I’m heading up a team of different functions like marketing, product development, Q&S and need to keep the overview of a lot of different topics and projects. Thank you for the archiving and categorisation tip. I reorganised my entire mailbox today. The first time in years I have less than 50 mails inbox without having the feeling I miss something. Big thank you!!
This video is perfect. As a GTD enthusiast, I already implement some of the tips in the new Outlook on a daily basis. Others are really welcome. Thank you!
Extraordinary advice! I appreciate your time creating this video. Completely identified with the statement "Outlook is not a task manager." The templates are a huge time saver. Thank you for this video.
I have implemented this in my workflow. - NOT to use the e-mail as my task list. and not to constantly trying to remember which folder I filed the email in is GREAT. I wish it was just a little bit more easy to change date or other «properties» of tasks directly from outlook, since it is so easy to create a task, and change the tittle of the task from Outlook. But as I see other people says here: A VERY usefull video! Thx!
Outlook Templates!!! OMG this is the single best feature I've seen in Outlook for a long time. I've been cutting and pasting for years. It's so intriguing, I might have to ignore the New Outlook flaws keeping me from switching, just to use this feature. There are lots of other great tips in this video as well. Thank you. P.S. - My email management, with its many gigabytes of stored emails in hundreds of folders, would be an ideal example of what not to do - although it works well for my transactional business. Your videos encourage me to do better!
You are a lifesaver, thank you. I am just changing from apple systems to microsoft office - reluctantly. But slowly I can see the light and the possibilities here for effective and time saving work. Thank you so much
Hi new subber 🎉my favourite productivity tip is learn great productivity tips from people that share them with me - and love that they explain how and why they do it - unlike the ones at work when they just say you should do it like this 😂
I would really like to be able to archive into favourites, but in my outlook on both web app or desktop the favourites do no show up underneath the archive header in the navigation bar. It makes it really hard to look for what is in your to-do archive category. So I think I will just have to use folders until I have access to that feature. (i have folder view turned on).
@@bearded365guy I switched from classic desktop to the webs app after watching your videos (onPC). Everything is the same apart from not being able to see the favourited folders in my archive. I have searched around on forums and others have this issue as well. I cannot search by category in the web version, but can do that in the desk top app. So am sort of using both!
Hello, I hope everything is well. I have a question about the new Outlook app. Is there any way to back up emails, like creating PST or OST files? Thank you for your help!
Hey Jonathan, What a great video, thank you. I think the most useful is the No.1 Archive, trouble is now I need the discipline to use it and then build on to it with the next 11!
Fantastic tips! The only one I would add would be using search parameters in the Outlook Search box, just typing from:X, and/or subject:Y, and/or body:Z makes finding email a whole lot easier. You can use quotes to find an exact phrase. To find email you know you received between two dates received:>05/15/2024 AND received:
On my work desktop, I've got a very specific setup on Outlook Desktop (classic for lack of a better word). My work laptop I have turned on the NEW Outlook and while I like the modern look and a few of the features like Snooze etc mentioned here, the Rules I have defined on my desktop Outlook are pretty extensive - I have about 70 of them. Both the NEW Outlook I'm using on the laptop, as well as Outlook on the Web do not even SHOW a Rules menu option under Outlook settings. Nothing on the web when I search for this seems to point to a solution. I'm also the Global Admin of our company's 365 account, and I have not been able to get a single user that can pull up OWA and see the rules option show - it is simply missing. What direction would you suggest we go in - other than stick w/Outlook "classic" on the desktop?
Great Tipps for mastering outlook in an much better way thnx Jonathan According to TODO here is an additional Tip u ave also the possibility to tag ur tasks if u name an task in todo like : clean up ur #room , then u can search for the tag room in the todo search bar. best regards
Question: Is there a way to set up an automatic reply or forward once you have color categorized an email.? For example, if I categorize an email BLUE it will automatically forward to a specific email - can we do this?
Question: If I switch to categorizing and archiving emails as you suggest and creating tasks from emails that I need to act on, what would one use the flag email option for?
How can you add the categorie to the search function in the web based outlook, i noticed in your video that option wasn't available and I dont' see it on my version either also web based.
When it comes to projects what’s the advantage of categorizing + archiving vs. moving to a folder? For Waiting For and Next Action labelling it makes sense, but I don’t see any advantage of using categories for projects… 🤔
For me, every email is in the same folder - Archive. I use categories to sort them. You can use folders, but I’ve seen so many people who have far too many folders - and they end up not knowing which folder an email is in.
