Seiwert - Effective Time Management: Using Microsoft Outlook to Organize Your Work and Personal Life

MOST PRODUCTIVITY ENTHUSIASTS in the United States have never heard of Lothar Seiwert and Holger Woeltje. Thats about to change. They are rock stars in Europe, and this book will rock in the U.S.

I met Lothar through my role as the 20112012 U.S. President of the National Speakers Association (NSA), through which he received the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation. He invited me to speak at the German Speakers Association (GSA), where I witnessed his celebrity status. Hes a member of the German Speakers Hall of Fame and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the German Training and Development Federation. His books have sold over four million copies, and his co-author, Holger, has authored seven best-selling books. Rest assured they are well qualified as authors of this new Outlook productivity guide.

Under my moniker, The Productivity Pro, Ive been presenting keynotes and seminars on increasing output and saving time at work since 1992. As a Microsoft Certified Application Specialist in Outlook (MCAS), Ive provided Outlook training to corporate clients (including Microsoft!) since the 1990s. Bottom line: There is simply no better tool out there for managing and integrating your email, tasks, notes, contacts, journal, and calendar. But many people simply dont know how to get the most out of Outlook. Id estimate most people use about 1525% of its capabilities. Most training consists of heres your inbox; have fun! Seiwert and Woeltje take the mystery out of all those settings, filters, checkboxes, and menu options, and give you a customized Outlook experience for the way you manage your time and work.

Outlook actually is your work, as all those messages represent something you need to do. But many people are paralyzed by the sheer volume of messages or dont have a systematic way of pulling action from email. So most people leave messages in their inboxes to languish and get buried by the onslaught of new incoming emails.

A single email could actually require you to:

So many pieces involved in one little email! This book shows you, with many practical case studies, screenshots, step-by-step instructions, and relevant examples, how to complete these processes very quicklyalthough the offline work will still take some time. Youll discover a brand-new system for organizing your time and to-dos in a more productive, effective way.

How many hours do you spend in your email inbox each day? This book will show you how Outlook can help you to become more productive, so get ready for that figure to go down! If you let yourself be chained down by your email instead of letting it help you manage your life, youre never likely to get much done. Seiwert and Woeltje are about to set you free!

Laura Stack, MBA, CSPProductivity expert, speaker, trainerAuthor , What to Do When Theres Too Much to Do:Reduce Tasks, Increase Results, andSave 90 Minutes a Day (Berrett-Koehler, 2012)President, The Productivity Pro, Inc.President, National Speakers Association

WE HAVE TO THANK so many people for this book that we know it is impossible to write a complete list. That said, there are people we need to cite personally here because of their particular contributions.

We have to start with Christian Obermayr, former Product Manager for Microsoft Office: eight years ago he started the project for the German edition of this book, provided some cool additional tips and tricks, and carefully reviewed and tweaked every German edition ever since.

Special thanks to Laura Stack , CSP, Americas Premier Expert in Productivity, CEO of The Productivity Pro, and President of the National Speakers Association (NSA), for her wonderful foreword. We offer sincere thanks to Dan Poynter , CSP, Para Publishing, for his support and encouragement.

Thanks also to Achim Berg and Juergen Gallmann , former CEOs of Microsoft Germany, who provided the forewords for the various German editions.

We offer sincere thanks to Thomas Pohlmann , former Editorial Manager of Microsoft Press Germany, who got the first German edition launched seven years ago; Thomas Braun-Wiesholler , Editorial Manager at OReilly Media, and Claudia Petersen , Sales Manager at Microsoft Press, who managed the eighth German edition of this book and played a huge part in getting it finally translated into English; and especially to Kenyon Brown , Senior Editor at OReilly Media, Microsoft Press Division, who did a tremendous job in keeping everyone involved moving forward as a team as well as managing this project. A particular mention goes to Kathy Krause , Editorial Specialist at Online Training Solutions, Inc. (OTSI): she has been our copy editor, carefully reviewing and correcting everything, and tweaking the language. We are not native English speakers, and she deserves all the credit if you can read this book well and fluently. Thanks also to Teresa Elsey and Dan Fauxsmith , Production Managers at OReilly Media, for managing the production side and keeping everything on track there. It has been a pleasure to work with all of you!

Thanks to Nespresso for providing the awesome coffee that kept us going through some tough writing and editing sessions, to all the people from Lufthansa and Deutsche Bahn who make our traveling easier and more enjoyable, and to everyone at Apple , Amazon , Lenovo , Microsoft , and Research in Motion (RIM) , who build the great technology, software, and cool gadgets that help us to be productive on the road and always keep connected to our families, friends, clients, and business partners, no matter where we are around the world.

A very big thanks goes to all of the participants from our keynotes, workshops, and seminars who implemented what we taught them. Whom we have the honor to support on their journeys to reaching their goals, overcoming challenges, and making their workdays easier. Who help us with their questions to adjust our methods and teaching to the ever-changing business and technology world. Who give us back so much with their feedback and sharing their personal success stories a few months or even years later. Hearing or reading about and sometimes even seeing in person how theyve been able to improve their work results, achieve a balanced life again, and gain more time for their families and friends is the most precious reward for us we can imagine.

And, finally, thanks a lot to you, dear reader , for helping us to make this book a success. We hope youll enjoy it and gain a lot from the tips, tricks, and strategies youll find on the following pages. Now its your turn to read this content, really think deeply about it, apply it to your work and personal life, and implement the techniques one at a time to harvest some big results!