Stop Checking Your Inbox And Start Working With Outlook Hotmail Connector

A recent article in the national press accused office workers of being "lab rats", claiming that we are becoming addicted to e-mail in a desperate search for "pellets of social nourishment". Further evidence that appears to back up this accusation was announced when researchers discovered that, for each bit of new information we find, our brain releases a pleasure inducing chemical called dopamine.

What makes electronic messaging even more compelling is the anticipation: there's always the possibility that something important is waiting for us in our inboxes. It's a bit like waiting for the postman and frantically looking for that letter telling you that you are the lucky winner of one million pounds, but finding nothing other than leaflets about wide-fitting slippers and flyers for frozen food.

Perhaps it's no coincidence, then, that another survey shows that the average British office worker will find themselves compelled to scan their inbox at least 30 times an hour. So, if it's true that e-mail does tap into a basic human instinct to forage for new information, leading to an addiction to our inboxes, what can we do to stop ourselves from becoming obsessed with checking for new mail?

With Microsoft Outlook, you can manage all your e-mail accounts with ease and without the worry of ever missing that important mail message. Outlook Hotmail Connector provides a free solution for managing your Windows Live Hotmail e-mail, calendar, and contacts from within Outlook 200, and 2010.

MSN Hotmail is now Windows Live Hotmail, but with a host of new tools. For a start, it's still free; there's improved spam protection with safety bar, plus one-click spam tools; it comes with five times as much storage as MSN Hotmail (5 GB ); it's faster (you can read mail without reloading the page); and has customisable design, which means you can use themes to customise your interface.

Outlook Hotmail Connector allows you to view your Windows Live Hotmail e-mail in Outlook alongside your other e-mail accounts. By connecting and organising your e-mail in Outlook 2007, you can use tools such as Instant Search, and - importantly - there is the facility to access your information even when you're offline. And with Outlook Hotmail Connector and Outlook 2010, your Safe Sender List/Blocked Sender List/Safe Recipient Lists are synchronised between Outlook and Hotmail. Send/receive works like your other Outlook accounts with 2010 and your Hotmail account status appears in the Outlook status bar. Rules work with the Hotmail account in Outlook even if it's not your primary account.

How about viewing your Windows Live Hotmail contacts in Outlook? By organising your contacts in Outlook, you can take advantage of the advanced contact management features that Outlook offers such as the new Business Card View, Instant Search, and the ability to sort contacts by different criteria such as location or colour category. Additionally, any changes you make to contact information in Outlook will automatically be synchronised with the Web version in your Windows Live Hotmail account.

With the Outlook Hotmail Connector, you can also view your calendars from Windows Live Calendar in Microsoft Office Outlook, including other people's calendars that are shared with you. By managing your calendars in Outlook, you can take advantage of the time-management features that Outlook offers such as viewing multiple calendars in Outlook at the same time. With Outlook 2007 or 2010 and the Outlook Hotmail Connector, you can also view tasks and flagged messages beneath your appointments on the days in which they are due. And you can overlay multiple calendars. Additionally, any changes you make to your Windows Live Calendar calendars in Outlook are automatically synchronised with the Web version in your Windows Live Hotmail account.

There are a few basic requirements that are necessary in order to use the Microsoft Office Outlook Hotmail Connector. For example, you must have a Windows Live Hotmail account - you can either update your existing Hotmail account or create a new account; and you must be using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 or Microsoft Office Outlook 2010. So, there's really no excuse for any distractions - just leave that Send/Receive alone and get on with some work.