Color Coding Your Outlook Calendar

Why?

If you have outlined some goals for yourself, such as how many hours you’d like to spend in a week doing “x” (volunteering, exercising, billable hours, etc.). then color coding your calendar items is a great way to see where you are out of alignment with your goals.  For example, if you’ve decided to spend four hours each week volunteering, and you’ve coded the volunteer time on your calendar as blue, a quick glance at a weekly or monthly view for all the “blue” will give you a sense of whether or not you’re reaching your goals in that area.


How?

First, in a calendar view, go to the “Edit” menu and click on “Labels.”  Jump to the bottom and click on “Edit Labels.”  Here you can change Microsoft’s defaults to the words that work best for you.  Resist the urge to color-code everything if it’s not an activity you care about measuring.  It’s ok to have some color and let everything else be white.  To color code a calendar event or appointment, open it, and the “label” field should be sort of in the center, on the right side of the window.  Here you can select the appropriate color.


Inserting an Email into a Task or Calendar Item:

Why?

Let’s say someone sends you an email with the details of a function you are attending.  If you insert that email, or the contents of it, into your calendar appointment for that function, you’ll have handy all the pertinent information about the appointment inside the appointment itself.


How?

Double click on the appointment in your calendar to open it.  On the menu bar at the top select “Insert,” then “item.”  By default, your inbox is highlighted in the top window and all of your emails appear in the bottom window.  Scroll to the email that contains the information and click on it.  On the right side of this dialog box it reads, “Insert As: Text Only, Attachment, Shortcut.”  If you select “text only,” the body of the email will get inserted into the big white space in the lower half of the appointment.  If you select “Attachment,” a little envelope picture will appear in the big white space in the lower half of the appointment, which you can then click on, and the original message appears in email format, so you can still reply or forward if you need to.  But note, if you choose to insert the attachment, many handheld devices will be unable to display or open this attachment, so if you need to read it on your handheld, like on the way to the appointment, than be sure to select “Text Only.”  Selecting “shortcut” will give you a shortcut to find the email in your inbox or another folder, as long as you haven’t deleted it.  I don’t recommend using this option because I want you to delete emails when you have everything you need from them.


Cool Outlook Feature:  Post in this Folder

Why?

Let’s say you’re having a communication with someone over email about some subject, and you’ve created a folder for this topic where you file these communications so you have a record.  But then at some point, one of you picks up the phone and you bring some issues to a conclusion verbally.  Now your email record is incomplete.  “Post to this Folder” is designed to accommodate exactly this situation.


How?

In any window in Outlook, clicking on the “New” button will bring a new item for that window.  For example, in the email window, clicking on “New” will bring up a new email.  However, in every Outlook window, there is a little drop-down arrow right beside the “New” button.  If you click on this drop down arrow, you will see a list of your choices for a “new” item.  First, click on the folder that contains the history of the email communication you want to add to.  Then click on the drop down arrow beside the “New” button, and select “Post in this Folder.”  Here you can add a subject and then the content of the conversation.  When you click “post,” it will appear in the email list above the most recent message you’ve moved to that folder.


Notes in Outlook:

Why?

Notes are a great place to keep lists.  Keep a note with a list for the grocery store, the hardware store, the office supply store…lists of movies to rent or books to read or music to download.  Anytime you think of something that goes on one of these lists, just jot it in there.  This is especially handy if you are syncing with a handheld device.  If you find yourself driving by the grocery store with 20 minutes to spare, you won’t have to pass because your grocery list is on the refrigerator.


How?

Click on the “Notes” folder or icon, depending on the view you’re using.  Click “New.”  The first line of the note will become the title, the only thing that will be visible when you close the Note.  Notes are just about the only feature of Outlook that doesn’t have “Save & Close.”  Clicking on the “x” in the top right corner of the Note will save and close it.  You can also color-code your note by right-clicking on it and selecting “color.”


Calendar Views in Outlook:  Work Week

Why?

