If the Inbox is the first thing you see when Outlook opens you are starting your day on very reactive footing. You’re beginning from a place that is all about responding to the requests, and demands, of others. There’s a real temptation to dive in and begin working through emails – particularly those with a little red exclamation next to them!
How often have we become so involved with our email that we’ve almost missed a meeting, or suddenly realised it’s lunch time and there’s a whole pile of work still sitting on the desk?
An alternate option is to open Outlook in a different way; start on a different screen so you can begin a day that’s less reactive and more proactive – more about the work you already had planned to get done.
So how about the Calendar? If the Calendar was the first thing you saw when Outlook opened – instead of new mail – you’d see all of those fixed-time commitments already in your day; meetings and appointments already scheduled.
In addition to this, you can team the Calendar with the Taskpad (or To-Do bar) so you’re viewing your fixed-time commitments in the Calendar plus your flexible time commitments for the day captured in the Taskpad. With this set up you will find yourself becoming more proactive every time Outlook opens.
There are a number of steps you need to take to achieve this new opening point – I’m assuming here that you’re starting from your Inbox, in the ‘mail view’.
1. In the left, sidebar navigation buttons, in the bottom corner, click on the button marked Folder List.
2. In the Folder List itself, click on Calendar (the calendar should be showing a one-day view).
3. With the Folder List and Calendar showing, click on the View button in your top navigation bar. In the drop-down list that appears, click on Taskpad. This should bring the Taskpad into view on the right of the Calendar, completing the picture.
4. To make this the new location that Outlook opens, click on Tools, then Options. In the box that appears click on the tab Other, then Advanced Options.
5. On the page that appears click on the Browse button next to ‘start up in this folder’. In the pop-up box simply highlight Calendar and then ‘okay’ your way back out to your new front page.
Now you have set up Outlook so that it has become a proactive tool to better manage your time, communication and information.
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What a great idea – Thank you so much for this very practical article!
I can already see that being proactive, and not just reactive may change my attitude to the work day – and even my mood! Thanks heaps!