7 tips for using Outlook more efficiently

If you’re an Outlook user, you probably realise that it is a great email tool, and can be synchronised with phones and other mobile email tools efficiently. However, there is far more to Outlook than meets the eye, and it’s well worth getting to know it a little better.

The version of Outlook I use is 2007, but the options I’m going to talk about work equally well in 2003, and to a large extent in earlier versions.

1. File everything

Good use of folders in Outlook can be a great time saver and lead to increased efficiency in your Outlook experience. If you don’t have folders set up already, then here’s how to do it:

Right click over your inbox folder, and choose New Folder. Give your folder a relevant name, and click OK. It’s that simple. Once you have your new folders, you can either drag and drop mail from your inbox, or you can be really swish, and create rules.

2. Inbox rules.

Do you really have time to sit and process everything in your inbox manually? I thought not, me neither. So, inbox filtering rules are great to give you extra hours in your day.

To create a rule to send emails to specific folders on arrival, simply right click over an email message. Choose Create rule from the shortcut menu, and in the dialogue box, click the checkbox for sender, and the checkbox that states “move item to folder” and select the folder you require. Click OK once you have established all conditions, and you can choose to run the rule immediately. This will move all emails from your inbox to your specified folder, and then in future will run automatically. For example, I have an Enterprise Nation folder in my rule set, and all emails from Emma will magically be sent there. I can see that I have new emails in there as the folder name will be in bold and the unread email count is in brackets next to it.

3. Favourite folders

This little section at the top of the folder list on the left of Outlook is so useful, as it tells you how many unread emails you have, and when clicked will open a view of all of your lovely new folders containing those new emails. This little gem is often missed, but is a great time saver.

4. Message flagging

When you receive an email that you know you must action, but won’t be doing so straight away, then click the little blank flag at the end of the email, and it will go into your task list. The fact that it turns red when the item becomes overdue is a nice reminder of its level of urgency.

5. Shift + Delete

Never underestimate the power of delete. When you are absolutely certain that an email is irrelevant, then use the Shift+Del key combination to bypass the deleted items folder, and you’ll never have to see that email again.

6. Escape!

The escape key in Outlook is a great time saver; instead of clicking the X at the top of an email to close it, you can use escape to close open emails and windows. If you’ve been typing, it makes more sense to continue with use of the keyboard.

7. Send

If you are creating a document, a spreadsheet, presentation, or whatever, and need to email it, then don’t worry about going through the whole attachment process with Outlook. From your document, just choose File (or in Office 07 use the Office button) and choose send as attachment. Your email title will be the document name, and will attach instantly into a new message. Far more efficient and much quicker than adding in all those extra steps. And that’s what I’m about to do with this document right now.

• Paula Jones, Sixth Level Training

The Customer Is Not Alway Right

The adage the customer is always right is wrong. In my opinion anyway. There’s only so much I will take from awkward customers who we all get at some time or another. Now I will go out of my way to help people, but there are some people whom just like being awkward. No matter what you do for them, they will not be happy. Eventually you have to realise that such customers are not worth having.

They will consume too much of your time having to deal with their constant, and usually unjustified complaints. My philosophy is to get rid of them. Sort out whatever they are complaining about, I’d personally just give them a refund, and tell them not to come back. Awkward customers suck the energy out of you and cause stress well beyond their value to your company.

Apply the 80/20 rule here. If you’re not familiar with the 80/20 rule let me explain. An Italian economist discovered the 80/20 rule in 1906 called Vilfredo Pareto. He observed that 20% of the people owned 80% of the wealth. Now you may be thinking what does this have to do with running a small business. I’m just about to explain.

Once the 80/20 rule had been discovered other people working in other fields discovered the rule also applies to their field. And this includes almost every endeavour in life we choose to undertake.

In any undertaking the 80/20 rule can be applied, and it means that 20% of your activities are vital to your success and the other 80% are not has important. So let’s have a look at how this works. In a fitness program, for example, it’s the 20% of training you engage in that results in 80% of your increase in The other 80% has little effect.

