Chapter 16: Managing Your Day System

Email overload is a real thing and can be a real drain on your well-being, mental health, and productivity. Many people are being affected, especially now that so many people are working remotely, and email overload is also creating email anxiety.

Here are three signs that you may be in email overload:

• You are constantly checking your email, waiting to see whether anything came in even when you are not expecting anything.
• You are behind on reading and responding to new emails and your inbox is getting overfilled.
• You sort and search for emails more than reading new emails.

Not getting control of your emails can cause real headaches, especially if you are losing files and emails and spending too much time looking for specific emails. More emails in your inbox equal less productivity.

In this chapter, we’re going to cover the following topics:

• Kanban
• Five SMART habits to be productive
• Power Hour

This chapter will give you some ideas for taking control of your emails to manage your day, at least within Outlook.

Kanban

A Kanban board is a model that was created and used in the 1940s by an engineer at Toyota named Taiichi Ohno. In the Japanese language, kan means sign and ban means board. In Japan at the time, as streets became overcrowded, shop owners would make signs called Kanbans to pull in people off the streets to gain business.

Mr. Ohno also noticed that store shelves were stocked with a specific amount of products to meet the demands of consumers. Once they saw empty space on the shelf, it would be restocked. Mr. Ohno wanted to create a similar system due to Toyota’s decline. He needed a way to do the same thing within the factory while building cars. He developed a system that used Kanban cards to determine when a car was sold so another car could start production. This system helped to identify bottlenecks, reduce stockpiles, improve throughput, and maintain high visibility at the same time. This system also helped Toyota go from an operating loss to being a major competitor in the automotive industry.

In 2007, the software industry started using Kanban boards for the development of software programming. Microsoft developed its first Kanban system in 2010 and many others followed. Today, Kanban boards are not just for the corporate world; many utilize the concept in their personal lives as well. The Kanban concept has proven to be productive, made people and processes more effective, and in general lets people focus on doing more.

You will probably be asking right now, what does Kanban have to do with Outlook? By implementing the concept of Kanban boards within Outlook, you could be freeing up several hours within your day. The following figure shows a basic Kanban board with only a few columns:

Figure 16.1 – Kanban board

Kanban was designed to help you visualize your work, as well as limiting what work you have in progress. Kanban starts with what you have in your inbox to do now. It is a pull system, which means you pull from one area on the left and follow the flow to the right. This is called a workflow, and eventually, the item ends up in the done column.

We could consider Outlook as a Kanban board. As an email comes into your inbox, you choose to leave it in there, bunching up, creating bottlenecks, and sometimes some of those emails may be forgotten altogether. You should instead try to minimize what is stored in your inbox and move emails into folders, create a system for working with those folders, and eventually move emails out of those folders into an Archive folder. These folders will be explained later in this chapter as well. The following would be my idea for an Outlook Kanban system as described:

Figure 16.2 – Outlook Kanban board

Each of us has 1,440 minutes each day. I believe that being productive is becoming harder and harder to accomplish within those minutes. We need to keep focused on the task at hand yet stay engaged with our families and various social responsibilities as well, all while eliminating as many distractions as possible. Using a Kanban board may help with this, but using Outlook like a Kanban board could also help.

Outlook on the web, or OWA, has a Kanban concept built into the calendar. As of the time of writing this book, that feature is not part of the Outlook desktop version. If you consider your inbox as the to-do (backlog) items, the folder items as the in-progress items, and the Archive folder items as the done items, you can have a system that will have you running an efficient time management system just like a typical Kanban board.

Let us now talk about the five SMART habits to help you be productive and more efficient and streamline these SMART habits within your system for managing your day.

Five SMART habits to be productive

In this section let us understand the five smart habits to be productive.

SMART habit #1 – use search

In Chapter 10, Save Time Searching, we discussed several features you can use to search for multiple items within Outlook. Research shows that the average email user spends over 20% of their day searching for emails. The main reason for this is that most users browse through their inbox trying to find a specific email. This can be like finding a needle in a haystack, especially if you use the inbox as your main depository, or in the situation of a Kanban board, this would be your To-Do column that holds all your items/emails waiting to be processed.

Let us show you two methods for you to use to search for your items effectively:

1. Search with FACT, F=From, A=Attachment, C=Contains, T=To:
   1. Enter the search word or phrase in the Search field at the top of the Outlook window and click the drop-down arrow to the right:

Figure 16.3 – Search field

2. Enter any known FACT information in the appropriate fields:

Figure 16.4 – Search expanded for FACT

Ask yourself where the FACTs are. Filling all these four search options the first time narrows down search results so you won’t have as many items to wade through.

2. Create search folders:
   1. Click Folder | New Search Folder:

Figure 16.5 – New Search Folder

2. Select the type of search folder you want to create. I will scroll to the bottom of this list and select Create a custom Search Folder | Choose…, then name the folder and click Criteria….

Figure 16.6 – New Search Folder

3. Enter the desired search criteria in the Search Folder Criteria dialog box using all three tabs if desired for Messages, More Choices, and Advanced.

