8 hacks to handle Outlook like a pro

11/07/2019

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Like a vast majority of Office Managers, you use Outlook on a daily basis, to handle your mails and incidentally, to respond to a bunch of idiots. You think you know everything about the tool? Make no mistake, there are several little tricks to make your life easier and help you save time. Let’s check this out together.

Take notice of mails from your boss, at one glance

Do mails from your boss require special attention? We understand. For this, you can configure Outlook so that so that the subjects of the mail from your boss, appear with the color of your choice. Go to Display=>Display settings and Conditional format and choose the color you want for your boss’s mails.

Make it seem that you’re burning the midnight oil

Want your colleagues to think that you’re extremely devoted and you’re burning the midnight oil? No issues, you can delay dispatching your mails and make it seem that you’re sending your mails at 11pm, while you’re actually checking out your series on Netflix. To do so, before sending your message, click on options, then suspend delivery. Then tick the box Don’t send until in Remittance option. Then fill in the date and hour of sending and that’s it.

Speak all languages

You work with foreign colleagues and you don’t understand their mails at all? Life is too short to learn a new language, stick to translating their mails. To do so, select the email part you wish to translate, right click and select translate. Then select the original language and the target language, you’re bilingual!

By pushy to get a response

Are you sending mails to 5,6 or more people at the same time, and you’re awaiting responses from each of them on precise points? Be pushy by tagging them, as you would do on Facebook. For this, type @ with their contact name. Their names will be highlighted in the message body and when they receive the message in their inbox, they’ll see the @ symbol, in the list of messages.

Make it so that one cuts you some slack

Email notifications aren’t good for your productivity. Most of the time, they are usually distracting and don’t let you focus. Indeed, even if you don’t immediately answer a mail, your subconscious is already thinking about how to respond. The simplest way: disable mail notifications and check your inbox 3 to 4 times every day. If it’s urgent, well then one should call you. To do so, click on Preferences, then personal settings and Notifications and sound. In Receipt of messages, select the notification settings you want for your new messages. One suggests to disable everything.

Make it so that one cuts you some slack part 2

You seem to actually receive conversations by mail as well? You know those mails with 125 people in CC, where people answer by leaving the 125 people in CC (including you), while you didn’t care right from the start? Stop this vicious circle. Instead of deleting each message gradually, conversation by conversation, click on Ignore mail. All the conversation messages will then be moved to the Deleted Elements folder, just like any other subsequent messages from the same conversation, which won’t even pass through your inbox.

Create contact lists

Do you send an email to your favorite colleagues to know where you’re going to eat, at 11:30 am sharp every day,? If you have many favorite colleagues, you might waste time adding them. Moreover, you might offend one of them, by inadvertently forgetting to add the latter. Things could be simpler: create a contact list. To do so, go to Home, click on New elements. Other elements, then Group of contacts. Then create your list and give it a little title.

Use keyboard shortcuts

You prefer keyboard rather than mouse? There are several keyboard shortcuts on Outlook, to help you use the tool quicker than your own shadow. Here are some of them: