in one shot.
Thank you so mutch.
Awesome tips!
But I still have one question.
I receive a lot of emails which correspond to the same conversation. When checking your inbox, do you assign the category to all of them one by one? Or only to the last one received?
I’m struggling a bit at this point.
Thanks!
Thanks for taking the time to reply. In my Outlook set up I'm only able to see the cats in the Data File inbox emails and not in my Gmail or Yahoo accounts in that same Outlook.pst file....I hope that makes sense. I was forced to create rules to move a copy of all incoming mail to the data file inbox and it's been working, but I would like to do it from the account I'm working from. I guess having multiple accounts is not the way to go. Let me know if there is anything I should know, Thanks!
Great tutorial!
Is it possible to organize this voor outlook on a macbook? For example with scrips? I use an macbook at home and can't use the quick steps. Hopefully there is a solution?
Thanks in advance! Greetings Frank
Hi there! Thank you very much for the videos. Is there a way to add email templates to quick steps? So I can access them much faster. I work in an environment where I have to use the same type of emails over and over again.
Maria Quintero yes, just follow the same steps as in the video, but select your template as the new email
we are up to outlook 2016 but good management of files are timeless
This is great !! I love it. Thank You !! :)
Awesome. Thanks Dude
its nice video ,,including some useful tips ,,but he is talking more about his way on organizing and managing emails more than talking about the outlook features itself ,,
I like to view my emails by conversation mode. When you are in the .Action folder, is there anyway to view your emails by Category > Conversation? It looks like Outlook separates out all my conversations and now its hard to sort through.
Lindsay Orosco Unfortunately that would be conflicting; think of it like sorting by date AND by sender
great video,thank you.
is there a quiz
rajandseema123 I do have a quiz in the paid version. Or, I can quiz you here?? ;)
How is the paid version different than the free videos on here? Thanks
There's actually no "paid version". What's available for purchase is not the videos, but training files, which includes a license-free PDF of the slide show you see in the videos as well as the training script for instructors who wish to deliver the same training session out of the box.
Thank you!!
Is there a way to set up your 3 folder system in g mail on the internet side ?
Scott Mills Of course, you can set up the same system in with any email account. It's not "necessarily" Outlook-specific
If my email account is imap, do I have to delete and start from scratch using pop? I have too many emails to go through and don't want to lose any.
Dayna Castelberg If you want/need all the features ie categories, etc., yes. But you can operate just fine with IMAP
@@Surface7Associates , havíng a gmail acocunt which i have imported into outlook using IMAP, when would you suggest, when you say "you can operate just fine with IMAP". Do you know of a similar system for gmail/IMAP accounts ? Have been using this setup for the past 5-6 years professionally, i have finally decided to get my private email account into this system as well. But i am unsure how....?
How about Some one who is receiving 3000+ email per day, because he is a part of DL in the company and he get lot of alerts and from people who are sending email on group DL. How can he manage his inbox
+Akshat Sawney Same principles apply -- use your filters. Are they actionable? etc
Hello , I would appreciate if you could guide me on what is the best approach to follow up on mail i send to my team if they don't respond. sometimes , i receive request from client , then i forward to one of my team member which i expect their answer, now if they dont respond , i get escalation from client as sometimes i dont remember to follow up with the team on it , in the reply or forward mail, I don't see the quick steps.
awaiting your inputs and advise Please
Tariq Alkhaldi This is covered in detail in the tasks video!
Maybe you can set a reminder? With Quick Steps you could decide to send the email to your team and at the same time, set a reminder alarm for within two or three days?
feel asleep watching this
ASMR
I would suggest for "Action - Urgent" also Add Action in Quick Step to "mark message as unread" - this way you also quickly get a count of Urgent mails to action upon.. and you can aim to make it 0 asap... you can do the same to Read as well
Awesome technique , I have been using this workflow for a few years now and this has saved me so much time and effort. Thank you. To take this a step further, are you able to follow the same workflow on an iPad? How?
How do you manage the conversations using the Quick Steps? Let's say for example that in processing my inbox over a period of 3 days, I have 7 action items with 7 replies each. In processing my inbox, I'll end up tagging 49 messages, when actually there are only 7 actionable items. I'd really appreciate your advice on this.thanks
I have the same question. Did you find an answer?
How would you recommend handling the sent items? Leaving them or archiving them? Thanks so much I have found this so useful I am finally on top of my emails *****
Very good presentation!! There are two things I am missing:
1I how you deal with the outgoing emails. Does everything stay in the outbox, do you archive and what do you delete?
2) How do you manage attachments?
Best regards!
Do you know how to disable Alt + S auto-send shortcut key?
