Microsoft Corp. Best Practices for Outlook 2010

Outlook 2010 is a tool to help you manage your email messages, calendar, contacts, and tasks. As such, it is at the center of not only your communications but also your time management. To get the most out of Outlook 2010, we suggest a few basic principles:

• Reduce the number of places where you read messages. Filter all of the messages that you need to read into one place your Inbox by using a series of rules.
• Let some messages pass by. Use rules to send the messages that you need to read into your Inbox, and then let the rest flow untouched into your Contact Group, or distribution list, folders (Contact Group folders). You dont need to and in high volume situations probably cant read every message sent to you. Only the important ones should go to your Inbox. Remaining messages can be useful to keep in case you become involved on an issue, for example.
• Reduce the number of places where you manually file messages. Reduce the mental tax of filing by relying on search to locate messages.
• Process your messages by using the Four Ds. When reading your messages, decide whether to:
  
• • Delete it.
  • Do it (respond or file for reference).
  • Delegate it (forward).
  • Defer it (using categories and flags) for a second review in your task list.
• Reduce your to-do list to one list. Use a single to-do list and a single calendar to manage what you need to do.
  
• Work in batches. Use categories to help you group similar tasks together.
  
• Use good judgment when sending messages. Follow the dos and donts of writing great messages.
  
• Review your calendar and tasks regularly.
  

Even if you don't use all of the best practices described here, following only a few will improve your experience with Outlook 2010.

Call a meeting when:

• A new group of people is working together for the first time.
  
• More than 10 relatively long messages have gone back and forth among several people.
  
• Discussion, brainstorming, or collaboration is needed.
  
• Call a meeting when it is the most efficient way to move forward, and be clear what the objective of the meeting is before you call the meeting.
  

Only invite people who need to be involved. 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.

Choose a time when everyone can meet by looking at the invitees free/busy information in Calendar. Use the Scheduling Assistant to view all meeting attendees availability.

The free/busy grid shows the availability of attendees. A green vertical line represents the start of the meeting. A red vertical line represents the end of the meeting.

To view the Scheduling Assistant when composing a meeting request, do the following:

• On the Meeting tab, in the Show group, click Scheduling Assistant.
  

The Room Finder pane contains suggested times for the best time for your meeting (when most attendees are available). To select a meeting time, click a time suggestion in the Room Finder pane in the Suggested times section, or pick a time on the free/busy grid.

Note If the Room Finder pane doesnt appear, on the Meeting tab, in the Options group, click Room Finder.

If you find you are regularly creating meetings with the same group of people, create a group in the Navigation Pane so that you can more easily see peoples free-busy information. These groups can also include rooms, which can make it easier to find an available room to meet in.

To create a Calendar Group, do the following:

• In Calendar, on the Home tab, in the Manage Calendars group, click Calendar Groups, and then click Create New Calendar Group.
  

Meet in person if:

• It is the first time this group will be working together.
  
• Non-electronic items will be shown or passed around.
  
• It is a brainstorming meeting.
  
• It is a collaboration-intensive meeting.
  
• Not everyone has a phone, Office Live Meeting, or the proper electronic meeting software and equipment.
  

Otherwise, consider using Live Meeting or meeting by phone.

Tip If you are traveling to the meeting location, schedule travel time on your calendar before and after the meeting.

In preparing for a meeting, often there are documents to be shared before or during the meeting.

If all of the attendees are connected to your corporate network, put the documents on a SharePoint site or on a shared network drive.

If any of the attendees are external from your company (for example, a vendor who does not have access to your intranet), consider using a SharePoint Workspace.

Dont send attachments in your meeting requests.

• @Meeting is your central spot for agenda items.
  

• Create a single task, mark it with the @Meeting category, and set the Start Date or Due Date to the date of your meeting. As the meeting date approaches and discussion points come up, add comments, bullets, and thoughts to the task as they occur to you. This task will become your agenda for the meeting.

  After the meeting, mark the task complete, and create new tasks for your action items.
  

• If you want to discuss a set of messages or just one message

• If you have a message you want to discuss at a meeting, flag that message for the day of the meeting and mark it with the @Meeting category.

  If you have more than three messages to discuss, don't flag each one because they will pollute your task list. Instead, create a new task with the name of the meeting; right-click and drag the messages to the task (copying as you go). Mark this task with the @Meeting category.

• If you want more room for your thoughts...

If you are collaborating with other people or just need more room for your thoughts, consider using a OneNote notebook, which can be shared either through a SharePoint site or on a local server. OneNote 2010 provides a richer note-taking experience than Outlook 2010 tasks.