Outlook Tips & Tricks to Take Control of your Inbox

In this step-by-step tutorial, learn 10 strategies that I used while I worked as a Program Manager at Microsoft to stay on top of my inbox. I frequently received over 250 - 300 emails every single day. Over the years at Microsoft, I picked up several techniques that helped me control and manage my inbox. This allowed me to focus on just the email that mattered.

We start with a simple strategy of getting a text message (SMS / MMS) when a very important email lands in your inbox. Never again miss an urgent message that needs your attention.

Next, I show you how to conditionally format your messages, so messages visually stand out that matter to you.

Third, we look at the To or CC rule. If you're not on the To or CC line, the message likely isn't very important. With this rule, only messages where you're on the to or cc line stay in your inbox.

Fourth, we group messages by conversation, so threads consume less space in your inbox.

Fifth, we look at how to flag messages for follow-up. As a bonus, follow-up messages show up in To Do, where you can add tasks to your My Day view. This helps you focus on tasks that matter.

Along with setting your own follow-up flags, we also look at how to set up flags on outgoing messages, so you don't forget when you request things of others. This serves as a good tracking system to ensure you're getting responses to your requests.

Next, we look at how to set up meetings directly from an email thread. This maintains the context, like who was included in the message and the body of the message. This makes it even easier and faster to set up meetings.

We then switch our attention to reducing disruptions by turning off sounds, notifications, and replying to messages in a new window. Lastly, we look at how to use the ignore button to mute threads that don't need your attention.

By following these strategies, I was able to focus on the emails and work that mattered, helping make me more effective at my job at Microsoft.

📚 RESOURCES

⌚ TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Introduction
00:33 Text message (SMS / MMS) rule
02:58 Conditional formatting
05:02 To or CC rule
07:44 Conversation view
08:28 Flag messages for follow up
10:37 Keep track of requests of others
12:01 Respond with meeting
12:44 Remove distractions
13:32 Separate compose window
14:39 Ignore messages
15:17 Wrap up

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[KevinStratvert]

Let me know if you learn any new strategies in this video! These tips helped me so much when I worked at Microsoft. I wish I had something like this when I first started working because I honestly drowned in my excessive email. Here are timestamps if you want to jump around:
⌚ Timestamps
0:00 Introduction
0:33 Text message (SMS / MMS) rule
2:58 Conditional formatting
5:02 To or CC rule
7:44 Conversation view
8:28 Flag messages for follow up
10:37 Keep track of requests of others
12:01 Respond with meeting
12:44 Remove distractions
13:32 Separate compose window
14:39 Ignore messages
15:17 Wrap up

[vaishnavidas]

Never thought I was underutilising Outlook features so much. Thanks, Kevin! You’re the best!

[mavericksantiago]

One of the few reasons why I started to watch your channel is
1. You jump straight into the problem and do not waste any time
2. I like your way of covering subjects which is super comprehensive..

Keep up the good work on your vedios. Thank you kevin

[vickysmith]

I've been an Outlook user for years and learned many new strategies from your video that will greatly assist with some ongoing issues I've had with tracking the volume of emails I receive every day. THANK YOU!

[jasonluong]

The irony has not escaped me remembering how excited I was when I got an email message during my introduction to email back in the early AOL days. “You got mail!” would get me giddy.

[laureng]

Your videos are incredible. Every time I click on one thinking I won't learn anything new you prove me COMPLETELY wrong. Insanely good content. Thank you.

[rise]

How much of a nerd am I that I like watching these videos, yes, to learn, but also because I enjoy the little jokes he adds throughout? 😅

[matthewdouglastrueman]

Kevin - not only are you a man that makes cookies and beautiful content, but videos like this make my heart warm and fuzzy. I love this and cannot believe I didn't know about some of these features.

[sharonscott]

Loved these tips! I already use the rules feature in Outlook, but I didn’t know that emails could be ‘colorized’ to make them stand out - awesome 🤩

[WockToPoland]

I'm the administrator of an accounting firm, and I'm going to show them these tips tomorrow. Thanks man, I love your channel. I watch every vid.

[lkuppersmith]

Kevin, first of all, a big high five on your success at launching on your own and growing your YouTube presence! Outstanding growth in such a short time. Very helpful tips, and I think you may subscribe to the practice of any empty Inbox when you flagged and Archived. For many of us that is a scary workflow change. Formally moving an email to ToDo-Task and archiving is something most don't embrace including me. Would enjoy seeing a follow up video highlighting your workflow day to day, week to week.

[waltercomas]

I’m definitely going to use a couple of your tips, like “view as conversation” and “ignore” to begin with. Thank you very much for this video, really useful one!! And I like your channel a lot!

[julielaraenelson]

Fantastic video. Recently started helping my events manager organize and one place is her email. This will be a tremendous help! Believe it or not, the conversation view will be an INSTANT life saver for her!!! Something so simple!!! Thank you!

[lyl]

I thought I was already the Outlook guru, but still learned new tricks from this video. Thank you! 👍🙏🏻

[KarlWitsman]

I love your use of humor in the emails.

[shortblack]

I didn’t realise flagged emails go to ‘To Do’ which is very handy. And I have now setup meaningful rules which I had known about but your video was the push I needed to get it done. Thank you Kevin.

[annedecena]

Thank you sooo much for this video, Kevin! This is truly helpful especially to us working in the corporate world. I've been watching all of your tutorials (Outlook, MS Teams, especially Excel) since the day I bumped into your channel! Please keep uploading contents - hope you never get tired doing so! Btw, you deserve more views! :-)

[wraithhuntersofohio]

I’m new to Outlook, so all of these tips and tricks will help! I love these tutorials! Thank you Kevin. Keep up the great work.

[terrywilliamson]

I didn’t know emails could have different fonts, and I knew about categories but hadn’t thought about flagging with no date then using a category of “waiting for response” to keep track of what I’m waiting on - love that!!

[robbierobot]

These tips are exceedingly helpful and forwarding email to text is superlative! This is a potential "life-saver" in preventing a potentially missed email from a valuable client or vendor. 💰 Thank you for the tips and the quality, professional presentation.