I made terrible mistake at my job because of this stupid function.. I disabled CTRL+ENTER, but it is still not disabling ALT + S!! I would really appreciate your help. (I use OUTLOOK 2010)
SpiritWaker You can prevent this from happening by not addressing the mail yet although this might not be practical, especially when replying to an e-mail. Luckily Outlook 2013 allows you to configure what happens when using CTRL+ENTER but for earlier versions of Outlook or for the ALT+S keyboard shortcut you’ll have to configure it in the registry.
One of the better email management videos I've seen. One item you may want to bring up, however ...
If you create folders that are subfolders of your Inbox, they will be deleted if IT makes any updates to the Outlook server. My IT dept recommended I create folders within my mailbox, not as subfolders to my Inbox. In that case updates would not result in a cleansing of my organized folders. Great video.
Excellent stuff!
I'm Outlook user for more than a decade and by my opinion this is by far the most useful series of video clips about this subject I have seen.
And now one question: What of that you presented in videos can be redone in Google Office tools (Gmail and Google Calendar) ?
Danijel Kramarić Thank you so much for the kind words, and so glad you found it useful! GREAT QUESTION. Google allows for categorizing, folder creation, auto emailing .. but perhaps we here at Surface7 should get started on the Google version of this, huh? Great input!
I have a problem with folder management - I'm working on different computers at work. I use mainly one station but from time to time I have to change the place. On the 'main' station I've created a folder "important", I've put few e mails in it and when I'm working on a different computer I can't see the folder at all - how can I synchronize it? I have tried to find the emails I've placed there but I couldn't find it at all - did I somehow deleted them?
I will be very thankful if someone could help me with my problems.
iza9999 Unfortunately this issue is specific to your workplace environment. You may wan to try using Outlook.com for sync options instead.
what about follow up after delegating!!
and in case one mail is used to be action-urgent then a new reply is received from any of the copied personel, it will be catogrized by default as urgent although it is still in the inbox and may be you want to change the action type?
Quick steps is nice, but problem is that Microsoft needs to make it available on all platforms. It's missing from Mac / mobile apps. So until that's not available across platforms it doesn't give me the necessary plus when I'm mobile. Until that's available i'm using Touchdown on mobile to make sure i can easily use my old multi subfolder approach. It still gives me easy access when i need previous email. Quick steps only available on my windows outlook i would run into issues.
Or of course I'm missing something...let me know if anyone has solution for this.
Fantastic video, I am using Outlook 2013 and I can't find the categories button
Is it possible you're using IMAP? If so, unfortunately you won't be able to categorize emails
After watching some videos about systems of how to handle the outlook inbox, this one seems to me as the first that is really helpful for a big amount of daily mails without scattering the information too much, but still keeping it divided in a good manner. I need to keep the important information gathered for later discussions, so I like the Archive as a source for later searches. I will try and adapt your system to my needs by using your subfolders per project and the quicksteps for the main project. Thanks for the video!
thank you!
Very helpful .. thank you!! You just upgraded me from a bicycle to a sports car!
Hi.
Excellent guide, just have one question. It seems when mails are sorted in the action folder, and the sorting is done by categories, it does not allow showing mails in conversations as i have in the inbox and other folders. Is there any way to activate or accomplish this?
Problem is that conversations that i'm waiting for answers to, are split up in several mails from my "one" mail conversation in the inbox. That kinda clutters up the whole thing if you understand...
I've learnt a lot about Outlook. Outstanding video, man!
Well alright!
'Ignorance is not bliss' in the case of email management ... I really want to do a better job at managing my emails and am going to try out the suggested tips. I have a question though.. I see the folders are still in the .ost file. Most companies have a limited Server space which quickly runs out. What are your thoughts on applying rules and quick actions directly so they land on .pst?
ooh, good Q. You should configure a message rule to deliver the Exchange emails to a pst-file.
Apply rule on message I receive
through the specified account
click on Specified to select your Exchange account
move it to the 'Specified' folder
click on specified to select a folder in a .pst-file
Optionally, you can now set the Inbox folder of the pst-file as the default startup folder via:
File-> Options-> Advanced-> Start Outlook in this folder
We need the same way for outlook 2016
This video is pretty much life changing.
Yay! thank you! We love hearing that!
Surface7Associates After following your workflow tips for a few days, I'm feeling on top of the world. A suggestion for a fantastic follow up would be how to utilize this workflow when checking your e-mail from your iPhone.
Daniel Strickland Oooh, nice. This is a real good suggestion, thanks Daniel!
Daniel Strickland Also, please let us know any other topics you might be interested in seeing in the future -- we'd appreciate it.