@@bearded365guy Fair, I just don't see a material difference between sorting emails with categories or with folders. The end result is still a bunch of emails grouped together, regardless of what mechanism has done it. Not trying to be argumentative by the way, just genuinely trying to see what I'm missing! And also, thanks for this channel, fantastic content 🙏🏻😊
@@ChrisEvideo , one advantage of categories is you can assign multiple ones to one different emails if you like. So, "Fiscal Planning" (in general) and "FY25 Strategy" could both have overlapping emails. Harder to do with folders.
@@ChrisEvideoI initially had the same thoughts. Two advantages of using categories are (1) you can attribute multiple categories to an e-mail, whilst you cannot put it in multiple folders, and (2) if e.g. a project is finished, but you want to keep the folder, this folder will always be visibleb with categories you can unfavourite it, so it won't be visible in the left pane anymore, but you can still find it if you need to.
Great tips. I've implemented everything that I had not already done. One problem. I have two Microsoft 365 email accounts in New Outlook. I've set up the categories in the main one, but I can't see an easy way to copy the categories to the other. Is there a way to do that?
Excellent video. Thank you for compiling them. Its always confusing for me. I do categorize a lot and want to find another way. Few queries on your suggestions. 1. Whats the point of Archiving? Why not just categorize. We are anyway going to use search for the emails. What's the drive to have a clean inbox? 2. How is categories different from folder structure?
This was such a great video! Thank you so much!!! I am in the process of eliminating my million subfolders and only using archive. However, when I use categorize and then archive, they all end up in the archive folder and not nicely separated like your example shows. ie, the categories on the left w/the colored tags. I guess a work around would be to put the categories as subfolders under archive and manually move them to there?
Hi, great video thanks. I have an issue in my Outlook app, I can't see the categories under my inbox on the left side, just like you did in minute 5:40 can you please advise?
Hi there, Please could someone help with this issue? I have ‘show as conversations on’ I have a folder that is “waiting on response” which I move emails from my mail inbox to there. When the person does reply to my email it comes into my main inbox which is good, but there previous email is still in my “waiting on response” folder. I essentially want them replying to take the whole conversation out of that folder, and for the email to remain as just one email conversation! I hope this makes sense, please let me know if anyone can help? Thanks
Great video and very helpful! Also love your style! Thank you so much Jonathan! Quick question... I'm on a Mac and believe the interface looks a bit different on here. It doesn't look like you were using a Mac... would you say the tips/steps are fairly similar or do I need to also be watching people who are using a Mac? Thank you so much!
Useful ideas and I am a big fan of the GTD Methods, however, I receive a few hundred emails a day from lots of clients, internal product threads and over 80 projects. I often need to look up emails from specific clients or projects and I don't think the categories strategy works for this - can you please comment or suggest a way to make this fit into your process?
@@bearded365guy Already apply outlook Rules and colours (categories) on Calendar items, plan mails into slots in calendar etc. the issue is the volume of emails across so many threads, if you did 4-5 projects and a few clients then your systems would be no issue. However, with volume, the search becomes just as hard to use. not the ":" function in the search is good. Any ideas on large volume and many projects system would be useful I have not found a good one yet
Many thanks for the tips. I will try them out. Categorizing and archiving emails will definitely help me, but what do you do when a project XX is completed? Do you delete it from your favourites? Do you rename that category? Cheers!
You can remove the category from all emails. The emails will still be in your archive folder. You can then remove the category altogether or just from favourites.
Why can we not add .pst files for archiving with the new Outlook. With these .pst files under classic Outlook I have a good folder structure for very easy access and I have a lot of history which I constantly refer to. Until we can add .pst files (so far I do not see this is an option) I will not covert.
If you use Microsoft 365 you should move your PST files into an Online Archive which will still be visible like the PST, but they’re stored in the cloud.
I've been trying to do the same thing, but couldn't find a solution yet. Mails from shared mailboxes don't show up under the categories. Looking forward to an answer too, thanks.
Checked with Microsoft Support - it's currently not on the roadmap to add categories as favorites to shared mailboxes Which then poses the question whether this is a good path to go down for now ...
HI Jonathan, with the new Microsoft 365 go to settings, general and then categories, but categories isn't listed in general... I searched but not luck. What am I doing wrong. Thanks, love your work.
I had imported by our IT people, from my old email (FirstClass), all the emails and folders into Outlook. I want to keep all these emails as I still need them. Is there a way to drag many folders into a new folder at once? Please and Thank you
i work for an employer that follows ridiculous gdpr rules and all emails are deleted automatically after 3 months, unless saved to a folder where you can change to policy. means if i archive anything it gets deleted after 3 months rather than kept. any tips on how to deal with this?
@@ArjenEeken but then pressing backspace on the email doesnt send it to that new archive folder, it sends it to the original and main archive folder. i would then have to drag every email into this folder manually, the archive button at the top of emails is also linked to the main archive folder, and apprently this is native and can't be changed. thanks for the suggestion though i'm still looking for a solution.
@@tomac1020 When you have the e-mail open, press V on your keyboard to move it to a folder. (press Shift+/ to see all keyboard shortcuts in case your version of Outlook uses a different key) A window with folders pops up. Name your own archive folder "1 Archive", and after you pressed "V", immediately press "1", then Enter. So all you have to do is press V, 1, Enter to move e-mails to your archive folder. I hope this helps.
Thanks Jonathan love the video and Im trying to change / need to change and adapt some of your ideas. Any thoughts on how to tirage using these techniques when on mobile. Can filter or add categories?
Great video! Thanks for sharing. I have a question about the "Follow Up" category. After you create a task for an email in that category, do you remove the Follow Up tag from the email? It seems like it could get confusing knowing which emails already have tasks and which still need them. I'm thinking of creating tasks directly from my inbox when I process emails without using the Follow Up tag. Do you see any potential issues with this approach? Thanks!
Thank you for your video. When l do as you say in the categories l have done everything you said but when l click on the archive to put them into my categories they do not go over they stay in the archive, if you what l mean. Can you help.
Thanks! I have given a second chance to new Outlook thanks to your videos. I used rules in old Outlook to categorize my emails (per project), 2 rules were needed: one for inbox and other one for sent emails. In new Outlook I could only create one rule so it does not work in the sent emails folder. Do you know how to fix it?
Having been in a team managing a shared inbox in old outlook. we had categories for status, and connected to dynamics, and many folders. How would you deal with that?
I was hoping to try the archive method - but categories are not available when using IMAP. I use that method as I want to be able to delete emails not only in outlooks but on the gmail servers as well. I found some old macros that appeared to allow the use of categories in outlook with IMAP but none that are still working. Is this possible?
hi, my advanced search does not have the categories section, It was there a week ago, now it has gone missing. How do I get it back so I can search with a category?
Thank you Jonathan for the great videos that you made - I feel they will change my working life completely! P.S. I have got mates who sound just like you - from Manchester? Bolton? 😂
Thank you. This is a really helpful and useful video. One question I have is, what of these features are only available to business subscriptions and what are available to personal subscriptions as I believe these differ? Do you know?
That’s a very good question and I don’t honestly know the answer because I only work with business. My bet is that Outlook is the same with Personal and Business, but someone might correct me!
@@bearded365guy I believe that the personal subscriptions do not get the same functionality but I can't find anywhere that tells me the differences. I believe categories will not be in the personal subscriptions but I am not sure about the rest.
I paid my subscription to windows 365 and copilot, I'm not seeing the logo of copilot not the guidance in outlook. I see it in the rest of the programs. any suggestions? Im using the new outlook
Hi Jonathan, I've been using your tips along with GTG and it's been fantastic, inbox zero is a real thing now, not just an illusion. So thank you! But I wanted to bring this up because I'm having an enormous hard time with following these tips using the Outlook app on my Android, maybe is not a thing on the iPhone. Here's my issue... I have no way to categorize an email in the app... I can flag, I can archive, but I can add a category to it.... Any ideas?
Yes, that’s an issue when you’re out and about on the smartphones. Can I tell you what I do? I don’t have email on my phone anymore…. But realise that isn’t helpful for everyone. Use your phone to read email if needed, but don’t use it for “email processing”.
If you categorize an email and use view by conversation threads, the whole conversation gets categorized, new emails in the conversation too. This makes the procedure useless, since you loose track of the email that corresponds to the specific action.
Problem with categories is that they do not show up on your moble Outlook app, therefore you lose everything you have sorted on your phone. Sub folders do show on the mobile app
Great video - but why do my sent emails show up in the category I have replied to? I have a rule already set that all sent emails go to the deleted box - any advice would be appreciated
I'm sorry Jonathan, what is the difference of doing it your way on categorizing emails and then archiving them, vs creating tons of folders for them? It appears to be the same thing in a different way.
I have multiple microsoft emails (one per business). When i create the To Do task by dragging the email into the Create Task area, those tasks aren't showing up in the To Do app integration when i click on the checkbox on the left side. Is it only looking at Tasks created for the primary email account? If so, is there a way to show all tasks for all emails in the To Do area?
Great video by the way, adopting as much as i can! Really hoping i can access all the tasks though in the To Do integration in outlook. And i am using the New Outlook, desktop app version though.
I am the IT Manager of microsoft 365, i am facing a problem that all external emails are landning in the junk box. I reduced the spam indicator but the issue is still remain. Any recommendation?