Figure 16.7 – Search Folder Criteria

4. Your newly created search folder will be shown in the navigation pane under Search Folders. Any items found in the search will appear in this folder. As new items are received, they will now show in the search folder automatically.

Figure 16.8 – Budget search folder

If you know you will be searching for something several times, I suggest creating a search folder. Otherwise, for a quick one-time search, I would suggest searching with FACTs.

SMART habit #2 – don’t repeat steps

If you need to repeat a task more than three times (weekly or monthly), you need to put a system in place to be more efficient. These next three tips I have found to be helpful for applying to tasks I repeat several times while processing my emails:

1. See the response in red below: How many times have you had to respond to someone’s email with the same text to answer a set of questions they have for you? Next time, follow these steps and Outlook will do that for you:
   1. Click File | Options | Mail | Stationery and Fonts… | Personal Stationery:

Figure 16.9 – Personal Stationery for replies

2. Click OK and OK to close the dialog boxes. Now, when you reply to the message and scroll down through the document, your reply text will show your name, as well as changing the text color as you specified.

2. Resend an email: When you need to send an email a second time, usually due to the receiver claiming they never got it, follow these steps to resend it. These steps eliminate the need to copy the original email and paste it into a new mail message:
   1. Open the email that you need to resend (you must be the sender of the email).
   2. Click Actions | Resend This Message….

Figure 16.10 – Resend This Message…

This is what I call SMART as most users don’t even realize this is available. Now the email will look like a regular email to be sent out. Enter a To recipient and click Send.

3. Create a quick step for replying with common text to an email recipient: On social media, we are used to clicking a button to respond to or like a post. In Outlook, you can do this with a quick step.
   1. Click Home | New Quick Step | Custom…:

Figure 16.11 – New Quick Step

2. Enter a name for the quick step and choose Reply for the action step:

Figure 16.12 – Reply quick step

3. The drop-down list will close, showing the selection. Below this selected action item, click Show Options:

Figure 16.13 – Edit Quick Step

4. Within the new window that appears within this dialog box, enter the desired selections or text that you want to use when replying with the quick step. In the example, the words OK, Thanks! that are shown in the Text box will be applied to the email. Click Save to close Edit Quick Step and OK to close Manage Quick steps.

Figure 16.14 – Show Options for quick step

Now you can use this quick step to quickly reply to an email and this text will be applied.

SMART habit #3 – folders

Quickly process emails: I have three methods to help me process emails within my inbox and I also like to set up my computer so that when I open Outlook, the focus is not on my inbox but on an Active folder, which we will create.

• Be selective about the folders that you set up: Many people set up several folders to organize their emails and sometimes a duplicate of an email needs to be created to store it in multiple folders. This was necessary years ago but now that searching has been overhauled, you can be more selective about the number of folders you need. I like to set up these four folders:
  1. .Action: For emails you are actively working on, you may consider putting subfolders under this .Active folder to separate emails even further. I suggest you are selective, however.
  2. .Waiting for: For emails where you are waiting on another person to finish something before it is complete.
  3. .Read: Any items that you don’t want to archive just yet and need to read first. This comes in handy when you are waiting on an event with nothing to do.
  4. .Archive: Once processed, you will send an email to the folder to store for later use. You could also not create this folder and use the .Archive folder in the navigation pane.

Figure 16.15 – New folders

Note

In the previous folders I have entered a . (period) before the name of the folder. The period will keep these folders at the top of the list directly underneath the inbox.

• Process the four Ds: This tip is to help you become more productive while processing your inbox. First, if you have thousands of emails in your inbox, you may want to create a separate folder just for those emails so you can start fresh on trying to keep your inbox clear of emails. When processing your emails, use the four Ds method:
  • Delete it: Send emails to the trash or delete them.
  • Do it: If it can be done in a couple of minutes, action/reply to and get rid of the email. Eliminate looking at an email twice.
  • Delegate it: Send it on to another person.
  • Defer it: If you’re not done with an email, send it to one of your four folders created previously.

The final step is to take your attention away from your inbox. Some people find themselves working from their inbox, and this is not a way to be productive. Let’s see how to have Outlook open in the .Active folder instead of the inbox now.

• Open Outlook with the .Active folder open: You can select any folder you want in this step. I find that I like working with the emails that I need to take action on and complete first, so I am choosing the .Active folder:
  1. Click File | Options | Advanced | Browse ... by Start Outlook in this folder and select .Active or the folder you want to open when you first start Outlook.

Figure 16.16 – Select folder to open Outlook in

2. Now close Outlook and open Outlook again. Upon opening, the focus will be on the .Active folder and not the inbox. It takes some time to get used to this step, but I have found it to be worth it to save time.

Now I check my emails or inbox three times a day: in the morning upon starting work, after lunch so that it does not stop me from taking lunch, and then before leaving the office for the day so I can do some cleanup and process as much as possible to get it out of the way for the next day.

