Outlook Time Management Tutorial Part 2 - Managing Tasks

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The second of a five-part series which focuses on tips for using Outlook Tasks features to help you stay better organized and keep you steps ahead of your deadlines. For more information, please visit www.surface7.com.

Section 2 Goals: Getting Things Done:

1. Clean up your tasks view of email flags
2. Use categories to tackle your to-do's faster
3. Assign tasks to other people and track them
4. Create to-do items from contacts

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Closed Caption:

every job requires a variety of tasks
during a given day
maybe yours includes meeting with
clients preparing a presentation or
collaborating with team members on an
important project no matter what you're
doing
staying on top of all the tasks you need
to perform is crucial
by organizing them effectively you can
plan ahead for tomorrow and improve your
productivity at the same time at the
most basic level the tasks feature of
Microsoft Outlook helps you create lists
of task related items but dig a little
deeper and you'll find they do much more
for you than simply holding your to-do
list
in the next section i'll show you tips
for using task features that will help
you stay better organized and keep you
steps ahead of your deadlines so next up
I'm going to show you a little trick to
streamline your to do list so it
excludes all those flags associated with
emails that might be littering up your
view well then demonstrate multiple ways
to view your tasks as well as how to
sort them with unique categories that
work in tandem without time management
system
and then I'll walk you through how to
quickly delegate tasks and throw in a
nice shortcut to attach someone to a
task
you've probably noticed one of the
frustrating things about assigning
follow-up flags to email messages is
that outlook will then automatically
include all those flagged items in your
to do list
I bet it looks a little something like
this so next I'm going to show you how
to create a filter on your task list so
that you will only see the tasks you
have created and not those associated
with an actionable email
so here is an example of the litter to
do list containing endless email
follow-up flags of course I want to
clean this up so I want to filter my
list to only show my tasks
I'll right click on the column heading
and select view settings
I'll choose filter and go to the
Advanced tab
in the first field here all type message
class
in the condition drop down i'll select
contains
and in the value field i'll type task
and then click add to list
and then click OK
now when this filter is set I will not
see all those email follow-up flags i
have a sign
I'll only see the specific tasks that
I've created a much cleaner
a truly nice addition to outlook 2010 is
the to do bar since most people spend
the majority of that time in email view
microsoft introduced that to do bar to
display your calendar appointment
reminders and list of tasks
even when you're not using the task
feature an outlook
this gives you a simple snapshot of your
day without having to switch between
different views
if you want more space to view your
email you can always minimize the two du
bar by clicking on the arrow on the top
left of the bar
I can also easily add a task in the two
du bar by just simply typing in the task
here so i'll type
call hunter about the agenda and then
hit enter on the keyboard
by default the task will be scheduled
for today but I could always right click
on the task and just choose another date
another clever way to view my tasks is
in the calendar view here i can expand
the task pane at the bottom and for each
day I can see the test that I've been
assigned for that day I can easily
schedule a task by just clicking on the
task and pulling it into my calendar
a good rule of thumb is to do this with
tasks that take more than five or ten
minutes
other tasks such as quick phone calls
and emails that i have to send I just
keep in my task list and I take care of
them in between appointments or if i
need to take a break from what I'm doing
if I'm not able to complete a task on
the day I've assigned it
I'll reschedule it by moving it over to
another day when I have more time and to
market task is complete
I just click on the flag
to get a complete view of all your tasks
click on the tasks button in the
navigation pane
if this is invisible it's likely because
you need to move the separated bar up
the default view when you're in task is
this simple to-do list
this is a summary of all your to do's
whether they are emailed you've marked
to follow up on your tasks you've
created an outlook
by clicking a range by and then
selecting folder you can see exactly
from where the follow-ups had arrived
so here i can see that i have three
email follow ups from my action folder
one from my read folder and I have a
task here from our team event and then I
have a number of non email related tasks
that I've created have been a sign
so to find the task view that works best
for you click on the View tab on the
ribbon from here you can quickly switch
between views
the most common is of course the due
date
here i can easily reschedule tasks by
dragging and dropping them or by right
clicking on the follow-up flag and
selecting another date
something else I find quite useful is to
sort my to-do list by category
the use of categories is very personal
some people group tasks by type such as
phone call errand or email
others create categories for the project
name they're working on or by the names
of clients they're working with
I prefer to organize my categories by
location since categories of the same
across all outlook views
I have categories set up for my email
such as urgent and when possible in one
response arrives
but I've also added categories for tasks
based on their location
this is a terrific time management
technique that allows you to quickly
tackle tasks based on where you are at
that given time
by organizing my tasks this way I'm able
to see what I'm able to do at that given
time
for instance this method clearly
separates my personal tasks designated
by at home for those tasks i can only do
at home versus at work or at meeting
categories for those items i'll need to
address at the office or for a specific
meeting
I also include at phone or an email and
those categories are particularly
helpful when I'm commuting and I'm able
to draft some quick emails and went on
between appointments and can make a
quick phone call
you'll also note that i preface my tasks
with the at symbol
this keeps my tasks together at the top
and ensures that they're not confused
with my email follow-up
if you decide you like the idea of
assigning categories to tasks you'll
also have the added bonus of displaying
your to do bar in a much more friendly
way
by clicking on the arranged by header in
the to do bar and selecting categories
your tasks will now be arranged by
category to collapse all the headers or
category names right click on one of the
category headers and select collapse all
headers
when you collaborate on a team
the work of others you may want to
delegate a task or two to someone else
and keep track of its progress outlook
makes it nice and easy to create and
track a task that you assign here's how
to assign a task to someone you have to
first create a new task from the Home
tab and in the manage tasks section of
the new task
select assigned task in the to box enter
the name of the email address of the
person you want to assign the task 2 i'm
going to sign the test - Cameron
then write the subject of the task so
here all type complete executive summary
i'll pick a due date and enter a
description
so here all type finalize the draft
summary for review at the client meeting
next week
I'll assign the category at meeting
since we all follow the same structure
here at surface seven and I'll keep
these two boxes checked this means that
I'll have an updated copy of this task
in my task list and also that i'll get a
status report when the task is complete
I'll send this to cameron and when he
accepts this I'll get an email
notification
you'll notice that the tasks that i have
assigned to others have a different icon
and if i click on one of them I can see
the updated status of this task
and so lastly for outlook tasks i have a
quick tip for those of you who create
tasks to call someone at a later time
and then find yourself searching your
contacts at the last minute for their
information
flagging a contact is an efficient way
to attach all of a person's contact
information to your task item this way
it's handy when you need it
to flag a contact go to your contacts
list and right click the contact and
select your follow-up date the flag
contact is then displayed on your task
list and you to do bar and also contains
links to the information in the person's
contact card
so here's a recap of
we learned in the task section we
learned how to create a custom filter so
that it's a doob are excluded all those
follow-up flags assigned to emails
we saw some simple and helpful ways to
view tasks right inside the to do bar or
alongside your calendar appointments and
most comprehensively within the task
window itself
that's where I demonstrated several
options to manage your tasks more
efficiently
whether it's sorting by due date or
status category or other criteria
I then recommended a system of labeling
your tasks by location-based categories
which bundles your to do list according
to where you can act on them
we then delegate the task to someone so
the benefit of being able to track their
status and obtain an email progress
report from the assigned task
we then close up by learning a quick
technique for attaching a person's
contact information to an item on your
to-do list