Millions of people use Microsoft Outlook every day to manage email at work. But only a few use its many other features to manage time and prioritize tasks. These features, when used to their full potential, can take your productivity to the next level and give you the time to focus on more important tasks.
Can I set up time slot sign up on Outlook? There are 3 appointments every 10 minutes for 4 hours. Employees sign up for a time slot currently using pen and paper on a spreadsheet. Can I instead use Outlook as a weekly/monthly signup sheet? I'd like Outlook to notify 5 minutes before the appointment. Is this possible? Tip 891: Move a series of appointments to new dates A reader asks: 'At some point after I installed MSO 2003, several month's Calendars appeared at the top of the Navigation Tip 270: Displaying Navigation Calendars Outlook 2002 introduced Labels to the calendar, allowing you to display appointments in your Day/Week/Month view using different c Tip 3: Calendar Views Following up on yesterday.
In particular, effective and efficient use of the program’s Calendars and Task features can be a huge time saver, says Outlook expert Melissa Esquibel. She shows you how to get a grip on recurring tasks, organize meetings calendar, and de-clutter your inbox in her AudioSolutionz webinar “Boost Time Management With Microsoft Outlook 2010-16 Calendars & Tasks”.
Outlook Calendar displays a default time increment of 30 minutes, which means you can only schedule meetings on the half and full hour. With most organizations now turning to speedy meetings, how can you change the time scale interval to 15, 10, or even 5 minutes? Let’s find out.
Follow these steps to create a 15-minute appointment:
Caveat: Before choosing 5 Minutes from the shortcut menu, realize that this setting makes your Calendar less scannable. With a separate line for every 5 minutes on your calendar, you’ll have to scroll quite a bit to view the beginning and the end of your day. Of course, you can easily make another choice from the dropdown menu if you’re unhappy with your initial selection.
Another idea: ExtendOffice suggests three easy steps to change the time increment with the Time Scale feature in Outlook 2010 and 2013:
When you want to view your calendar for a specific number of days only—and not for the entire week or month—you might find it useful to temporarily change the number of days displayed. TechRepublic offers a simple keyboard shortcut. Press [Alt] + n where n is a value between 0 and 9 and represents the number of days you want to see. So, to view four days, press [Alt]+4. Remember that this shortcut works only in the current view.
The default time zone in Outlook is set based on your current location. However, if you work with colleagues in a faraway office or travel frequently to another time zone, you may find it helpful to display an additional time bar in Outlook’s Calendar view. Follow these steps to add one more time zone:
Now, when you open your Calendar, the two time zones are displayed adjacent to one another.
To remove the second time zone later, uncheck the Show a Second Time Zone check box. If you want to switch the time zones, follow these three easy steps suggested by VLBTechEd Blog:
Microsoft Outlook offers a myriad of features, which most of us underutilize. If you do a lot of project planning or need to manage your time better, Outlook can become an essential companion.
In her webinar, Esquibel shows you how to spot potential scheduling issues before they become a problem—and how to create and delegate team tasks. Plus she’ll show you how to use Quick Parts and Quick Steps to make short work of time management tasks, set up a recurring meeting that doesn’t cause calendar clutter, and set up a filtering rule to manage all of your accept and decline messages.