Wave the Outlook Flag

In honour of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and our athletes, I want to wave the flag in this article. Being Canadian, I would normally pick up the familiar red and white flag to wave but for this article I will wave the Red Flag of Microsoft Outlook.

Flags are used in Outlook to get and keep you organized. Flags can be applied to email messages, contacts and are automatically applied to tasks. Here is a sample scenario of flags in action:

1. I receive an email message from a client who wants information about training in Microsoft Outlook. I read the message, click the Flag icon in the toolbar, and set the flag to Today. A dark red flag appears at the right of the message in my Inbox. I right click on that and select Add Reminder… and leave the Reminder time to the default of the current day at 4PM. That helps to make sure I take care of this email reply before the end of the business day.

2. The To Do bar at the right side of Outlook shows this item as being due today.

3. Later that same day, after being reminded of this outstanding task, I double-click to open the original email message so I can reply to it.

4. I compose a reply to send off some basic information about course topics, pricing and some suggested dates. In this reply message, I click the Follow up flag button on the toolbar and select Custom… to set a reminder for me to follow up with the client the following Monday morning.

This simple use of flags shows how you can let technology work for you to make you more efficient in the program that you most likely use the most in your work day.

Flags are also available in Outlook Contacts. This makes it easy for you to set reminders to follow up with clients, suppliers and even personal contacts you maintain in your Outlook Address book. To demonstrate, follow along with this scenario:

1. I meet a new contact, Bob Smith from ABC Company at a networking event. We speak briefly about an upcoming event that he has to book a speaker for. I suggest a BlackBerry session that will highlight some tips and tricks to make the attendees more efficient with their BlackBerries and tell him I will contact him at the beginning of next week to follow up.

2. When I get back to my office, I enter the information from his business card into my Contacts in Outlook, making a note in the Notes section that includes information about our conversation, the date of his event, and a rough draft of the points I will include in my email (to be copied and pasted when I write it). I click the Follow Up flag in the toolbar and select Next Week. That will ensure a due date of the Monday of the following week.

3. When I view my To Do Bar I see his name in the Next Week group in my To Do list. When Monday rolls around I will double-click to open this To Do item, select the text that will form the email content and copy it. Next I click the Email button at the top of his contact form, opening a new email to Bob, paste the text into the body of the email, put some finishing touches on it then hit the Send button. To make sure I remember to follow up with him, I click the Follow Up flag and select Next Week to move this reminder forward to the following Monday.

With all that flagging, it is important to review upcoming and completed tasks. In the main Outlook window, click on the Tasks button and use the left window to filter your tasks list from Simple List that shows all tasks, to OverDue Tasks (displayed with red text), Active Tasks and more.

With a few extra seconds of input to track your tasks, you can be better organized with Outlook, letting the technology do the remembering, rather than filling your head with a hundred things that you intend to remember.

About Donna Mills:

Donna Mills is a Certified Microsoft Office Specialist and BlackBerry Guru. She offers training to Toronto and area companies to make them more comfortable and more efficient using the tools they use everyday. To arrange for Donna to come to your office to train you on your MS Office Software or BlackBerry Smartphone email mills.donna@sympatico.ca or call 416.917.7754.