Wednesday Dec 28, 2011
Overwhelmed in Outlook 2010? You’re not alone..
Great Ways to Get & Stay Organized in Outlook 2010 (Part 2)
By Deanna Reynolds
Okay, so now that you have been applying the steps I mentioned in my first post, I am excited to share four additional steps that will help you save time in Outlook 2010. If you did not read the first post, the below steps will still help you, but feel free to read the first post here. Below you will see steps 4-7. Enjoy, and become more efficient in Outlook 2010.
4. Do a Quick Search: If, after applying categories, creating Rules and using Quick Steps you still have trouble finding Outlook 2010 items, remember to use the Quick Search bar at the top of each view. It searches as you type. You can enter a sender’s name or any term that might be in the items. If it’s there, Outlook’s Quick Search will find it. And, if just typing a word or phrase doesn’t narrow your search enough, just by clicking inside the Quick Search box grants you access to a Search contextual tab with all sorts of Search criteria fields you can use.
5. Activate Favorites in the Task Pane: It took me a while to realize this was available, but since I did, I’ll never look at the Navigation Pane the same way again. If you don’t currently see “Favorites” at the top of the Navigation Pane’s folder list, display the ribbon’s View tab. Then, from the Navigation Pane option, enable “Favorites.” Now, for any folder you view more often then others, right-click it and choose “Add to Favorites.” Now, you can switch between different folders way faster because you’re not searching through all of your folders just to get to the ones you need most often
6. Open your calendar (or other favorite view) in a separate window to stop switching back and forth: Make multi-tasking easier by right-clicking your calendar (or other view) in the Navigation Pane and choosing “Open in New Window” from the resulting context menu. Now, you can tile your Outlook windows side-by-side or be able to switch to another view without losing your place in your current view. Brilliant!
7. Close Outlook! I know this sounds counter-intuitive to productivity, but how many times do you get sidetracked from a task because that little message flashes on the lower-right corner of your screen. I know…it’s crazy. One of the best ways to get your productivity back is to close Outlook from time-to-time, just while you’re working on another project. Between projects, you can open Outlook again, check out the new arrivals and see what you have coming up. But, really, does it need to be open 24/7?
For more information on KeyStone's Outlook 2010 training course click here. To read part 1 to this post click here.
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