That sounds maybe like a whitelisting issue? In exchange you can either whitelist or blacklist. If you whitelist, _only_ email on the whitelist gets through, everything else is junked. Also, as Jonathan says, if you're relaying email through another service, you'll need the IP of that service's mail exchanger in your domain's SPF record. Use Microsoft's Message Header Analyser (google it) to check for authentication failures.
That sounds maybe like a whitelisting issue? In exchange you can either whitelist or blacklist. If you whitelist, only email on the whitelist gets through, everything else is junked. Also, as Jonathan says, if you're relaying email through another service, you'll need the IP of that service's mail exchanger in your domain's SPF record. Use Microsoft's Message Header Analyser (google it) to check for authentication failures.
That sounds maybe like a whitelisting issue? In exchange you can either whitelist or blacklist. If you whitelist, only email on the whitelist gets through, everything else is junked. Also, as Jonathan says, if you're relaying email through another service, you'll need the IP of that service's mail exchanger in your domain's SPF record.
Sorry, what I meant was that the current version of the iPad/iPhone app doesn’t give you the ability to search by categories in the same way you can with the web version.
I am using AOL main and Gmail, categories is not available for use with these, when I click on that account the tab goes away. Too bad as I do not want to change my email address.
These tips are helpful. I tried using categories but they don't work in Outlook App (mobile). I just noticed that you are now able to categorize email but the category do not show up in my favorites section.
This is probably the most useful outlook video I’ve ever watched. Thank you for your time creating it!
i was a Microsoft Support Engineer. Email templates are a must have. Highly under rated tip!
wow thank you for the heart. Love your content and always enthusiastic and positive. Most important always objective and provide cons when valid.
I’m heading up a team of different functions like marketing, product development, Q&S and need to keep the overview of a lot of different topics and projects. Thank you for the archiving and categorisation tip. I reorganised my entire mailbox today. The first time in years I have less than 50 mails inbox without having the feeling I miss something. Big thank you!!
Love it!
Wow, this is one of the best videos I have ever watched on RUclips.
This video is perfect. As a GTD enthusiast, I already implement some of the tips in the new Outlook on a daily basis. Others are really welcome. Thank you!
The archive and categorization have blown my mind! I love the GTD method but could never figure out how to make it work well with Outlook. THANK YOU!
Extraordinary advice! I appreciate your time creating this video. Completely identified with the statement "Outlook is not a task manager." The templates are a huge time saver. Thank you for this video.
I have implemented this in my workflow. - NOT to use the e-mail as my task list. and not to constantly trying to remember which folder I filed the email in is GREAT.
I wish it was just a little bit more easy to change date or other «properties» of tasks directly from outlook, since it is so easy to create a task, and change the tittle of the task from Outlook.
But as I see other people says here: A VERY usefull video! Thx!
Outlook Templates!!! OMG this is the single best feature I've seen in Outlook for a long time. I've been cutting and pasting for years. It's so intriguing, I might have to ignore the New Outlook flaws keeping me from switching, just to use this feature. There are lots of other great tips in this video as well. Thank you. P.S. - My email management, with its many gigabytes of stored emails in hundreds of folders, would be an ideal example of what not to do - although it works well for my transactional business. Your videos encourage me to do better!
Watched your video for the first time ever and I am your new subscriber. Keep creating.
In addition to the content which is always great, thanks for the cheerful delivery. Packaging makes a difference ! 😊
The best email management video I've seen. Had to drop a like and subscribe. Looking forward to watching your other videos
Thank you. 🙏
You are a lifesaver, thank you. I am just changing from apple systems to microsoft office - reluctantly. But slowly I can see the light and the possibilities here for effective and time saving work. Thank you so much
Hi new subber 🎉my favourite productivity tip is learn great productivity tips from people that share them with me - and love that they explain how and why they do it - unlike the ones at work when they just say you should do it like this 😂
I train employees on time management skills, this is a great resources! Thank you for putting the time & effort into this!
Quality information and delivery Johnathon, really clear thanks for sharing. I’m on it Monday.
The combination of archive and categorize is excellent, thank you, Jonathan.
That archive tip is really good, I started to use it today, and I made it through my morning emails quickly.
I would really like to be able to archive into favourites, but in my outlook on both web app or desktop the favourites do no show up underneath the archive header in the navigation bar. It makes it really hard to look for what is in your to-do archive category. So I think I will just have to use folders until I have access to that feature. (i have folder view turned on).
Hi, do you use a Mac? Or do you have the “classic” Outlook?
