Administrative Sparkle Blog

A Little About Outlook Rule Feature
Microsoft Outlook has a feature called “Create Rule.”  This is a feature that directs specific email to go into a folder you have designated to hold that particular content.  It is simple to set up, easy to use, and organizes your incoming mail into its designated location.  It’s like having an assistant who brings your mail to you in prearranged piles, e.g., bills, clients, vendors, magazines (or in the case of your email, newsletters), junk, etc.  You get the picture.  This allows you to get straight to the most important mail first without being distracted by other mail that is not pressing.

I take care of bills right at the beginning of the month, so during that time I will have all my “bills” mail in one place to go through at that specific moment.  Magazines, periodicals, and informational literature I can grab and go through when I have a chance.  First thing in the morning I can go through “client” mail to see if there is anything that needs to be taken care and requires a prompt response.  It allows me to prioritize and take care of the important stuff first.

Another advantage is it keeps your desk clean.  For many, the inbox has become the way station.  When retrieving mail, use the four-step screening process.  1. handle: determine to keep or discard; 2. delegate: is this something that someone else can do; 3. file: if it is not urgent, but something you will read later; and 4. expedite: this leaves information that requires your immediate attention and action.  Make a decision about each piece of mail as soon as you read it.  Determine if you should 1. throw it out; 2. review later; 3. delegate; or 4. respond, take action.

Be discriminating with your mail and make a decision to do something with it.  It is possible that the “review later” pile could grow and become unmanageable.  You don’t want to have to rehandle mail over and over.  Be decisive.

How to Create a Rule
In your inbox, right click on an incoming message that you would like to designate to a folder.  Select “Create Rule.”  You will be asked “When I get e-mail with all of the selected conditions.”  Then select the checkbox(es) with a click of your mouse.  You will then be asked to “Do the following.”  You have the choice of selecting “Display in the New Item Alert Window,” “Play a selected sound,” or “Move the item to folder.”  There are other options and criteria you can set in the Advanced Options, but I wouldn’t suggest making it too complicated.  You merely want to direct related email to a location that you can filter through at the moment of your choosing.

The goal is clear your inbox to mail that requires your action.  Once you have taken action on it and it is completed you can move that folder into its assigned location or delete.  Basically your inbox becomes more of your task list and this is where you can use Screening and Decision processes.

Good luck in your efforts to streamline your email and share any tips and ideas that you may have.

It would be nice to access all my internet mail into Outlook. I don’t always have access to my computer where email is directly to my Outlook and have acquired a couple of onlien emails over the years. I use both Google’s Gmail and Yahoo, as well as the internet social sites. So having done a little bit of research, this is what I came up with.

Gmail
I would like to thank http://www.howtogeek.com/ for the directions on how to do this one. It was really easy! I keep an RSS Feed (more on RSS Feeds in a later post) for http://www.lifehacker.com/ that gives me lot of tips and tricks where the How To Geek writes articles. The directions are easy to follow and I was able to have my Gmail up and running on my Outlook the first time out of the box without any complications. Follow this link to set up IMAP in Outlook 2007.

Yahoo
I use the Yahoo basic email and have not upgraded to Yahoo’s Mail Plus. So… since I don’t pay for Yahoo, one of the features that I’m unable to do is have my Outlook access my Yahoo accounts. I am sure there are other ways to get around it and hijack it through some complicated means, which I did make an attempt. I downloaded the tool and proceeded to following the directions to no avail.

I’ve got quite a bit of tech in me and can usually figure something out with time, but when I am given directions and even tools to download, I guess I’m just looking for it to work straight up. Many tips and tricks will get you from Point A to Point B without having to investigate further why it isn’t working after all. Besides, when you are given a process through one of these tips out there, ideally the complications have been identified and fixed before it gets to the reader or solutions are identified so the reader knows what to look for.

Anyway, I did locate a tool to at least keep me informed of email I have storing up in my various inboxes without having to go into each account. This tool is super rocking cool! This handy-dandy tool is by http://www.digsby.com/ that I received through my http://www.lifehacker.com/ RSS Feed. Here are some features I found helpful:

• I am able to view all my information and activities through this little gadget without having to have each account open in a web browser and logged in.
• I get pop-up balloons for the various activities that are going on in my Yahoo, Gmail, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn accounts.
• I can also carry on all my IMs in one window that tabs for each person or activity. No more multiple open windows for more than one IM or more than one account.
• I just happen to come across this, but there is also a log for your conversations that the program automatically stores. So if there is a conversation that has information that I need to refer to at a later date, I can access it through the log. Neat!
• A side window appears when you place your cursor over each account and let’s you know what information or activity is in there. This let’s me know if I need to go into the account for new information, which you can access by clicking on one of the links provided in the side window at the top of the activity entries and your web browser will activate and bring up to your account.  Easy-peasy.

The Outlook will take several posts to cover because there really is a lot to it if you maximize the capacity of its value in organizing your work and life. Now I use the Outlook 2007, so when giving directions, that is the version I will be referring to. Also keep in mind that not all versions are created equal, so the version you have may not have some of the features that I refer to.

Mail. This is one that is a must have even if you use nothing else. I am an organization freak and like to keep all my information in their respective folders. Personally, I have a preference for a nice clean and relatively empty inbox, but that’s me. This way when I want to go back to view information or communication, I can wire down my search as to its location. I can be pretty brutal deleting junk and email that is resolved and need not be referenced. However, I do find that I have certain folders that I don’t plan on getting rid of information, and that folder may become cumbersome.

I keep folders for each person, newspaper, magazine, blog, RSS Feed, and client I receive communication from. Many times these are kept in a group folder. For example, you could have category folders such as family, clients, health & fitness, forums, education, etc. I would then place the individual files within the category files. Now this is me. It’s kind of like a filing cabinet idea. I know where everyone is and I can generally locate exactly what I’m looking for.

Now if you are like me and can collect a lot of information, you will need to access another useful tool in order to quickly locate an item when time is of the essence. In Tools, just click on Instant Search and/or Expand the Query Builder. Seek and ye shall find.

Archive. There are two choices here. 1. Archive information you’re not working with or 2. completely forgo creating category and individual folders altogether and go direct to archive. You have your Instant Search tool. Really, for some just getting it out of the inbox serves its purpose by keeping only new incoming email and emails that need action seen. Once you’ve completed what is required of that email, you can send it straight into archive and it’s off your desktop, so to speak, and keeps your focus on the “now.”

Either way, you have managed your email, the clutter, and your sanity.