If you want to see the tasks that you have pushed out for next week on Monday, arrange by Start Date. If you want to see tasks on the day that they are due, arrange by Due Date. Favorites give visibility fix MFA prompts not working to folders that are otherwise buried in your mail folder list. Search folders are useful for gathering information from across different mail and RSS folders.

• He has a bachelor's degree in computer science and likes to read, hike, and fish in his spare time.
• For example, many messages can be responded to in two minutes or less.
• If you receive many messages that go back and forth among several different people, change to Conversations view.
• The default arrangement for tasks is by Due Date, but you might consider changing the arrangement to Start Date, depending upon how you use flags.
• I'm decent but certainly not an expert - so I figure before I actually lead a training I should brush up.
• And as projects change, update your Quick Steps so that they are only the things you really do.
• Sometimes you can’t find a message by only searching in your reference folder alone — it could be a message that you sent or it could have been misfiled.

Delete it

Corporate-level messages with important news (for example, from the CEO) and messages from your IT department about server downtime should not go into a folder. Messages to a Contact Group that only occasionally contain useful or interesting content, regardless of frequency, should have a rule and a folder. It’s a best practice to have a central repository for your messages, so that you can refer to them after you've "dealt" with them. The Navigation Pane folder list should be reserved for folders you use often.

Which Contact Groups should go to a folder instead of my Inbox?

This guide represents our advice on how to get the most out of Outlook. A few core scenarios are covered reset cached Exchange mode to help you leverage Outlook into your information management needs. Go to File → Office Account → Update Options → Update Now. Jon Harris is a Technical writer with experience working for cybersecurity and tech related companies. He has a bachelor's degree in computer science and likes to read, hike, and fish in his spare time.

Daily review: Managing your time and tasks

By making your Inbox the central place for receiving important messages, you can go through it with the confidence that each item is something you need to deal with. You categorize many of your messages before you file them to help you find them later. To change these settings, select the File button, select Options, and then select Mail.

When to create a Contact Group in Outlook

To select a meeting time, select a time suggestion in the Room Finder pane in the Suggested times section, or pick a time on the free/busy grid. Each additional person you invite to a meeting adds to the complexity of the meeting, making it harder to control. On the other hand, if a decision needs to be made, make sure all of the key stakeholders are present, or the meeting will be a waste of time and resources. After you process your messages, you can tackle your task list. This is when you respond to those messages that you have deferred.



Search folders can be especially useful when you need to gather information that is saved in different folders — for example, when preparing for a quarterly meeting. Set your Contact Group folders to auto archive every six months or more frequently if they are time sensitive — for example, a Contact Group for finding carpool rides should be archived daily. Sentences prefaced with the Microsoft 365 logo are references to other FixTechGuide Outlook repair tutorial Microsoft 365 products, such as Microsoft OneNote, and Microsoft SharePoint Server. Sentences that mention AutoArchive and Outlook Data Files (.pst) are marked with an icon of a folder and file . If your organization doesn’t deploy these products or features, these sentences can be disregarded without impacting the overall document and work flow.



Even if you already have only one list, use categories to sort your personal from business tasks and manage your list effectively. Your personal tasks will be stored on your company's Exchange Server and could be visible to your IT department, so only put appropriate personal tasks on your list. Your Inbox is a place that other people can manipulate; what you put in your reference folder is strictly up to you.



Some people try to use the read and unread states to indicate whether a message is new or a reference item. Inevitably, messages will be reread, and the mental tax of figuring out what you need to do will be paid again. A far more efficient Inbox plan is to go through your messages and decide what to do with each one. Spend 20 minutes in the morning going through your messages, and then turn your attention to doing a daily review of your task list.