This is exactly the type of help I have been looking for to help with my inbox! Thank you so much for producing this video. It has already immensely helped me out! I have one question. When I am in the .Action folder, is there any way to sort it by category, and then by conversation? That way I can view the thread of emails pertaining to that one issue, and then when I am ready to archive, i can click one and it will move all emails, just like the inbox. Thanks so much again!!!
You are VERY welcome and thanks for commenting!! Interesting question! I will double check this as I'm not at my desk at the moment. I assumed you tried sorting by convo first, then right-clicking the column heading to sort by category -- but if it didn't work it seems it might mean you're imposing two conflicting sort criteria. If anyone else wants to weigh in, please do!
I don't believe I even have the option to do that. Yea I'm not sure this is possible for whatever programming reason they have. Hope to hear back though. Thank you again
Just got it recommended by a friend, and man this is still ahead of the curve.
Amazing tips.
, Starting this from Monday.
PS: just trialing outlook 2016 for mac, also there quick steps are missing (for now) Would be great quick steps are server steps which automatically be visible across all apps. Seeing the sessions at Ignite in Chicago I think MS is going the right way. Universal apps across platforms, but I'm afraid they still have a long way to go.
Jan Claes agreed agreed
How can I export quick steps, rules, quick parts, search foldes ?
How can I add it (create) quick steps, rules, quick parts, search foldes using Powershell ?
Great video!!! many great ideas!!! I will start working on these techniques ASAP. Some questions for you and the rest of the subscribers:
1- Do you keep categorizing emails through the day or you do this only at the beginning of your day?
2- How much time should be spent categorizing emails? I support a lot of customers, and I get hundreds of emails daily, with a lot of action items I need to work on. I can picture myself spending hours categorizing them. I want to prevent spending too much time categorizing constantly. Maybe I'm missing some automation concepts.... :)
Thank you!!!
gabysz As for Q#1 Categorizing happens each time I check email, at the time that email comes in. It becomes counter productive otherwise. As for Q#2 -- you can always set up a RULE to auto-categorize, say from a specific client, or to identify words in the subject line. Easy-breezy actually.
This is a nice tutorial. I'm an engineer and I usually have between two to three project at a time and beside email from those projects, I also have the regular emails. How would you do in my scenario?
Excellent video. Appreciate the support you have given.
Great video! Keep them coming! Is it possible for items to be sorted into sub folders once sent to the 'filing' folder. Is it possible to attach rules to the 'filing' folder only? Id like to keep emails in my inbox and have them sort into sub folders once sent to filing.
This video has actively reduced my stress at work - thank you so much! I'm a an advanced user of all kinds of weird and wonderful niche software but I've never bothered to sit down and learn how to use Outlook properly.
I recommend this video to all!
This is very nice, thinking how to manage emails that are in sent folder. Take a case I sent a email to someone to do same task and want to track if the response is arrived or not.
Is this training presentation still available for purchase? link is not working. Although, the outlook version is outdated, most material is still great and relevant. Thanks
I've been using Outlook about 2 years, but I've never known your tips. Great video!
good
Great video! I learned a lot. This may be a stupid question with an obvious answer, but why do you flag the items that you put into the action folder? It seems that the categories serve the purpose of prioritization. You also filter out the email flags in your list of tasks. So, I'm not following what the flags are doing for you.
Great question Danny Gentry . A matter of preference maybe. But by flagging, it automatically appears on your Calendar and To-Do list. (When I clear email flags, sometimes it's because someone else's flags are attached when sent to me). Did you check out the second video in this series "Managing Tasks"?
Today I've tuned my Outlook for this approach, it seems to give much more control than what I did before (simply flagging each letter that required follow-up work). Thanks!
It seems interesting to try e-mail classification by projects, but I haven't succeded in it by myself this far :)
Дмитрий Ермаков Good luck with it, let us know how it works out!
Truly the best productivity-related video I have encounter. Great job and excellent presentation. A+ Thank you.
*you should present audio books too!!
Wow, thank you!
I love this video, but my Outlook 2013 does not let me assign categories in the mail box. I only get categories in calendar and tasks!? any idea why?
Debbie Montgomery Yes, probably because you are IMAPing from another account, in which case categories go bye-bye -- sorry :/
when you are done with the emails in the Action -urgent do you leave them there or would you move them to another folder?
I don't see the stop processing more rules tab available in the rules wizard. Any idea on how to get this option?
You're welcome! As far as viewing both by category and conversation, I don't believe you can do both; it's either one view or the other. One solution, however, is to create a search folder which filters by category -- within this "category" search folder you can then View by Conversation.
Hi, how do you deal with action emails that you must handle in a long future, next month or in 6 months...?