SMART habit #4 – templates

An email template can be created for emails that you will be processing repeatedly. An example of this would be an email that you send to a new hire once they sign on with the company. You create this email with To, Cc, Subject text, attachments, and text in the body of the email. Include everything that you would normally include manually each time you need to send an email to a new hire:

1. Create a template: Create the email message as you would any message, including To, Cc, Subject text, and attachments.
2. Once complete, click File | Save As | Browse to save the message. Click the drop-down arrow by Save as type and select Outlook Template (*.oft). Do not change the template location.
3. Click Save.

Figure 16.17 – Save As Outlook Template

Close the email that you created unless you want to address it to a recipient and send it. Now let us see how to open it.

4. To open the template when you are ready to use it to send to another recipient, click Home | New Items | More Items | Choose Form…:

Figure 16.18 – Open template

5. To find the template, click the drop-down arrow by Look In and select User Templates in File System:

Figure 16.19 – User templates location

6. The templates that you have created will show in the window. Select the template that you wish to use and click Open.

Figure 16.20 – Select template file

The email (with the template) will now be opened and you can customize it as needed before clicking Send to recipient(s).

Note

In Chapter 15, Programming with Macros, the file path that you see within the Choose Form dialog box is the path that you will copy to place within the macro VBA code example.

SMART habit #5 – journal entries

For service-based or client-based businesses where employees are on the phone a lot, this is a handy tip. You can create a journal entry to keep track of multiple types of data. I like to use this to keep track of phone calls or meetings because of the timer feature that is included:

1. Create a journal entry: This is useful to take quick notes, record data, or start a timer to track how long something is taking. Click the three dots at the bottom of the navigation pane, then click Folders:

Figure 16.21 – Open Folders

2. Select the Journal folder that will now show in the navigation pane:

Figure 16.22 – Journal folder in navigation pane

3. Click File | Journal Entry:

Figure 16.23 – New journal entry

4. To use the timer, click Journal Entry | Start Timer. Click Pause Timer to pause the timer, and if needed, you can click Start Timer again to continue after the pause:

Figure 16.24 – Journal Entry timer

Once you are done timing the call, meeting, or event, you will see the duration shown in minutes. This is a terrific way to track the time of an event for billing purposes. When done, be sure to click Save & Close to save the journal entry.

Let us now talk about how you can implement these tools every day.

Power Hour

When you start to clean up and take control of your inbox, you must set aside time for a Power Hour. This is not the Power Hour that you might have had in college. Schedule this hour into your calendar. This is an hour that you set aside daily, weekly, or however often works for you, to open Outlook and do some cleaning up and organizing of your emails or use the Outlook productivity tool.

Consistency is the one thing that most people don’t have in their lives. Is this a problem you have? We usually do things well for a while and then we fall into a rut. If you have ever seen a live assembly line, everything just flows until the product being created is completed. This Power Hour could help you keep the flow going in managing your day.

It should be on your schedule. I like to schedule this into my calendar every day. It is an hour, or however much time you need, to keep everything running and organized in Outlook. Check your calendars, empty your inbox, delegate items you can’t complete, create tasks, and pass on communications with your team, clients, and so on. Do whatever you need to keep Outlook from getting overloaded.

Summary

I have a confession to make: I don’t follow every one of these five SMART habits. I take the ones that work for me and keep the others for times when I may need them. The most important insight to gain from this chapter is that you structure Outlook to work in a SMART way for you and take notice of the bottlenecks that are slowing you down. Do what is comfortable and beneficial to the way you work.

I always say in my classes, “You don’t know what you don’t know!” What does this mean? To me, it means if you are going through life not learning, not trying to improve, and not moving forward, you will not know what you are missing.

If you have been using Outlook only to read and respond to the emails that you receive daily and nothing else, you are missing out on a great productivity tool. I hope you have learned and will implement many of the SMART techniques that have been demonstrated in this book, and that within a short period, you will be thriving and able to use the time you save from your 1,440 minutes a day doing something that will bring you joy.

Questions

1. What is Bookings in Outlook?
2. When I receive an email, I want to create a Teams meeting from that email. I would like to include the email in the Teams meeting. Is this possible without copying and pasting, which is what I do now?
3. Does it only take 21 days to create a habit?
4. Will using Outlook enhance my productivity?
5. Does Outlook have a Kanban board?

Answers

1. At the time of writing this book, the new Bookings feature was announced by Microsoft, to be released to selected subscriptions beginning in June 2022. Bookings is a web-based scheduling page that integrates information from your free/busy calendar. It will streamline the process of scheduling an appointment with others.
2. Great question. This is an example of what I call You don’t know what you don’t know! Open the email that you received and click Message | Respond | Reply with Meeting. Ctrl + Alt + R is the keyboard shortcut key for this button.
3. Research shows that it can take 18 to 254 days for a habit to form. The average number of days for a habit to form is 66 days. A simple way to create a habit is to use the 3 Rs technique: Reminders, Routines, Rewards.
4. Outlook cannot enhance your productivity – only you can make the changes necessary to enhance your productivity. Learning and creating habits with the tips and tricks that are offered in this book is one of several ways you can start to be a productivity ninja using Outlook.
5. In 2021, Outlook launched a Kanban-style board. The board can be viewed within the calendar on Outlook on the web app, or OWA. It is not available in the desktop version as of the time of writing this book.