Time and Task Management with Microsoft® Outlook® · Q: Manage too many emails and account gets locked because mailbox too large/over limit A: Create an archive folder using a .PST

Time and Task Management with Microsoft® Outlook®

Thursday, March 9th1:00 – 2:00 p.m. EST

PresentersLisa HansonCTT+, MCT, Master MOS, Sr. Technology Advisor, NRECA

Habib Ahmadi Education & Training Specialist, NRECA

Microsoft® Outlook®

Next Event in the Series

• Boosting Writing Skills• Giving and Creating Better Presentations with Microsoft PowerPoint

• Microsoft Excel (please specify topic of interest)• Creating Dashboards• Microsoft OneNote for Beginners • Other

Your Comments

• I don’t know what I don’t know about Outlook, advanced tools, bells and whistles

• Every day I use Calendar and Mail (Inbox) and some tasks or contacts

• I am self‐taught, not sure if I know everything in Outlook• I use Outlook every day, I’m comfortable using Outlook but I’d like to learn more

Learning Objectives

• Applying time management and organizational techniques • Utilizing the tools in Outlook • Creating a priorities list• Customizing the To Do bar and use the Peek• Understanding Outlook's Quick Parts • Bonus: Integration between Outlook and OneNote.

6

What is “Time Management?”

How to Increase productivity

80/20 Rule Video

Avoid Distractions/Interruptions

• Do not disturb

• Use caution

• Proceed

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”

‐ H. Jackson Brown Jr.

“Of course, they did not receive 500 emails per day!” – Lisa

Live Demonstration

Outlook Settings: Stop Distractions

Set the following in File | Options:• Mail | Message arrival: Limit to just one alert type• Mail | Always check spelling before sending• Calendar | uncheck “Default Reminders”• Tasks | Set Quick Click flag• Advanced | Start Outlook in this folder: CALENDAR (or Tasks or Outlook Today)

• Quick Access Toolbar | Add Outlook Today button

Time Management Tip: Start Planning

• Begin each day reviewing goals, tasks and calendar• End each day reviewing task and calendar• Use Notes for the long, mid & short term goals• Create a “Weekly Compass1” using a Calendar event• Use Outlook Today to view all items for today• Plan for up to 2hr of interruptions per day• Plan to check email three times per day only• Don’t use Inbox as your To Do list

Weekly Compass & Planning Time

Big Planning with Outlook Notes

• Use Outlook Notes to capture three types of BIG goals• Things to accomplish this year• Things to accomplish this month• Things to accomplish the week, include estimated time to accomplish

• This is not your detailed task list, it is a daily reminder• REVIEW THESE NOTES EVERY DAY• Tip: in Windows 10 you can capture these goals using Windows Sticky Notes

Yearly

Monthly

Weekly

Custom Color Categories

• Go to Inbox | Home tab

• Click Categorize button

• Select All Categories• Create New• Rename Existing• Change Colors

• Categories available throughout Outlook

Apply Color Category to an Item

• Right‐click item (message, task, meeting, contact)• Click “Categorize”• Select the custom color category• You can then view by category!

To Do Bar, Peek, Custom Views

Setup the Views

To Do Bar• View Tab• Click To Do Bar• Select to display

• Calendar• Tasks• People

• Right‐click task area to setup custom sort

Custom Views for Any Folder• View Tab• View Settings

• Set Columns• Set Group By • Set Sort• Set Filter

Custom Views To Do Bar

View Settings

Calendar Tips

• Set two time zones, if needed• Change time increments to 1‐hour or 15‐mins• Turn off default reminder times• Display Tasks at bottom of calendar• Drag email messages onto the calendar to “schedule” time to complete the required actions

• Open other users’ calendar in a separate window• Ensure free/busy is correctly set• Add color categories to calendar items

The Calendar

Other Users’ Calendars on Mobile

• In Safari and Chrome, choose Use Desktop View• This will provide access to other users’ calendars

Quick Steps vs. Rules

• Rules are great, but they automatically run on new messages, you could miss an email

• Quick Steps only run when you choose to run them• Both are custom actions that you setup• Both will save you tons of time

Create a Quick Step

• Let Outlook Quick Steps flag, categorize, reply, move or delete message(s) for you

• Inbox | Home tab | Quick Steps | Create New Quick Step

• Then select the action(s) to perform• To use the Quick Step, just click to select from the Ribbon

Create Quick Steps

• Inbox | Home tab | Quick Steps | Create New Quick Step

Apply Quick Step

• Select message(s)• Click the Quick Step in the Ribbon

Quick Parts – Reuse Content

• Reuse text, formatting and objects• No need to save email templates or even drafts • Create Quick Parts in both Outlook and Word• To Create: Select the content | Insert | Quick Part | Save Selection as Quick Part

• To Use: Insert | Quick Part | Click the Quick Part and it will be inserted into the body of the email, contact, calendar item or task

• NOTE: perform same actions in MS Word!