In business, this rule means that 80% of your success will result from 20% of your work. 80% of your return sales will come from 20% of your customers. Anyone who has managed a project will know that 20% of the project will consume 80% of the time. That’s getting the project off the ground first and tying it all up. We can apply this rule to any area of our lives and when we understand it, it can help us to maximise our efforts into the things that matter in building our business.

Large businesses know that 80% of their sales come from 20% of their sales force and that 80% of their staff problems come from 20% of their staff. In a factory, 80% of the productivity comes from 20% of the workforce. Are you getting the concept? Once you do, you’ll start to see this everywhere.

How to Apply It

The value of this rule to us who are trying to build a small business is that it focuses us to identify the 20% of valued productive activity we need to engage in to build our business. Think about it, only 20% of the things we do to our business during the day are effective. The secret is finding the 20% and focus on it. Cutting out the unproductive 80%

The so-called super managers recognise this rule and apply it to their working day and you should too. Your time is limited so you need to squeeze every minute from it. By applying the 80/20 rule, you can do this. Make sure you are focused on the 20% of activity you need to do to add value to your business. Apply the principal to your own time management. Make sure you use 80% of your time on the 20% of important issues that will help to drive your business forward.

Since discovering the 80/20 rule, I have applied it with great success to my own life and seen my productivity rise. Today I wanted to post to my blog so this post takes some of the 20% of the time I have allotted to my business. Nothing else matters to me at the moment. Once I have finished I will move onto something else that will add value to my business.

We all waste time procrastinating, I’m guilty of this, especially when I have a task in front of me that I don’t like. On Monday, for example, I got my books up-to-date, now I hate bookkeeping but I applied myself and by the end of the day, everything was in order. I had applied, albeit, reluctantly 80% of my time to the task. When I had finished them, I had that glow of satisfaction that comes when we complete an essential task.

In my own business ArtsCraftsandHobbies, I know that 80% of my return sales come from the same 20% of my customers so I give them 80% of my time. I know that 80% of my sales come from 20% of my stock. Knowing this allows me to get rid of slow moving stock and look for replacements. By adopting this rule, we can break down our day into productive activities ignoring the unproductive ones that give us little return.

The difference between someone who appears to have a lot of energy, and gets things done, and someone who drifts about from one project to another never completing any, is simply the productive person has identified, and incorporated into his/her daily schedule the 80/20 rule. The productive person is focusing 80% of his/her time into the 20% of activities that matter, ignoring the rest. Tangible results can be seen from this.

This brings me back to where I started about awkward customers. Apply the 80/20 rule to these. 80% of all your stress and hassle will come from 20% of your customers so just get rid of them. You don’t need them and you can’t afford to have your energy drained by these energy vampires. I’m not talking about the customer who has a genuine complaint because you have made a mistake. I’m talking about the customers who just have to complain. Who feel because they have made a purchase from you that they own you and have the right to abuse you and compl

They don’t. An example is a customer who bought an art instruction DVD from me a while back and complained the artist didn’t explain how to paint a sky clearly enough. This apparently was my fault. After a number of emails that wasted time I had planned for other things it was obvious that this person was never going to be happy. I asked for it back and refunded the person’s money. I then put in place measure so that person could not purchase from either my eBay shop or my website again.

Developing A “can Do” Attitude

If you’re going to be successful in your business you need to develop a can do attitude. Without it you won’t even get going, you’ll become just another dreamer and talker. By can do attitude I’m not talking about a superficial positive cliché to everything, I’m not talking about a false cheerfulness when under pressure. It has to go deeper than that. It has to be ingrained in your DNA, a part of your core. You don’t have to go about constantly smiling, who does? Who could?

I’m talking about developing an attitude that you can deal with any obstacle that arises. You will not hide from it, not deny it, you will deal with it in a logical and determined way. You will decide on a course of action and overcome each obstacle that is in the way of your attempts to solve the problem. If you’ve spent most of your life as an employee you may have not been in a position to solve problems, you may not have had to deal with any problem solving issues.

Well if you’re going to build yourself an extra income you’re going to have to get used to solving all the problems that that journey will bring. It’s my opinion, my deeply held belief that anybody can be trained for anything. We are not born knowing how to do anything. We are products of our upbringing and culture.

