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How to master Outlook

Posted on 11 Mar 2009 at 16:03

Tim Danton explains how to avoid becoming a slave to outlook and use it as the organisational tool it was meant to be.

This feature is for anyone who's finished a working day with the horrible sense of dissatisfaction that things didn't go to plan, that you've been ineffective. That you just didn't do all the things you wanted to.

Because we face a problem. Never mind the credit crunch, most of us are faced with a time crunch each and every working day. We're bombarded with phone calls, meetings, voicemails, bosses giving us urgent last-minute tasks, and that most demanding of mistresses: emails.

While technology has theoretically made dealing with our workload easier, many people feel the opposite is true. Indeed, a survey by webmail provider GMX showed that 41% of Britons felt pangs of guilt and anxiety due to the weight of email they receive.

It isn't within our power to remove email from the world - that Pandora's Box is wedged open - but you can take control. Technology should be an aid, and in this article we're going to show you how to master Outlook (or whatever personal email/organisational tool you use), so that you never have to leave work feeling ineffective again.

Read '10 steps to mastering Outlook'

Read the review of David Allen's 'Getting things done Outlook add-in'

Getting things done

Even the most disorganised person can be turned into someone less so by forcing them to use a daily to-do list, but according to productivity gurus such as David Allen (author of Getting Things Done, also known simply as GTD) and Sally McGhee (author of Take Control of Your Life!), that isn't enough. If there ever was a time when a daily list of tasks was practical then it's long-passed: our working days are too unpredictable.

To make sense of our workloads, Allen and McGhee argue we need more sophisticated thinking and smarter tools. We need a system that actually welcomes the unexpected, because the email that slips into your inbox demanding immediate attention could be what earns you your next promotion.

"The real power of GTD is having an extended mind, in that you're using the system as a placeholder for open loops and incomplete stuff you need to keep track of," Allen told us in an interview (see www.pcpro.co.uk/links/174email1 for the full transcript). "If you're trying to use your head for that then good luck."

Although everyone will use a slightly different system, this boils down to prioritisation. There are tasks you will have to do today; there are others that can only be done next Friday, when everyone's in the office; and there are others that are best left to tomorrow morning when you'll feel fresher than right now, slowly digesting your lunch.

We also need to stamp out time leeches. In the majority of cases, there's no good reason to read an email twice. Much of the time, you'll be able to deal with it immediately, and this is one of the central tenets behind GTD.

Empty your inbox

The first thing to consider is working with an empty inbox. This concept is heresy to some people: they'll protest that the 7,000 emails that sit in their inbox might look messy, but at least everything is there. A simple search, or filtering by subject or name, will take them to the information they need.