"Outlook's standard settings could not be any worse" says Judy Gleeson, MVP Outlook. Judy's been in the Time Management training and coaching field for more than 15 years and laments about how bad the settings are. She says, "In 2003 they could not be further away from good time management practices. By changing these few settings Outlook 2003 users can make considerable improvements to their productivity."
In this tutorial you will learn how to fix crucial Outlook settings that underpin quality practices in the way you use Outlook.
As a Microsoft Outlook enthusiast, Judy works with teams and individuals to help them gain utmost benefit from having Outlook. Her aim for each client is to make it a true "application", not just the email software they must use. By understanding their business processes, she works collaboratively to uncover the relevant power of Outlook, then teaches and motivates people to use it effectively.
Business Productivity Advisor, Microsoft.
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To get the most from Outlook you need the Advanced Toolbar turned on. This toolbar has the most useful and powerful functions in all versions of Outlook.
The buttons available on the toolbar dynamically change depending on which folder you are showing. For example, if you are showing a Calendar folder, you will see Calendar related buttons in the toolbars.
INSTRUCTIONS
Click View on the Menu bar. Then Toolbars. Check the box beside Advanced to turn it on. Make sure you also have the Standard Toolbar checked as you need it as well.
Figure 1 shows 2 layers of toolbars. The top toolbar which has the New button in it's left corner is the Standard Toolbar. The toolbar below is the Advanced Toolbar.
Figure 1
If you need to focus on your goals, projects, crucial tasks, seeing your Inbox as soon as you start Outlook is a distraction. Any book on time management you pick up would suggest that you first review your plan for the day, then compare the new emails with what you intended to attend to. It's time management 101, the absolute basics. So make a plan and work towards it. This setting will help you get started.
Starting in your Inbox and reacting to its contents can cause you to lose sight of your key objectives, waste time jumping from one reactive situation to another and missing deadlines.
INSTRUCTIONS
On the Menu bar, click the Tools button. Then Options. Then the tab Other. On this tab you can see an Advanced Options button. Click it.
The top setting on the page will now say "Start up in this Folder". Use the Browse button to set it to start in your Calendar.
Each Outlook folder has Views you can use to see data in various forms. Now that you have the Advanced Toolbar turned on (Setting 1), you will see which View you are in at all times.
There is a window on the Advanced Toolbar that is called the Current View Window. Here are some examples of what the Current View Window may say in various Folders:
when in the Inbox, it will most likely say "Messages".
when in the Calendar it will most likely say "Day/Week/Month"
when in the Contacts it will most likely say "Address Cards"
INSTRUCTIONS
The Current View Window has a drop down arrow at it's right edge. This is how you change to one of the available Views in each Folder.
Try a few different Views of each Folder to experiment with what you can see. For example, go to your Contacts Folder and change to the Phone List View. You'll now see the Contacts in a table. You can choose Sort by any column, Group by any column and even make your own Fields. (Instructions to do this are in later Tutorials).
Do you like to receive a reminder before each meeting? Whether or not you do, you should adjust the Outlook settings for reminders to suit your preferred work practices. The standard reminder happens 15 minutes before each appointment or meeting. Here's how to change the period or turn it off.
INSTRUCTIONS
On the Menu bar, click Tools, then Options. On the screen you will see a setting for Default Reminder beside the Calendar icon.
You can turn the default reminder off by unchecking the box. Or you can change it from 15 minutes to a longer or shorter time that suits you. Or, as shown in this screenshot, turn the default reminder off altogther.
Until you change the standard settings in Outlook 2003, every interruption that Outlook could pop up at you, every "ding" it could make when something happens is turned on, maximising your distractions. Our MVP Outlook, Judy Gleeson, recommends that you turn off the default interruptions for Tasks and Emails and use reminders selectively for emails through the Rules Wizard (see later Tutorial on this topic).
INSTRUCTIONS
From the Menu bar, click Tools, Options, Email Options, Advanced Email Options.
On this screen you can de-select the "When new items arrive in my Inbox..... " Play A Sound setting.
In the tutorial for Setting 5 we mentioned turning off reminders for Tasks. Using Tasks enables you to
plan your work
prioritise your work
schedule your work
manage small to medium size projects
track work in progress
report on work in progress
keep records of completed work
We do not condone using Reminders on Tasks. Using Tasks with Reminders on leads to a situation where what you do is driven by interruptions (otherwise known as reminders). Using Reminders to manage your Tasks means that you attend to each Task when the Reminder interrupts you. That's why we do not recommend an interruption driven work management process.
INSTRUCTIONS
From the Menu bar click Tools, Options, Task Options. The turn off the bottom setting "Set reminders on tasks with due dates"
The default setting for the menus in Outlook 2003 is such that more than half the choices are hidden. There are two ways to make the full menu drop down. Those will be explained here. We will also explain how to change the setting so that all menu choices are immediately shown.
INSTRUCTIONS
To make the menus drop down you can wait a while and it will drop down. Or you can click the double headed chevron that appears at the false bottom of the menu bar.
To fix the setting so that all menu choices are always shown, click View on the Menu Bar at top of screen, then Toolbars | Customise | Options Tab | Always show full menus.