@@bearded365guy I switched from classic desktop to the webs app after watching your videos (onPC). Everything is the same apart from not being able to see the favourited folders in my archive. I have searched around on forums and others have this issue as well. I cannot search by category in the web version, but can do that in the desk top app. So am sort of using both!
Hello,
I hope everything is well. I have a question about the new Outlook app. Is there any way to back up emails, like creating PST or OST files?
Thank you for your help!
Deserves a follow like to see more. Love that co-pilot will have try it out.
Hey Jonathan, What a great video, thank you. I think the most useful is the No.1 Archive, trouble is now I need the discipline to use it and then build on to it with the next 11!
Watched multiple videos, and this is the one! Thanks. P.S.: funny too!
Well done Jonathan, I can start using some of these techniques today! Here's to a zero inbox!
Good luck!
@@bearded365guy It was a snap! It took a while because bad e-mail hygene is like dirty dishes....the mess piles up quick!
Fantastic tips! The only one I would add would be using search parameters in the Outlook Search box, just typing from:X, and/or subject:Y, and/or body:Z makes finding email a whole lot easier. You can use quotes to find an exact phrase. To find email you know you received between two dates received:>05/15/2024 AND received:
Thanks for supporting my channel David.
On my work desktop, I've got a very specific setup on Outlook Desktop (classic for lack of a better word). My work laptop I have turned on the NEW Outlook and while I like the modern look and a few of the features like Snooze etc mentioned here, the Rules I have defined on my desktop Outlook are pretty extensive - I have about 70 of them. Both the NEW Outlook I'm using on the laptop, as well as Outlook on the Web do not even SHOW a Rules menu option under Outlook settings. Nothing on the web when I search for this seems to point to a solution. I'm also the Global Admin of our company's 365 account, and I have not been able to get a single user that can pull up OWA and see the rules option show - it is simply missing. What direction would you suggest we go in - other than stick w/Outlook "classic" on the desktop?
I can’t get my head around why the rules would be in the old Outlook, but not in the new Outlook or OWA.
Great Tipps for mastering outlook in an much better way thnx Jonathan
According to TODO here is an additional Tip
u ave also the possibility to tag ur tasks if u name an task in todo like : clean up ur #room , then u can search for the tag room in the todo search bar.
best regards
Question: Is there a way to set up an automatic reply or forward once you have color categorized an email.? For example, if I categorize an email BLUE it will automatically forward to a specific email - can we do this?
Yes, with Quick Steps!
I need to reorganize my digital life . This will help a lot - thanks
Only problem I found when I put email in categories, is when I use the outlook app on my iPhone, doesnt seem to have the ability to show categories..?
The same on iPad
You are going to save me a ton of time and head fog! Thanks for these great tips.
Question: If I switch to categorizing and archiving emails as you suggest and creating tasks from emails that I need to act on, what would one use the flag email option for?
@@jenniferpizzirusso213 you wouldn’t. I think email flags are old news.
Great information - all relevant, quick and easy - and will be helpful. Thanks!
Great video. Outlook was launched in 1990 and still the best email app ever invented.
How can you add the categorie to the search function in the web based outlook, i noticed in your video that option wasn't available and I dont' see it on my version either also web based.
This has been so useful, thank you👍
When it comes to projects what’s the advantage of categorizing + archiving vs. moving to a folder? For Waiting For and Next Action labelling it makes sense, but I don’t see any advantage of using categories for projects… 🤔
For me, every email is in the same folder - Archive. I use categories to sort them. You can use folders, but I’ve seen so many people who have far too many folders - and they end up not knowing which folder an email is in.
@@bearded365guy Fair, I just don't see a material difference between sorting emails with categories or with folders. The end result is still a bunch of emails grouped together, regardless of what mechanism has done it. Not trying to be argumentative by the way, just genuinely trying to see what I'm missing! And also, thanks for this channel, fantastic content 🙏🏻😊
So my work deletes email after 90 days (inbox and archive). What I have found is this method is great for
@@ChrisEvideo , one advantage of categories is you can assign multiple ones to one different emails if you like. So, "Fiscal Planning" (in general) and "FY25 Strategy" could both have overlapping emails. Harder to do with folders.
@@ChrisEvideoI initially had the same thoughts. Two advantages of using categories are (1) you can attribute multiple categories to an e-mail, whilst you cannot put it in multiple folders, and (2) if e.g. a project is finished, but you want to keep the folder, this folder will always be visibleb with categories you can unfavourite it, so it won't be visible in the left pane anymore, but you can still find it if you need to.
OMG! I Love You! I can't wait to go to work tomorrow.😊
Great tips. I've implemented everything that I had not already done. One problem. I have two Microsoft 365 email accounts in New Outlook. I've set up the categories in the main one, but I can't see an easy way to copy the categories to the other. Is there a way to do that?
