A Clean Inbox with Quick Steps and Search Folders

I recently challenged myself to change how I manage my inbox. Previously, I would leave messages in my inbox and rely on tools like Search to find what I was looking for.

I believed this was a good way to go because:

1. I didn’t have to fish through folders trying to find what I was looking for
2. I usually had a rough idea of WHEN I received a message and this let me scroll around to that date and the refine with search
3. Working in an organization that relied heavily on year based strategic planning it allowed me to get a timeline glimpse of what I was working on at what times of the year and plan for the following year.

This left me with an enormous inbox (in my previous job 30 thousand messages in my inbox). Among other problems I was starting to experience performance issues when using Outlook.

Starting a new job at a new company I decided it was a great time to re-evaluate how I manage my inbox. This coupled with the fact that here at itgroove we use Yammer for the majority of our internal communications. This drastically reshapes the flow of email (in a very positive way).

My goal was: As often as possible have ZERO messages in my inbox.

In completing this process I’ve become a huge fan of two features in Outlook and I wanted to take an opportunity to share. I’ve seen these features everyday but never really considered how I could make use of them.

Search Folders

If you haven’t tried them before Search Folders are AWESOME. They add an easy way to find messages from a specific sender or that match a certain set of criteria. This lets you sort your mail by logical divisions such as projects and then also find messages by a second dimension, let’s say all invoices from a specific company.

Creating a Search Folder is easy:

1. Go to the Folder tab on the ribbon
   
2. Click New Search Folder
3. Setup your criteria and click Ok.
   

As an added bonus once you’ve setup the folder add it to your favorites in Outlook so that it shows up right at the top of your sidebar.

1. Right click on the folder in the left hand sidebar
2. Choose Show in Favorites
   

Quick Steps

Another feature I had always seen but never used. Quick Steps (among other things) allow you to easily file your email with just one click. Once you have your folders setup create a quick step for the most commonly used ones. For example Client Tasks.

1. On the Home tab of the ribbon in the Quick Steps area click Create New.
2. Give it a name and choose the actions you want for you Quick Step (in our example Move to Folder).

You can get really fancy with the Quick Steps and create chains of actions.

It’s the little details that always make or break it and in this case these two small but helpful features in Outlook have really helped me in my email metamorphosis.