The Rules of Outlook

If you receive a lot of emails each day, and you find it difficult to keep up on it all, then why not follow some rules. If you run a small business and get email from your clients on an on-going basis, why sort through your inbox and end up playing hide and seek.

Imagine that you only have 10 minutes to get something to a client, and you are now sorting through your inbox, sent mail, deleted mail, and god knows where else just to find the email. Many of us have been there and know the feeling – is sucks!

Did you know you can have Outlook do the sorting for you? For example, if you have a client that contacts you on an on-going basis, you can tell Outlook that when an email from that client shows up, simply move it to a folder with his name on it. No longer is it stuck in the inbox, along with the 3258 other emails from friends, other clients, etc. It goes straight into a folder with this client’s name. The next time you look at Outlook you will see this client’s folder bolded indicating there are some number of new emails.

Cool right?

Here’s how:

First create a new Folder with this person’s name. Then go to the Tools menu, choose Rules and Alerts. At the top left click New Rule. At this point you will have a selection of “Caned” rules. My suggestion is to click next and work from scratch. Take the time to look at the complete list and notice how powerful the options could be. This time we will want to go with the preselected item , which is when I receive a mail from someone. At the bottom of this screen you will have to indicate “who” it is from. Click People or Distribution list. At the bottom of the screen add their email address, then click next.

Here you indicate what to do with that new email, so click the link for Specified Folder, and select the correct folder, then click next twice. This is the last step. If you have emails from this person – anywhere in Outlook – and want them moved to this folder, select the check box that says Run the Rule on Messages you already have, otherwise just click Finish.

From now on, magic happens.

Enjoy and let me know what you think. Or, got Questions?