Spotlight on Outlook

When we think of Microsoft Outlook we immediately think of sending and receiving emails. Some of us may have noticed or heard of the other sections of Outlook like the Calendar but either do not feel that we can spare the time to learn about these new functions or have a tried and tested way of organising our schedules and to-do lists.

For years I used various methods and styles of 'life-organisation' to try and arrange my many training courses and post course tasks. My main method was hundreds of half filled A4 lined pads, a constant source of highlighters and a multitude of coloured Post-It notes. As I have a number of ways of grouping my to-do lists I needed a way to view all similar tasks and appointments together rather than looking for a yellow highlighted line, with two asterisks and a smiley face! I decided to try and utilise Outlook to its full extent.

Microsoft Outlook is a much bigger package than most of us realise. It will store all your phone numbers and email address, keep an upto date to do list and remind you in plenty of time about any appointments or phone calls you may have arranged.

The main excuse I hear about why people only use the email section of Outlook is that they spend a very short period of time at the computer, usually just to check their emails first thing in the morning.

Although I work with computers all day every day I am very rarely logged into my Outlook system, as I am busy teaching most of the time. However, I print off my most important contacts to keep with me no matter where I travel on-site, I update my calendar with all upcoming courses including any contact details for my customised days and use Outlook as a brain storming tool at the end of each day to log any questions and issues which I want to look into for my delegates.

The Task List is basically a computerised To-Do list which allows me to prioritise and catagorise all my jobs. I also love the fact that I can set Due dates which flag up the tasks in red if I have not marked them as completed. Speaking of completed tasks, if I mark them as completed they stay on my task list in grey with a line through them so that I can view a huge list of completed tasks which gives me great satisfaction.

I add all my training courses to my calendar, colour co-ordinate them to tell me whether it is a proposed or confirmed course. I also attach any manuals, outlines or course exercises to each training course so that I no longer need to concern myself about where I have saved my various files.

All in all Outlook is a very powerful tool which is sadly underutilised. I recommend getting to grips with these additional features of Outlook.

If you are interested in attending an Introductory level course in Outlook, follow the link below to find out details of our forthcoming courses.

An Introduction to Outlook