Might be a manual job….
made me get out of bed, 12.30am.. power up my work laptop and have a crack.. some great trips / hacks.. thanks
Great, but the greatest hack is to sleep!
Like archiving by categories feature, though looks like it only works with web version not desktop version.
You can still categorise and archive with old version of Outlook - you can favourite the categories in the old version though.
@@bearded365guy Archiving by categories is a great feature, but it is a no go for me until they add categories to Outlook mobile
I use categorize but archive only when i'm done with the e-mail (no more action needed)
Works great
I like all the tips that you provided, thank you Jonathan.
Excellent video. Thank you for compiling them. Its always confusing for me. I do categorize a lot and want to find another way.
Few queries on your suggestions.
1. Whats the point of Archiving? Why not just categorize. We are anyway going to use search for the emails. What's the drive to have a clean inbox?
2. How is categories different from folder structure?
Do you know how to filter by two categorizes (labels)? Or in the search section, to include the label in the filters
This was such a great video! Thank you so much!!! I am in the process of eliminating my million subfolders and only using archive. However, when I use categorize and then archive, they all end up in the archive folder and not nicely separated like your example shows. ie, the categories on the left w/the colored tags. I guess a work around would be to put the categories as subfolders under archive and manually move them to there?
@@sherrillstrassburg9157 Are you using Classic Outlook or the new one?
@@bearded365guy Ohhhh....I was using old Outlook! I turned on new and it is working just like yours! Yay!!! Thank you so much!
Hi, great video thanks. I have an issue in my Outlook app, I can't see the categories under my inbox on the left side, just like you did in minute 5:40 can you please advise?
Hi there,
Please could someone help with this issue?
I have ‘show as conversations on’
I have a folder that is “waiting on response” which I move emails from my mail inbox to there. When the person does reply to my email it comes into my main inbox which is good, but there previous email is still in my “waiting on response” folder.
I essentially want them replying to take the whole conversation out of that folder, and for the email to remain as just one email conversation!
I hope this makes sense, please let me know if anyone can help?
Thanks
Great video and very helpful! Also love your style! Thank you so much Jonathan! Quick question... I'm on a Mac and believe the interface looks a bit different on here. It doesn't look like you were using a Mac... would you say the tips/steps are fairly similar or do I need to also be watching people who are using a Mac? Thank you so much!
Useful ideas and I am a big fan of the GTD Methods, however, I receive a few hundred emails a day from lots of clients, internal product threads and over 80 projects. I often need to look up emails from specific clients or projects and I don't think the categories strategy works for this - can you please comment or suggest a way to make this fit into your process?
You don’t think a mix of categories and search would work?
@@bearded365guy Already apply outlook Rules and colours (categories) on Calendar items, plan mails into slots in calendar etc. the issue is the volume of emails across so many threads, if you did 4-5 projects and a few clients then your systems would be no issue. However, with volume, the search becomes just as hard to use. not the ":" function in the search is good. Any ideas on large volume and many projects system would be useful I have not found a good one yet
Bravo sir. Love your videos and GTD ideas.
Thank you Jonathan. This is going to make my work a lot easier! Just a pity that my pc outlook does not have the same features as the one on the web.
Awesome video!
Many thanks for the tips. I will try them out.
Categorizing and archiving emails will definitely help me, but what do you do when a project XX is completed? Do you delete it from your favourites? Do you rename that category?
Cheers!
You can remove the category from all emails. The emails will still be in your archive folder. You can then remove the category altogether or just from favourites.
Why can we not add .pst files for archiving with the new Outlook. With these .pst files under classic Outlook I have a good folder structure for very easy access and I have a lot of history which I constantly refer to. Until we can add .pst files (so far I do not see this is an option) I will not covert.
If you use Microsoft 365 you should move your PST files into an Online Archive which will still be visible like the PST, but they’re stored in the cloud.
@@bearded365guy how do i do this. not really tech savy
Thank you! and do you know how this works for shared email? because when I tried it only works on my personal one. Appreciate your answer!
I've been trying to do the same thing, but couldn't find a solution yet. Mails from shared mailboxes don't show up under the categories. Looking forward to an answer too, thanks.
Checked with Microsoft Support - it's currently not on the roadmap to add categories as favorites to shared mailboxes
Which then poses the question whether this is a good path to go down for now ...
HI Jonathan, with the new Microsoft 365 go to settings, general and then categories, but categories isn't listed in general... I searched but not luck. What am I doing wrong. Thanks, love your work.
