Tag: outlook

You’re obviously an organized person. I can tell just by looking at you! That hair, the way you click the mouse, that focused glaze on your eyes … Just kidding! The real way I can tell you are organized is not through your hacked webcam (they are watching), but by the fact you are reading Best Time Tools.

So, like all organized people, you probably run the risk of over-organizing – spending more time creating, updating and checking off lists that organization itself is costing you time. Of course, not making lists isn’t an option! I, for one, get the cold sweats if I don’t open one of my lists on Outlook within the first few minutes of having the computer on. Well, sometimes, any way :-).

There is a balance – so today we’re going to share with you a simple method for using Microsoft Outlook to ensure you Get Things Done, and maintain the balance of power between the evil List god and real life. Thanks to Tim, one of the web’s finest GTD thinkers, for the tips.

Currency

Outlook is huge and addictive. One of the dangers of its sheer size and the number of places you can put things is that you lose track of, well, everything. This means that little bits more often are always preferable to big bits, less often. Review your tasks daily, tick off completed tasks and add new ones. Incidentally, I never use the percentage complete function except to indicate that something is 100% complete. This function is better for reporting to superiors than to yourself.

Categories

You can assign a category to tasks in Outlook by highlighting an item after it has been created and going to Edit-Category, selecting the category(ies) that it belongs to.

Keep your categories simple, if you want to save time on your organization. One idea we’ve heard is to use:

ACTION – Work related items requiring action

AGENDA – Work related topics to think about and discuss at meetings

HOME – Personal tasks

SOMEDAY – Ideas for the future. Not urgent, but you don’t want to forget them.

Create a new category in the Master List (Edit-Categories-Master Category List button), if you don’t want to use the default ones in Outlook.

Of course, you may choose to create your categories differently (perhaps according to the department that a task belongs to, or using an Urgent/Non-urgent scheme). The key to saving time with them, though, is to try to have as few as possible.

Finding your tasks again

Use the ‘Customize Current View’ option on the left hand panel in Outlook’s Task view (click Tasks on the bottom left menu)

to sort your tasks according to priority. Choose to:

• Group by categories (ascending)
• Sort by Due Date (descending), and also by Subject (ascending)
• Fields – use Priority, Subject, Notes, Created, Due Date, Complete

As we mentioned, Outlook is huge – so we’ll have to get into the Calendar and Notes functions another day!