Outlook for Mac 2011 Best Practices: Set up Outlook to work for you

The Navigation Pane open on the left.

Your messages in Conversations view.

The Reading Pane on the right.

An Inbox for messages that you need to process (deal with). Your Inbox is for messages sent directly to you or that could be important for you to read. If you receive many messages that go back and forth among several different people, change to Conversations view. Otherwise, use the date arrangement (the default arrangement).

A single reference folder, under the Inbox, for all reference material that you might want to refer back to later. Nothing is automatically filed (i.e., with a rule) into this folder. Name this folder 1-Reference. (Adding the 1- will cause it to be the first item under the Inbox.) This folder is created under the Inbox so that you can collapse the Inbox and remove it from view.

Note  If this folder becomes too large (10,000 items or more), Outlook for Mac 2011 might become slow when switching to this folder.

A folder for career-related, private, and personal messages. Having a separate folder for personal and career-related information gives you the freedom to search for a message while someone is standing over your shoulder without worrying that a personally sensitive message will appear. Name this folder 2-Personal.

Managers might have a single folder for feedback on their employees called 3-Management.

A set of folders for Contact Group messages. All messages sent to Contact Groups (also known as list servers, or mailing lists, or distribution lists) don’t necessarily need to be read. This set of folders is the repository for all of the Contact Group messages that are not automatically delivered to your Inbox. Create a single, top-level folder under your Inbox called Contact Groups, and then create a subfolder for each topic of Contact Groups. Usually, one folder per Contact Group is enough, but if you are on several related Contact Groups, consider having all of the messages delivered to the same folder. Collapse the top-level Contact Group folder so that you aren’t distracted by the unread messages in the folders beneath it.

Note  If you need to read every message on a Contact Group, don’t create a folder for it. These messages should go directly to your Inbox.

To: Me  Any message sent directly to you or with you on the Cc line is sent to the Inbox and is not processed by other rules, even if it is also sent to a Contact Group.

Contact Groups  Any email message sent to a Contact Group is sent to a Contact Group folder — unless its keywords suggest that it's important to you, in which case it is sent to your Inbox. Multiple Contact Groups that are similar should use the same rule and be filed in the same folder. If you are a member of a Contact Group for which you need to read every message, don’t create a rule for it. Any messages that you must read should go directly into your Inbox.

The mail desktop alerts

The bouncing Outlook for Mac icon in the Dock

The sound that accompanies all of the above settings

Project (can include people)

Topic

Location or activity

On the Home tab, click Categorize, and then click Add New.

Each of your direct reports and your manager for items that you want to review the next time you meet (for example, a category named 1:1 Manager).

Each of the major locations or types of activities that you do, so that you can perform bulk actions (a useful part of managing your tasks), for example:

@Commute  for tasks that you can do on the way home from work.

@Email  for tasks that involve email messages, meetings, or any other aspect of Outlook for Mac 2011.

@Home  for tasks that you can do only at home.

@Meeting  for items that you need in order to prepare for a meeting.

@Offline  for tasks that take you away from the computer, such as making a copy of a document.

@Online  for tasks that you can accomplish only online or through a Web browser.

@Phone  for calls you have to make or receive.

@Read  for tasks that involve just reading — not responding. This category is useful for long messages or attachments that you need to read but cannot get to right away.

@Waiting  for messages or tasks for which you are awaiting a response, but there is no explicit next action for you.

Note  Using the @ symbol makes the categories stand out in your category list. Marking @ before certain categories helps to keep these categories at the top of your category list and reminds you of where you should be when you are performing this task (for example, @Phone is "at the phone").

Each important topic or project so that you can easily find messages on a given topic — especially if there is no word in the body or subject of the message that would make it appear in a search.

Important items that must be done today and cannot roll over to another day.

Note  You can apply multiple categories to a single item — as opposed to filing, where items can live in only one folder at a time. For example, an important message that you want to discuss with your manager before you respond might be categorized with both the @Email category and the 1:1 Manager category.