I had imported by our IT people, from my old email (FirstClass), all the emails and folders into Outlook. I want to keep all these emails as I still need them. Is there a way to drag many folders into a new folder at once? Please and Thank you
i work for an employer that follows ridiculous gdpr rules and all emails are deleted automatically after 3 months, unless saved to a folder where you can change to policy. means if i archive anything it gets deleted after 3 months rather than kept. any tips on how to deal with this?
Just create your own "Archive" folder.
@@ArjenEeken but then pressing backspace on the email doesnt send it to that new archive folder, it sends it to the original and main archive folder. i would then have to drag every email into this folder manually, the archive button at the top of emails is also linked to the main archive folder, and apprently this is native and can't be changed. thanks for the suggestion though i'm still looking for a solution.
@@tomac1020 When you have the e-mail open, press V on your keyboard to move it to a folder. (press Shift+/ to see all keyboard shortcuts in case your version of Outlook uses a different key) A window with folders pops up. Name your own archive folder "1 Archive", and after you pressed "V", immediately press "1", then Enter. So all you have to do is press V, 1, Enter to move e-mails to your archive folder. I hope this helps.
Thanks, very informative. All tips are new to me
How long do you schedule your two daily email processing windows for?
For as long as it takes! The more you get into the swing, the less it takes. Sometimes it’s 30 mins, sometimes it’s 5 mins.
when I am in the advanced search in outlook 365, categories is not one of the ways I can see to search by. Is there a setting I need to change?
Thanks Jonathan love the video and Im trying to change / need to change and adapt some of your ideas. Any thoughts on how to tirage using these techniques when on mobile. Can filter or add categories?
Another thing that I have done now…. Which isn’t for everyone. I don’t have any email on my phone and I only use my laptop (Windows) to process email.
Great video! Thanks for sharing. I have a question about the "Follow Up" category. After you create a task for an email in that category, do you remove the Follow Up tag from the email? It seems like it could get confusing knowing which emails already have tasks and which still need them. I'm thinking of creating tasks directly from my inbox when I process emails without using the Follow Up tag. Do you see any potential issues with this approach? Thanks!
Your option works too. Removing the follow up category for me happens during my email processing. So I am looking at it twice per day.
@@bearded365guy That makes sense. Thanks again.
Thank you for your video. When l do as you say in the categories l have done everything you said but when l click on the archive to put them into my categories they do not go over they stay in the archive, if you what l mean. Can you help.
Subscribed after seeing this video thank you!
Some great tips especially getting rid of folders. Categorising and archiving with the advanced search function are my favs. Thank you,
Amazing Video
1st time I have ever seen a RUclips video that ACTUALLY IS VERY HELPFUL 🎉
Thanks for the tips 🌟
Especially liked the use of categories - already use in calendar but didn't think to use in
Thanks! I have given a second chance to new Outlook thanks to your videos. I used rules in old Outlook to categorize my emails (per project), 2 rules were needed: one for inbox and other one for sent emails. In new Outlook I could only create one rule so it does not work in the sent emails folder. Do you know how to fix it?
Having been in a team managing a shared inbox in old outlook. we had categories for status, and connected to dynamics, and many folders. How would you deal with that?
I was hoping to try the archive method - but categories are not available when using IMAP. I use that method as I want to be able to delete emails not only in outlooks but on the gmail servers as well. I found some old macros that appeared to allow the use of categories in outlook with IMAP but none that are still working. Is this possible?
Honestly, not sure.
Copilot also uses a HUGE amount of datacenter energy/water.
hi, my advanced search does not have the categories section, It was there a week ago, now it has gone missing. How do I get it back so I can search with a category?
same for me !
Thank you Jonathan for the great videos that you made - I feel they will change my working life completely! P.S. I have got mates who sound just like you - from Manchester? Bolton? 😂
😂 Nearby. I am a Yorkshire lad.
When you categorize by something like project name don't the categories proliferate?
For me, the nature of projects are that they’re temporary. Once the project is complete, I can go back and remove the category.
Thank you. This is a really helpful and useful video. One question I have is, what of these features are only available to business subscriptions and what are available to personal subscriptions as I believe these differ? Do you know?
That’s a very good question and I don’t honestly know the answer because I only work with business. My bet is that Outlook is the same with Personal and Business, but someone might correct me!
@@bearded365guy I believe that the personal subscriptions do not get the same functionality but I can't find anywhere that tells me the differences. I believe categories will not be in the personal subscriptions but I am not sure about the rest.
I paid my subscription to windows 365 and copilot, I'm not seeing the logo of copilot not the guidance in outlook. I see it in the rest of the programs. any suggestions? Im using the new outlook
Have you done a clip on M365 Universal Print?
It's actually on my list.
Great tips, thank you, I now need to work out how to archive the thousands of old messages I have in my inbox 😂
Great tips. I got rid of my folder a decade ago and never looked back.
Thank you very much!
Thank you fo this very useful video. It’s not possible to have categories folders in favorities ares , also in outlook desktop version?
Hi Jonathan, I've been using your tips along with GTG and it's been fantastic, inbox zero is a real thing now, not just an illusion. So thank you!
But I wanted to bring this up because I'm having an enormous hard time with following these tips using the Outlook app on my Android, maybe is not a thing on the iPhone. Here's my issue... I have no way to categorize an email in the app... I can flag, I can archive, but I can add a category to it.... Any ideas?
Yes, that’s an issue when you’re out and about on the smartphones. Can I tell you what I do? I don’t have email on my phone anymore…. But realise that isn’t helpful for everyone. Use your phone to read email if needed, but don’t use it for “email processing”.
Very useful, I hope more than video from you will be lauched.💓💓
If you categorize an email and use view by conversation threads, the whole conversation gets categorized, new emails in the conversation too. This makes the procedure useless, since you loose track of the email that corresponds to the specific action.
Problem with categories is that they do not show up on your moble Outlook app, therefore you lose everything you have sorted on your phone. Sub folders do show on the mobile app
Yes, that’s true. Although I don’t use Outlook on my phone anymore…. Wasted too much time replying to emails when I didn’t need to.
Yes you can, look for the small arrow
Great video - but why do my sent emails show up in the category I have replied to? I have a rule already set that all sent emails go to the deleted box - any advice would be appreciated
I'm sorry Jonathan, what is the difference of doing it your way on categorizing emails and then archiving them, vs creating tons of folders for them? It appears to be the same thing in a different way.
You will know which you have read and which you have not, the inbox will become a place of unread e-mails
Thanks Jonathan for the great tips, do you have these for Mac?
@@adnankordab I’ll be making more Macs videos very soon.
I have multiple microsoft emails (one per business). When i create the To Do task by dragging the email into the Create Task area, those tasks aren't showing up in the To Do app integration when i click on the checkbox on the left side. Is it only looking at Tasks created for the primary email account? If so, is there a way to show all tasks for all emails in the To Do area?
Great video by the way, adopting as much as i can! Really hoping i can access all the tasks though in the To Do integration in outlook. And i am using the New Outlook, desktop app version though.
I don’t think there is….. it will be the primary “signed in” account.
I am the IT Manager of microsoft 365, i am facing a problem that all external emails are landning in the junk box. I reduced the spam indicator but the issue is still remain. Any recommendation?
All external emails? Do you use an external spam provider or just M365?
That sounds maybe like a whitelisting issue? In exchange you can either whitelist or blacklist. If you whitelist, _only_ email on the whitelist gets through, everything else is junked. Also, as Jonathan says, if you're relaying email through another service, you'll need the IP of that service's mail exchanger in your domain's SPF record. Use Microsoft's Message Header Analyser (google it) to check for authentication failures.
That sounds maybe like a whitelisting issue? In exchange you can either whitelist or blacklist. If you whitelist, only email on the whitelist gets through, everything else is junked. Also, as Jonathan says, if you're relaying email through another service, you'll need the IP of that service's mail exchanger in your domain's SPF record. Use Microsoft's Message Header Analyser (google it) to check for authentication failures.
That sounds maybe like a whitelisting issue? In exchange you can either whitelist or blacklist. If you whitelist, only email on the whitelist gets through, everything else is junked. Also, as Jonathan says, if you're relaying email through another service, you'll need the IP of that service's mail exchanger in your domain's SPF record.
@@bearded365guy Just M365
I really like the idea of archiving and categorising emails but does that mean I can’t find emails on the iOS app as it’s an old version???
Using an iPad or iPhone? Can you not use the Outlook app?
Sorry, what I meant was that the current version of the iPad/iPhone app doesn’t give you the ability to search by categories in the same way you can with the web version.
I am using AOL main and Gmail, categories is not available for use with these, when I click on that account the tab goes away. Too bad as I do not want to change my email address.
Good video 👍 Category option is not available in advanced filter in web option and recent new outlook :(
When you complete the email, how to you mark the category complete so that it will be 'checked off' so to speak? Did he say? Thanks
@@cjay233 Daily and weekly review!
These tips are helpful. I tried using categories but they don't work in Outlook App (mobile). I just noticed that you are now able to categorize email but the category do not show up in my favorites section.
Hi, I seem to be missing a lot of these features in outlook - categories/my template/to do etc I cannot find these anywhere :((
Well done. Thank you.