5 Outlook Tricks to Organise Your Inbox and Take Back Control

We’ve all been there. You have a mountain of tasks to complete, but you can’t even look past your inbox. A cluttered inbox is overwhelming and can send your productivity flying off a cliff. Instead of the most important tasks staring you right in the face, you’re scrolling through message after message, trying to make sense of the mess.

If you’re scrolling emails on your phone, the effects of a messy inbox can be even more overwhelming. If you’re avoiding tackling your inbox, you’re not alone. The average worker has around 651 unread emails in their inbox, which is the kind of anxiety-inducing situation I help business owners to avoid.

If you’re ready to tackle your inbox and reclaim your life, I have a few tips and tricks that will help. Some of these little life hacks are seriously life-changing.

Upgrade your folders

When creating email folders, a lot of people organise them by topic or client. If your goal is to be more productive, you need to start organising them by priority. Create folders for “urgent”, “someday”, and “follow-up” to instantly upgrade your inbox.

When a complex but important email lands, instead of derailing your whole day and trying to tackle it there and then, you pop it in the “urgent” folder. This gives you an instant to-do list to smash through once you have the free time.

If you’re working with a VA, this is an excellent way to organise workload without adding to it.

Play your emails

You’re the king or queen of multi-tasking, but don’t you just wish you had a personal assistant by your side at all times? Well, with Cortana you can achieve something pretty similar. The “Play Your Emails” integration in Outlook for iOS allows you to ask Cortana to read your emails to you.

You can prepare for the day ahead and get up to speed on the treadmill, during your commute (when commutes return) or while you’re getting ready in the morning.

Create inbox rules

I know that you’re thinking… this all sounds great, but can’t I just click and button and someone does it for me? We’re not quite there with computers just yet, but inbox rules bring us pretty close to inbox automation bliss.

Inbox rules are an easy way to automate organisation and help you reclaim precious minutes in the day. 

Find time to focus

When you want to focus on a task, email notifications can be a serious distraction. Instead of getting sucked into the endless hamster wheel of checking and rechecking your emails, make the most of Outlook’s “Do Not Disturb” mode. This will silence notifications so you can focus on the task at hand.

Use the scheduling assistant

We’ve all been there. You’re trying to organise a time for a meeting. You email them and suggest a time, the person counters with another time. You respond and suggest a different day, they’re not free that day, can you do the next day?

It can take a week of back and forth to organise a meeting that only lasts 15 minutes. To avoid this, use the scheduling assistant to share an interactive calendar with the participants. They will be able to drag and drop the meeting time to show their availability. When it turns green, you know you’re good to go!

Need help achieving inbox nirvana? I can help. Get in touch to organise a FREE 20-minute chat to find out how I can support your business.