If we were educated and brought up to be independent problem solving people that’s what we are. If we were on the other hand brought up to take orders and not think for ourselves, then we will exhibit those characteristics, always looking for someone else or the state to solve our problems.

We do not however have to remain trapped in the constraints of our cultural upbringing. We can break free and rebuild ourselves into what we want to become. We are not machines, we have the free will to grow, to step outside of the beliefs we have had hammered into us about ourselves and how we should behave.

Here’s some tips for developing and reinforcing a can do attitude.

• Watch out for self defeating mental chatter. As soon as you hear yourself thinking something can’t be done stop and ask why? If sales in your business are slow ask why. What can you do about it? Don’t say you can’t sell them. You can, you may just need a different approach. If there’s a little nagging voice in your head telling you you could never run a business. Stop it and change it to you can run a business. Once you get your business started and make your first sale, you have achieved a great victory to silencing that self sabotaging voice that’s been holding you back for years.
• Avoid negative people. Not always possible I know but you can at least shut them out. Don’t let their negativity drag you down into inertia. Don’t allow their “you can’t do anything about it” attitude contaminate you.
• Become a problem solver. Approach each problem in a logical and determined way. Who said life was supposed to be easy? It’s full of problems. The great news is that you have the greatest computer in the world between your ears. Start to use it. Brainstorm problems. Come up with solutions and form plans. No matter how bad the situation keep looking for options. There’s always something you can do. In a dark room it’s better to light one candle than to complain about the dark. Look at problems as challenges for you to deal with.
• Leave the comfort zone. Think outside the box and be prepared to try new ideas. Keep your mind open for new ideas. Look around for how others have solved similar problems. Take calculated risks.
• Stay positive and be bold. Any problem can be solved with the right mindset. If you’re thinking of starting up a business to build yourself another income. You will have to complete a multitude of tasks to het it up and running. These can seem overwhelming and may discourage you. They needn’t. Just break the tasks down into smaller tasks then work logically through them

Over the last week I’ve pulled some products from my business that weren’t selling very well. I had to replace them with other products which I believe may sell better. The thought of dropping products and finding others to replace them was quiet daunting. It meant me getting out of my comfort zone and searching for other products. I just broke it down into small chunks.

1. Pull all poor selling products from EBay. They are costing money to keep on EBay. Draining your profits. (I leave them on my website because it doesn’t cost me anything to leave them there.)

2. Find new products to replace them with.

3. Contact supplier

4. Buy products

5. Write out listings and take photos.

6. List them on EBay

7. Monitor

Mission accomplished within two weeks.

• Don’t take anything personally. In your day to day business dealings take nothing personally. If you have a dissatisfied customer, deal with the problem calmly and logically. No matter how unreasonable it seems just deal with it, solve the problem then decide whether you want to deal with that customer again.

A can do attitude is the ability to overcome problems. To set goals and do everything you can to achieve them no matter what the obstacles are. To move forwards towards your dreams with a white hot intensity. Determined to achieve them. It’s an attitude that is essential to success and it’s an attitude that you can develop. With each success you have, however small it’s an attitude that will soon be reinforced in your character.

Planning: Forget The Detail

We know the old clique about failing to plan. The advice in every “Starting a Business” book about how important a plan is. I know If I want to keep fit I have to plan a training program and follow it, if I want to drive from A to b I have to plan the journey and stick to it. So what about business? Well-read any book and they will all highlight the need for a good plan.

The problem is some of the plans they recommend writing need a PHd to understand. Personally I don’t see the need for such in-depth planning. I’m not going to the bank asking for money so I don’t need to show my plan to anyone. Just as well because I’m probably the only one who can understand it.

When I sat down to write my plan I kept it short and simple. First I asked myself what was the objective of the plan? What I wanted my plan to give me was visible measurable results over time. I needed to be able to measure what success I was having from the stratergies I was deploying.

I also needed to map out a strategy, where I wanted to be in six months and how I planned to get there. I needed to create monthly targets, which I could strive for, and that’s about it. I know this plan wouldn’t pass muster with the bankers but who trusts bankers anymore. I mean what plan were Northern rock and Hbos working to.

