1. Turn off notifications
If you haven’t done so already- this has got to the number one distraction. It’s OK not to see every single one of your emails as it arrives. It will take your attention away from what you are working on, so whatever sound alert or pop-up window you have going at the moment get rid of it right now!
Mac users: Outlook > Preferences > Notifications and Sounds
Outlook 2010: File > Options > Mail > Message Arrival
2. Change your calendar view to suit your working day / week
Does your working day start at 9am and finish at 3pm? Do you want to your week to show Monday through to Friday, or Sunday to Saturday? You can easily adjust your default calendar view.
Mac users: Outlook > Preferences > Calendar > Work Schedule
Outlook 2010: File > Options > Calendar > Work Time
3. Get your emails organised
Set some rules for regular newsletters so these automatically feed into your reading folder.
Mac users: right click on the email in question > Rules > Create Rule
Outlook 2010: select the email in question > Rules > select ‘Always move messages from..’ and select the folder you want these moved to (i.e your new Reading folder).
4. Conversation view
Love it or hate it, but be aware that you can turn it on or off!
Mac users: Organise > Conversations
Outlook 2010: View > Tick or untick ‘Show as conversations’
5. Change the layout of the reading pane
As with most things this is a very personal choice, so check out the options and decide on the view that suits you best; or turn it off completely!
Mac users: Organise > Reading pane > choose from right, below and hidden.
Outlook 2010: View > Reading pane (and you also get the option to play around with your Navigation Pane too)
6. Make the most of your signature
Use each email as a way to communicate your brand and business by adding links, a logo and social media buttons to your signature. Simply cut and paste an appropriate size logo and images/buttons with embedded links. Make a few – short ones, long ones etc. depending on the context of your email.
Mac users: Open an email > Signature > Edit Signatures. You can also set Default Signatures.
Outlook 2010: Open an email > Signature > Signatures… > create new and you can also choose a different signature for replies or new message and set a default account.
7. Organise your contacts
Use categories to organise your contacts into groups such as clients, suppliers, personal etc., which will make it easier to export the data or look people up.
Mac users: Open up a contact > Categories > select a category or go to Edit categories and get these set up.
Outlook 2010: Open up a contact > Categories > select a category or go to All Categories to edit these.
We could go on but if you start with these 7 you’re well on your way, and you’ll have explored many useful settings areas you can go back and tweak further.
If you are using anything older than Office 2007, its time to upgrade!
If you aren’t using Outlook at the moment, but accessing your email via a web-mail interface with limited functionality its time to consider upgrading to an Exchange through a service like Office 365 (Exchange Online) account and getting this set up on a desktop client.
Not a fan of Outlook? Fair enough – you aren’t alone. You will probably prefer Google Apps for Business via a browser as opposed to desktop email client.
Let me know your favourite Outlook customisation and how you use it to stay organised.