Time Management using Microsoft Outlook

Automate Repetition

Quick Steps

Quick Steps allow you to quickly do repetitive processes such as create an email about a specific topic or categorise an email in a specific way.

You can access quick steps on the ‘Home’ ribbon. Click on ‘Create new’ or ‘Manage’

When creating a new quick step, name it, and then select the action that you want to perform.

There are a lot of actions you can do, so make sure to look through the list to understand the full capabilities.

You can even add multiple actions to each step.

If you create a new email or reply, then you can specify the recipients, subject and the body of the email.

You will see your new quick step in the home ribbon. Click on it to activate it, or manage them to change the order.

Quick Parts

If you find yourself entering the same things to your documents over and over, then you can save yourself considerable time and effort by utilising quick parts.

Smarter Email Handling

Rules

Rules allow you to automate tasks based on certain conditions within the email.

Go to the rules button on your ribbon, and you will be able to see all rules applied to that message, edit them or create a new rule.

Be careful with setting rules that move emails to folders, as it could make it easier to miss the email.

When you create a new rule, you can also choose to apply that rule to all old emails or not.

You can select the condition that the rule must hit to apply, such as being sent by a specific person or containing a keyword.

You can then select what the rule will do. This could be moving the email to a different folder, giving it a category or automatically replying.

Click Advanced options to get even more specific selections for what your rules can do.

Search

Use the search bar at the top of the page to search for specific keywords in your emails. The view will change to show all emails that it finds.

AI and Priorities

Copilot

If you have the full Copilot licence, then you will be able to use AI tools directly within outlook. These can help you to summarise, write and proofread your emails.

Summarise When reading any email, the summarise button at the top will create a short summary of the data within the email chain.

Draft

When writing or replying to an email, you can have copilot write the message for you with draft.

You can then tweak the output and offer suggestions for improvement. Always proofread your emails first before sending.

Coaching

If you have already written your email, then you can use coaching to have copilot proofread your email and offer suggestions to improve your communication.

Time Management

There are several time management techniques that you can use within outlook in order to help you organise your tasks.

2 Minute Rule If a task will take you 2 minutes to complete or draft a reply to, then you should do it immediately.

4 D’s

• - Do the task immediately.
• - Defer the task and do it later.
• - Delegate the task to a colleague.
• - Delete the email or don’t respond.