Create Quick Parts

Use a Quick Part

• Place cursor in body of message, task, contact or calendar item

• Insert tab on Ribbon

• Quick Part button

• Click to insert desired Quick Part content

Outlook and OneNote

• Send email with file attachments to OneNote • Send meeting notes and attendee info to OneNote, then take minutes and record actions in OneNote

• Send Task items to OneNote• Create a OneNote task and send it to Outlook for tracking by due date on the To Do Bar

• Print any Outlook item to OneNote

Your Questions Answered

Q: How do I manage other user’s calendars from mobile devices. A: Use the web browsers on mobile devices, select “Request Desktop Site” from the export / more buttons


Q: Getting the to Do bar to work for meA: Right‐click the To Do bar and build a custom view. Sort by Due Date and Collapse the Groups

Q: Getting others to use Tasks instead of their calendar (Which makes them unavailable) A: To view tasks on calendar, go to View | Daily Task List | set to Normal

Q: Correctly setting the Show As field in calendar itemsA: Right‐click the calendar item, select Show As, select Free, Busy, Working Elsewhere or Tentative


• Q: How to use Rules

• A: Use Rules to automatically and regularly process a set of actions. For example, move all email from a mailing list into an archive folder or deleted items

Inbox | Home | Rules | Create Rules

Rules Dialog Boxes


Q: Out of the Office repliesA: Let Outlook send auto‐replies when you are away. Click File | Automatic Replies Then set dates & time to schedule the auto repliesNext, enter message text for internal and external sendersFinally, click OK to setup and schedule auto replies


Q: Email Signatures A: Let Outlook append a unique email signature to the end of every message. Setup internal, external, personal and professional signatures.

File | Options | Mail | Signatures

Switch Between Email Signatures

• Right click the signature are of email message

• Select a different signature

Your Questions AnsweredQ: Group CalendarsA: New feature that is dependent on MS Exchange. Based on organizational hierarchy, an entire team can share calendars. Select the calendar(s) to display and select the day, week or timeline views


Q: Group EmailsA: To quickly send emails to a group, first create an outlook Contact Group. People |New Contact Group | Add email addressesThen add addresses from Global Address List, from People folder (Contact), manually type in new addresses or paste a copied list of email addressesUse this new group to quickly send one email to all members of the group


Q: Bouncing from emails to tasks and still maintain focus on priorities. A: Outlook Tips:

• Use Outlook PEEK feature to quickly view tasks by priority or even due date

• Use the THREE NOTE time management tip to keep focused on the “big picture” goals

• Customize the TO DO BAR to keep tasks visible when working in Inbox


Q: Using categories consistently and how to categorize and file, much like a desk filing system A: Set up custom category names and colors. Use these categories to label email, tasks, meetings and contacts.A: Quickly apply custom categories and even move items or create new items using custom Quick Steps

Q: Help with quick navigation and formatting. A: Leveraging Peek to quickly view content in other folders without clicking to navigate to that folder. A: Customizing the Views and Window Layouts, for example turning on the To Do Bar and setting a custom view for Task List items


Q: Newer versions of Outlook make it difficult to see new messages A: Turn off conversations view. This will display all message in order of receipt time.

Q: How do I keep emails in a group and look back to what was sent and replied to? A: Turn ON the Conversations View and include subfolders. This display will group messages with the same subject line (conversation), even messages in different folders


Q: Manage too many emails and account gets locked because mailbox too large/over limit A: Create an archive folder using a .PST or Online Folder

Q: Managing influx of email messages.A: Mailbox Management Tips / 4D Rule

• Set time to work through email. Do not read email as it arrives. • Set rule to move all CC message to specific folder• Set rule to move listserv/mail list message to specific folder• Delete message that you know are no needed• Forward message to another to delegate• Drag message to Task folder to defer action to later date


Q: Keeping up with filing email messages into archive. A: Leverage Quick Steps or Rules to move the message for you

Q: Manage JUNK email. A: Right‐click message | set as junk email


Q: How to setup an EMAIL MAIL MERGE using Outlook Contact Groups: A: You cannot email merge to an Outlook Contact Group (formerly Distribution List). You can email to a list of Outlook contacts, entries in a Word table or entries in an Excel spreadsheet.

Email Mail Merge

Start in Word | Mailings or Outlook People (Contacts) | Mail Merge

Resourceshttp://www.creativitypost.com/create/work_smarter_not_harder_21_time_management_tips_to_hack_productivity

http://www.prioritymanagement.com/nsw/resources/resource.php?resource_id=151

http://www.creativitypost.com/create/work_smarter_not_harder_21_time_management_tips_to_hack_productivity

https://zapier.com/blog/best‐task‐management‐method

https://zapier.com/blog/to‐do‐app‐alternatives/

http://gettingthingsdone.com/

http://www.dalecarnegie.com/5‐strategies‐to‐get‐ahead‐of‐your‐growing‐workload‐in‐the‐digital‐age/

http://www.dalecarnegie.com/3‐tips‐to‐cut‐online‐distractions‐at‐work/

https://www.lynda.com/Office‐tutorials/Time‐Management‐Outlook‐2016‐Calendar‐Tasks/417090‐2.html

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/20‐quick‐tips‐for‐better‐time‐management.html

http://gettingthingsdone.com/gtd‐times/

https://support.office.com/en‐us/article/Outlook‐Best‐Practices‐How‐Harry‐got‐organized‐eaca7cd4‐707c‐475a‐b308‐0cfb1c24686d

Thank you!

Documents

Time and Task Management with Microsoft® Outlook® · Q: Manage too many emails and account gets locked because mailbox too large/over limit A: Create an archive folder using a .PST