Small Business Today Magazine MAR 2016 AMERICAN SERVICES | Page 21

EDITORIAL FEATURE

Getting Organized

My Favorite Outlook Email Tips – Part 2

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By Holly Uverity, CPO® of Office Organizers

emember, no organizing tip will work unless you do
it on a regular, routine basis until it becomes a habit; be sure to take time each day or week to organize
and process your emails. Spending just a few minutes each day on your Inbox will save you countless
hours later. In a previous column, I wrote about
four of my favorite Outlook email tips; here are another four that you can use to manage that Inbox.

1. Open Outlook in Outlook Today. When you open Outlook,
does it automatically open in Mail? If you’re like most people,
the answer is yes but it should be no. Starting your day looking
at your emails means it’s just that much easier for you to be distracted by someone else’s agenda. It’s much smarter and more
productive to open Outlook in ‘Outlook Today’. Outlook Today
is a big picture view of what’s coming up for you. It shows you
the next week’s appointments and tasks all in one place.
•

To make Outlook Today your default opening screen, go
to the Navigation Pane (the left hand side of your screen
where your folders are) and click on Mailbox - Your Name.
If you are not connected to a server, it might say ‘Outlook
Data File’ but it’s the option directly above your Inbox. The
screen that pops up is Outlook Today. Find the option on
that page that says ‘Customize Outlook Today’ and click it;
on that page, check the box that says ‘When Starting, Go
Directly to Outlook Today’. On that same page, there are
options for customizing what you see and I encourage you
to take a few minutes and play with the customizations
until you find the ones you like the best. Be sure to hit
‘Save Changes’ and the next time you open Outlook, it will
open in Outlook Today.

2. Turn off incoming email alerts. By allowing the transparent window to pop up each time you receive an email, you are
working reactively and not proactively. It’s a mistake to allow
the receipt of an email to drag you off task. Turning off the alert
may seem disconcerting; you may feel as if you’re missing something but you’re not. All your emails are exactly where they’ve
always been but now YOU choose when to look at them.
•

To turn off the email alerts, click on the File tab in the upper left hand corner (it’s in yellow). Next click on ‘Options’
near the bottom; then click on ‘Mail’. That opens up your

Options for Mail window and about in the middle, you’ll
see a section called ‘Message Arrival’. It’s in that section
that you choose what Outlook does when you get a new
message so uncheck ‘Play a Sound’ and ‘Display Desktop
Alert’. Click OK and close the window and now you will
no longer see the transparent windows pop up when your
email arrives.
3. Unsubscribe instead of deleting. If you are spending a lot
of time deleting emails, consciously look at what you’re deleting. This is really simple but often overlooked. If you’re always
deleting and never reading, just unsubscribe. Period! Fewer
emails in your Inbox translates to less time spent processing
them.
4. Save attachments and emails in your Documents Library. Did you know you can save your emails along with your
other documents in your Documents Library? Let’s assume
you have a folder for Project ABC in your email folder list in
Outlook AND one in your Documents Library. You probably
save the emails in the Outlook folder and the other documents
in the Documents Library folder. If you save all your information in the Documents Library, everything will be together and
you’ll only have one place to look for any one thing. Saving
emails in the Documents Library will also keep the size of your
Outlook file smaller which will make your IT department happy. While you’re working on any project, it makes sense to keep
the emails in Outlook. Once any project is over, get in the habit
of clearing out the email folder and saving all the emails in the
Documents Library.
•

To save an email, including its attachments, that is outside
of Outlook, click on ‘Save As’ from the email itself and navigate to where you want it saved. Once it’s saved in another
folder, you can safely delete from Outlook, but don’t worry;
if you need it back in Outlook, it’s easy to move it back. SBT

Office Organizers is The Entrepreneur’s Organizer.