Great information. I will be spending my Labor Day weekend tackling my inbox of about 3,500 old emails and trying to get my sanity back!
before I had no system to organize emails. currently the workload at my work increased tremendously and I'm overwhelmed with so many emails.
this helped me so so much!!
I don't have categories under my "tags" group on the ribbon. Using Outlook 2013. What am I missing?
TheLanguageStation You are probably IMAPing, right?
What to do after replying urgent email? Put it to Archive from .Action-urgent?
is there a way to sync my outlook tasks with google tasks ? I ask this because when I am out of my office I use google for my calendar and e-mail.
You can check out Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook
thank you! most useful video of the year.
THANK YOU!!!!!!
I had thought that I was using Outlook efficiently as I used some of these features but you have given me a new insight....great video!!!
Im2lazy79 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!
You saved my life!!!! thanks
Any thoughts on maintaining your Sent folder?
Steven, I have to admit I laughed out loud when I read this. NEVER has anyone asked this. What a great challenge. However, since the messages are already out in the universe, I may actually associate them to milestones associates to broad goals. As in, these messages cumulatively helped me reach goal of x, e.g., as in a particular business deal, contracting job, prospecting to sale of home, etc. Great question!!!! Anyone else?
@@Surface7Associates any good news for sent folder by now ?
This system changed the way I work and I often forward it to my work associates. A Construction site's work flow is fast and intense. Details cannot be forgot at the bottom of an inbox and prioritization is essential. Thank you
So great to hear, thank you for letting me know!
Hi. Thanks a lot for your help but for some reason my outlook doesnt have the quick step feature. Help!
Are you in Outlook 2010 or 13? If so, exit and go back -- Microsoft reports this as a bug.
Hi Felix, not exactly sure what you mean since categories can be applied across all email accounts. PM if you want to discuss.
Best video in RUclips!
@Surface7Associates
Hello! I have a few quick questions, I am interested in your opinion regarding the following:
1) If I have several large projects going on at the same time, do you recommend avoiding folders altogether and sticking with this method?
2) I was thinking of taking your quickstep/action method and stuffing it inside a folder for each respective client in order to contain the emails pertaining to several large projects. But am unsure of how to manage it in the most efficient way possible as this would mean I need to create A LOT of quicksteps to redirect everything to the appropriate folders.
3) In your opinion, how would you advise someone working in a hectic (consulting firm type) environment to structure their email?
I know there is some redundancy in these questions and I do apologize. Any guidance is greatly and truly appreciated. I will await your response.
Thanks a lot for all these precious advices!
I am using Outlook 2013 and I do not have the AutoPick button in the Calendar when I want to schedule an email. Did you do something special or does this option has been removed or changed between Outlook 2010 and 2013?
Thanks for your help!
You mention that you could analysis the time you spend on each category , can you still export this information using Outlook 2013 - would be very useful. Great video, almost how I've been using my email with a few addition tips :) Thanks!
Just awesome!!! Thank you very much for sharing it here! Extremely useful strategies!
The problem with this method is whenever i need to find a specific email, i have difficulty going through each of the folders all over again...triple works...wonder how to overcome this
Thanks for the comment. Actually, the video does not promote creating unnecessary folders -- we show you how to get organized without them! Have a look. And if you need to find something in a pinch, have a look at our video here: ruclips.net/video/VKLJeitIbrk/видео.html
If only more colleagues used this. Works perfectly, I have full control of all email.
guranomo It can be an amazingly effective organizational tool if the entire company adopts the system. We've done it for many firms, and with incredible results.
The functionality existed as "Quick Parts" in 2007.
Without knowing too much about the type of email and where they originate from, I'd suggest creating folders for specific functions (e.g., Staffing, Customer Service, Operations, Reporting, etc.) and then set up rules to filter and forward to those folders. Organizing "By Task or Function" instead of "By Manager" will be more reliable to filter, particularly when an email may be important to more than one manager. Hope this helps some. If you want to share specifics, pm me!
You are amazing, thank you so much. Saved me so much time, invaluable.
So great to hear, more coming soon! :)
My Outlook2010 doesn't show category and time flags, how to set them?
+Bella Lee are you on mac or are you using imap? if either is the case, you won't have this functionality unfortunately
Really great Video, I have directly apply it. Just one question, did you have organize the Inbox and .Action folder to sort also by conversation?
What do you do with emails in the action-urgent section after finishing whatever has to be done ?
We suggest moving them to an archive folder
So your ".Action" folder is in fact what could be the Tasks tab in Outlook? How do you use the tasks?
And also, why don't you use the "Archive" feature in Outlook? Why set an Archive folder?