My plan is written on three pieces of A4 paper. Yes I agree not very detailed but it has enough information for me to check that I’m meeting my targets. What I didn’t want to do was spend months with my elbows spread on the desk going over projected figures. You can plan too much until you are too afraid to move, a condition known as “analysis paralysis”

I wrote a small plan then just launched. Once I started to get real data in from the real market I was then in a position to make some changes to the plan and to be more concrete about what strategy to use to achieve my goals. I don’t see the need for one of those forty page business plans full of projected figures. I think taking action is more important.

It would probably have taken me six months to study how to write a detailed plan and then to write it. By which time I could have a bridgehead in my chosen market and be getting real data to work with. I know having a plan is good practice and will help keep me on track but I also know that too much planning can be a bad thing. Preventing us from taking that important step into the arena until all the conditions are just right. From my experience of life the conditions are never just right, there’s no point waiting for the heavens and stars to align before taking action. Life’s just too short for that.

Wasting Time

The success of any business depends on how well we accomplish those never ending tasks we have to do every day just to keep the business running. We also have to plan, start and finish the numerous projects we need to complete to push the business to another level. If you are running your business while holding down a full-time job good time management is critical. Without it we’re heading for failure. There’s always daily tasks that need doing like answering emails, reordering stock and posting orders.

I have had to become strict with myself when it comes to managing my time. I have a full-time job so eight to nine hours of my day is accounted for immediately. There is nothing I can do about that time. So I looked closely at where my time was slipping away, how I could use my time more productively.

The first biggest time stealer I identified was the internet. It is so easy to waste time aimlessly surfing the net. I realised that I was reading the news and checking the papers on the net. Following one lead after another just ate minutes that led to hours until I realised that I hadn’t accomplished anything. I had to plug this time wasting hole quick.

I have imposed some serious self-discipline on myself and come up with a system that is working well and making me more productive. Now when i go on the net I have a definite purpose. A tangible task or tasks to do. It maybe updating the website, answering emails or processing orders. Whatever task I have I work logically on that task until it is completed. No aimless surfing, no reading the news. I am focused on what I have to do. Aswell as ensuring I’m more productive it makes me feel better when each daily goal I have done. I turn my computer off with a glow of achievement. I have a list of tasks i have to do and I tick them off one at a time. Looking at a fully ticked off task list is a great ego booster.

Prioratising my tasks is also effective. I have a number of projects on the go all the time, some of these are long-term projects which I’ve launched as part of the long-term stratergy to ensure my business becomes a success. While it is important that I take steps towards the completion of the long-term projects it’s more important that I process the daily orders and look after my customer base. Dealing with the day-to-day running of my business is my priority. I clear this away first then I am free to work on my other projects.

That great modern time consumer emails has to be kept on a tight leash or it will devour your time like a hungry wolf devouring its prey. I filter spam out through my system before it gets to me. Having a spam detecter on your computer is essential. The ones that get under the radar of my detecter i delete without opening. My time is precious and i don’t want to waste it on reading about some offer or other that i never asked for.

I send a monthly newsletter out and until recently i did this through outlook. As my subscribers increased writing my newsletter and posting it to each individual subscriber was beginning to take days. I solved this problem by joining an auto e-mail responder service. Automating this part of my business has saved me hours of extra time every month.

I think the key to good time management is to keep a track of how you spend your time for a week and identify areas where you are wasting time. Once they have been identified you can then remove the waste and become more productive. Because I work shifts I get time on my own at certain periods of the day. For example when I’m on the afternoon shift as soon as my wife has gone to work and I have dropped my granddaughter off at nursery I go into my office and work feverishly on my daily tasks. I stay focused on them until I have completed them. Only breaking off to take the dog for a walk before returning to my computer. I work up to the last minute before setting off for work.

My aim is to get all my business work done so when i return home I can have a shower and sit with my wife in the room. While she’s watching the telly I’m sat with my laptop on my knee, either writing some copy or reading how to optimize my site. As well as the job and the business I have to ensure I leave enough time for family matters. It can be a complex balancing act but with good self-discipline it’s possible and rewarding.

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