In Outlook, the “Week” view shows what’s called a “block calendar” and the “Work Week” view shows what’s called a “linear calendar.”  Linear calendars may take some getting used to but they are much more useful.  In a block calendar, all you can see is the events for each day listed at the top of the block.  In a linear calendar, you can see your events for the day listed in relation to the time of day that they occur.  If you are trying to make an appointment, this view helps you to see at a glance when you have openings in your calendar.


How?

First, decide if you want your “work week” view to show all seven days of the week, or only some days.  Change this option by clicking on the “Tools” drop-down menu, then select “Options.”  Beside “Calendar” click on “Calendar Options.”  At the top of the dialog box, click in the box of the days you want to appear in your “work week” view.  If you are self-employed, I suggest that you have all seven days show up.  If you work a nine-to-five job and use your Outlook only when you’re at work, you probably only need to see the five business days of the week.  Then in your “Calendar” view, click on the button at the top that says “Work Week.”  See the next tip for more on this view.


Change the days shown in Outlook’s “Work Week” Calendar View

Why?

The default work week, if you have all seven days selected, is currently showing you, from left to right, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Let’s say it’s Thursday.  If most of the week is gone, it’s not very helpful to be viewing Sunday through Wednesday, because you are likely looking ahead in your planning and would prefer to see next week.  Well, with this feature, you can actually see from one to eight days in the linear view, and they can be any combination of this week’s days and last week’s or next week’s.


How?

Click on the “Calendar” folder or icon to bring up the calendar view if you aren’t already there.  Go to the little monthly view that shows up somewhere in your “Calendar” view (where this is depends on what version of Outlook you’re using and how you have your preferences set up, but it’s usually in the top left corner or the top right corner).  Let’s say it’s Thursday the 7th, and you want to see in your linear view, Thursday the 7th through Wednesday the 13th.  This is a little tricky, but click on the “7” in that little monthly view, hold down your mouse, and drag it across the “8” and “9,” and then down over “10, 11, 12 and 13.”  It takes a little manipulation but when you’ve got just those numbers highlighted, let go of your mouse button and the 7th through the 13th will now appear in your linear view.


Email DOESN’T squeeze into your day like phone calls do

Why?

Most people treat email as one of those things that you just have to accommodate in your day, like the phone ringing or a co-worker stopping by your desk for an impromptu meeting.  Here’s a newsflash:  if email is one of your primary means of communication, you will NEVER get through your inbox by treating email this way.  This is why most people have hundreds or thousands of emails in their inbox.  Most have been at least glanced at, but not really dealt with, because you’re always pouncing on the “new messages.”  If you are one of these people, I suggest that you are spending too much time being reactive, and not enough time being proactive.  Finding the balance between being responsive, but not reactive, will give you a big boost to your productivity.


How?

Set aside time each day, perhaps an hour in the morning, and an hour in the afternoon, to read, respond, and dispatch (delete or file) email.  The rest of the time, keep it closed (there are of course, some exceptions to this such as if you are in a highly reactive profession and email is the necessary communication tool).


Calendar vs. Tasks:

Why?

Why shouldn’t I put my to-do list, or at least some of it, on my calendar?  Everyone is tempted to put the things they really want to do today, but don’t necessarily have to do today, on today’s calendar.  And by the way, when I say “HAVE to do today,” I mean “if it doesn’t get done today then I can no longer do it.”  Many things feel like you “have” to do them today, but in reality you could still do them tomorrow if they didn’t get done today.  So resist the urge to put these on your calendar because if you don’t get them done today, you could forget to move them to tomorrow and then they will slip through the cracks and never get done.  Sometimes this may not matter so much but sometimes this could become a catastrophe.


How?

Only put something on today’s calendar if you can no longer do it tomorrow, like meetings and appointments (these are usually things that involve other people).  Anything else goes on my Task List in Outlook, with an appropriate due date and reminder, if necessary.  


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