Outlook’s Calendar Reminders feature helps users keep their calendars in order so they don’t miss any crucial appointments or mailbox not updating on IMAP meetings. This is a simple feature that is perfect for any professional who is constantly in and out of meetings every day. If possible, keep your personal and business tasks in one place. Keeping one list reduces the number of places that you need to look for what needs to be done.

• If you find that you are repeatedly applying the same categories and flags, create a new Quick Step that flags, categorizes, and files.
• Check Sync Contact Groups if you have groups in the contact list and would like to sync members of that group.
• Even if you already have only one list, use categories to sort your personal from business tasks and manage your list effectively.
• Then you can read them all at one time without distraction.

Delete it

Corporate-level messages with important news (for example, from the CEO) and messages from your IT department about server downtime should not go into a folder. Messages to a Contact Group that only occasionally contain useful or interesting content, regardless of frequency, should have a rule and a folder. It’s a best practice to have a central repository for your messages, so that you can refer to them after you've "dealt" with them. The Navigation Pane folder list should be reserved for folders you use often.

Which Contact Groups should go to a folder instead of my Inbox?

This guide represents our advice on how to get the most out of Outlook. A few core scenarios are covered FixTechGuide login issue guide to help you leverage Outlook into your information management needs. Go to File → Office Account → Update Options → Update Now. Jon Harris is a Technical writer with experience working for cybersecurity and tech related companies. He has a bachelor's degree in computer science and likes to read, hike, and fish in his spare time.

Daily review: Managing your time and tasks

If you just want to remember a few related tasks, list them in the body of the task. If you have more than 20 items in your Inbox, process the last week of messages and then select the remaining messages and move them to your 1-Reference folder. As time goes on, you will likely receive more and more messages.

When to create a Contact Group in Outlook

If you have a busy calendar, this might be the only way you can get dedicated time to do your job. Reading a longer column of narrow text is easier than reading a shorter, wider section of text. This is because it’s easier to move your eyes down than left to right over long distances, which can cause you to move your head and neck and lead to fatigue. It’s better to have the Reading Pane on, so that you don't have to open each message to read its contents.



Search folders can be especially useful when you need to gather information that is saved in different folders— for example, when preparing for a quarterly meeting. Set your Contact Group folders to auto archive every six months or more frequently if they are time sensitive— for example, a Contact Group for finding carpool rides should be archived daily. Sentences prefaced with the Microsoft 365 logo are references to other FixTechGuide login issue guide Microsoft 365 products, such as Microsoft OneNote, and Microsoft SharePoint Server. Sentences that mention AutoArchive and Outlook Data Files (.pst) are marked with an icon of a folder and file . If your organization doesn’t deploy these products or features, these sentences can be disregarded without impacting the overall document and work flow.

View the calendar and inbox side by side

Looking at the whole picture of your time and your tasks will help you to prioritize important work over less urgent tasks. It will help you to make it clear to others what can and can’t be realistically expected of you to accomplish. Reviewing your past week and upcoming week is also a useful way to help you prepare for a weekly meeting with your manager or help you prepare a status email message. As part of good time management, you need time to deal with your messages, manage your appointments and tasks, and reflect on what you have to do. You can also add a category to help you see at a glance where your next action is.

What if I have retention policies or an Exchange Server Online Archive?

Some people try to use the read and unread states to indicate whether a message is new or a reference item. Inevitably, messages will be reread, and the mental tax of figuring out what you need to do will be paid again. A far more efficient Inbox plan is to go through your messages and decide what to do with each one. Spend 20 minutes in the morning going through your messages, and then turn your attention to doing a daily review of your task list.