10 Outlook Tips For A Tidier Personal Inbox

A personal inbox fills up fast. Delivery updates, supermarket offers, school newsletters, bills, appointment reminders and messages from friends all land in the same place, and the important ones get buried. If you use Outlook, whether that’s the free Outlook.com webmail, the Outlook app on your computer or Outlook on your phone, there are plenty of built-in tools to help. Here are ten Outlook tips that are well worth learning.

One thing to bear in mind: menus differ a little between Outlook.com, the newer Outlook app for Windows and the older “classic” version, and some tools are only in certain versions. If you can’t spot a button, try searching Outlook’s help or the settings menu for the feature’s name.

Outlook Tips That Let It Sort Your Inbox For You

1. Turn On Focused Inbox

Focused Inbox splits your inbox into two tabs, Focused and Other. According to Microsoft, your most important messages go into Focused, while the rest stay out of the way in Other. It learns from how you use your email and gradually filters out bulk and automated messages. In the newer Outlook for Windows, you’ll find it under View, then View settings, Mail and Layout. Microsoft’s guide to Focused Inbox covers the other versions.

2. Teach It What Matters

If a message lands in the wrong tab, right-click it and choose Move, then Move to Focused inbox or Move to Other inbox. Choose the “Always move” option and future emails from that sender will go straight to the right place. A few minutes of this and your Focused tab becomes far more useful.

Automate The Repetitive Tidying

3. Create Rules For Regular Senders

Rules move messages for you as they arrive. It’s ideal for things like order confirmations, bank statements or club newsletters. In the newer Outlook for Windows, right-click a message, hover over Rules, choose Create rule, then pick the folder you want messages from that sender to go to. Microsoft notes that the rule then applies to all incoming messages. For more complex rules, choose More options. See Microsoft’s guide to using rules in Outlook for details.

One catch: Microsoft says the newer Outlook for Windows doesn’t currently support rules for accounts from some other email providers added to it, such as Gmail or iCloud.

4. Use Sweep To Clear Out The Clutter

In Outlook.com and Outlook on the web, Sweep deals with senders who fill your inbox. Select a message and choose Sweep, and you can delete everything from that sender, keep only their latest message, or remove their emails older than 10 days. It’s perfect for daily deals emails, where only the most recent one matters. Microsoft notes that Sweep rules run once a day.

Keep What Matters In View

5. Pin Important Messages

Pinning is one of the quickest Outlook tips to learn, and it keeps a message at the top of your list, so things like a holiday booking or a school term dates email stay easy to find until you’re done with them.

6. Flag Emails That Need Action

Flag a message when you need to reply, pay or do something about it. You can then filter your inbox to show only flagged messages, giving you a simple to-do list without leaving your email.

7. Snooze Messages Until You Need Them

Snooze makes a message disappear from your inbox and pop back at a time you choose. It’s handy for a parcel collection notice you won’t need until the weekend, or a renewal reminder you can’t deal with until payday.

Organise Without Endless Folders

8. Archive Instead Of Delete

If you’re nervous about deleting emails you might need one day, use Archive. It moves the message out of your inbox into an Archive folder, where you can still search for it or move it back later. It’s a quick way to get your inbox down to just the things you’re actively dealing with.

9. Colour-Code With Categories

Categories let you tag messages with colours, for example one colour for household bills, another for the children’s clubs and another for a house move or holiday. The inbox Filter option lets you narrow down what you see, whether that’s flagged messages, those with attachments or other criteria.

Keep Junk And Scams Out

10. Let The Junk Filter Work, And Help It Along

Outlook’s junk email filter automatically sends suspected spam to the Junk Email folder. Microsoft’s tips for reducing spam include:

• don’t reply to spam unless you know and trust the sender, as replying confirms your address is active
• untick pre-selected boxes that share your email address with other companies when you sign up to websites
• be suspicious of emails asking for personal information, and check by contacting the organisation using details you already trust

Scam emails often pretend there’s a problem with your computer or an antivirus subscription. Our guide to spotting fake antivirus and tech support scams explains what to look for. And because your email account is the key to so many others, give it a strong password and 2-step verification, as explained in our guide to strong passwords for the whole household.

Getting Started With These Outlook Tips

You don’t need to try all ten Outlook tips at once. A good first session might look like this:

1. Turn on Focused Inbox and move a few messages to teach it.
2. Sweep or create rules for your three noisiest senders.
3. Archive everything older than a month that you’ve already dealt with.
4. Flag or snooze anything that still needs action.

Spend a couple of minutes a day keeping on top of it, and your inbox should stay calm and manageable.

If you found this useful, there’s plenty more everyday advice for the home over at Beyond The Garden Gates.

Kaan Rassad

See Full Bio