7 Best Microsoft Outlook Tips in 2025! Contacts, Calendars, Etc

Comments · 89 Views

If you have more than 20 items in your Inbox, process the last week of messages and then select the remaining messages and move them to your 1-Reference folder.



expert Outlook tips by FixTechGuide

If you want to see the tasks that you have pushed out for next week on Monday, arrange by Start Date. If you want to see tasks on the day that they are due, arrange by Due Date. Favorites give visibility Office 365 sync problems and login fixes to folders that are otherwise buried in your mail folder list. Search folders are useful for gathering information from across different mail and RSS folders.

  • There a tons of postings listing tons of errors, but Microsoft didn't fix any of them and will release it anyways.
  • The same category set applies to all items, so if you use a category for contacts, keep it.
  • But if a message takes longer than two minutes to deal with, defer it.
  • Each additional person you invite to a meeting adds to the complexity of the meeting, making it harder to control.
  • Make sure to respond to the Contact Group after the issue is resolved with the resolution.
  • To do this, select the Recurrence button and change the end date.


Delete it



Outlook and Office 365 sync issues can be frustrating but are almost always fixable. Start with basic network checks, enable Cached Exchange Mode, and repair your data files if needed. For persistent problems, rebuild your Outlook profile or use FixTechGuide’s free diagnostic tools to automate detection of authentication and IMAP errors in seconds.

Which Contact Groups should go to a folder instead of my Inbox?



expert Outlook tips by FixTechGuide

Sometimes you receive a message that you don’t need to act upon, but which you might need at a future date. File these messages in your reference folder (1-Reference) by selecting your Reference Quick Step. Adding a category will make the diagnose Office activation conflicts message easier to find later if you need it (for example, @Project).



Daily review: Managing your time and tasks



Limiting the time you spend reading messages to once in the morning and once at the end of the day could significantly improve your productivity. The Quick Steps feature lets users automate repetitive email tasks with a single click. For instance, if you frequently move messages to a specific folder, you can set up a quick step to move them faster with one click. Rules allow you to move, flag, and respond to email messages automatically. For example, you can create rules that change the importance level of messages as they arrive, automatically move them to other folders, or delete them based on certain criteria.

When to create a Contact Group in Outlook



expert Outlook tips by FixTechGuide

To select a meeting time, select a time suggestion in the Room Finder pane in the Suggested times section, or pick a time on the free/busy grid. Each additional person you invite to a meeting adds to the complexity of the meeting, making it harder to control. On the other hand, if a decision needs to be made, make sure all of the key stakeholders are present, or the meeting will be a waste of time and resources. After you process your messages, you can tackle your task list. This is when you respond to those messages that you have deferred.

Repair Outlook OST File Not Working in Office 365 – Complete Fix (



Search folders can be especially useful when you need to gather information that is saved in different folders — for example, when preparing for a quarterly meeting. Set your Contact Group folders to auto archive every six months or more frequently if they are time sensitive — for example, a Contact Group for finding carpool rides should be archived daily. Sentences prefaced with the Microsoft 365 logo are references to other Outlook OST vs PST repair Microsoft 365 products, such as Microsoft OneNote, and Microsoft SharePoint Server. Sentences that mention AutoArchive and Outlook Data Files (.pst) are marked with an icon of a folder and file . If your organization doesn’t deploy these products or features, these sentences can be disregarded without impacting the overall document and work flow.

View the calendar and inbox side by side



Looking at the whole picture of your time and your tasks will help you to prioritize important work over less urgent tasks. It will help you to make it clear to others what can and can’t be realistically expected of you to accomplish. Reviewing your past week and upcoming week is also a useful way to help you prepare for a weekly meeting with your manager or help you prepare a status email message. As part of good time management, you need time to deal with your messages, manage your appointments and tasks, and reflect on what you have to do. You can also add a category to help you see at a glance where your next action is.

What if I have retention policies or an Exchange Server Online Archive?



Some people try to use the read and unread states to indicate whether a message is new or a reference item. Inevitably, messages will be reread, and the mental tax of figuring out what you need to do will be paid again. A far more efficient Inbox plan is to go through your messages and decide what to do with each one. Spend 20 minutes in the morning going through your messages, and then turn your attention to doing a daily review of your task list.
Comments