How To Manage Email Messages in Microsoft Outlook Using Rules
There is a way to manage email using Microsoft Outlook Mail Folders and Rules, but it is not always as obvious and easy as one would think. Here are some tips to help you organise your mail.
- Rules
Use Outlook Rules to automatically categorise all emails and receive and move automated notifications to subfolders. You can also automatically move them from your inbox to dedicated subfolders- begin with a master subfolder that will be the root for the emails naming it “Automatic Archive”, for example.
- Categories
Instead of using only folders to organise your emails, create a category for each project and apply it to any emails that do not apply to any of your rules. You can apply more than one category to an email; categories can even be applied to tasks and calendar items.
- Quick steps
With Quick Steps, you can quickly perform actions such as marking an email as read and then moving it to an Archive folder in one click. This creates a simple workflow and email management.
- Flags
Flag emails to remind yourself to check if an action has been done. Apply flags to both sent and received emails. Each day you can skim through the items in the Tasks section of Outlook for an overview of what’s left to do.
- Search
Make use of the Outlook Search feature to find emails instead of overusing sub-folders to organise emails. The Search toolbar displayed at the top of Outlook includes everything you need to easily and quickly search your emails. Simply click on the text box to activate the search functions.