If you regularly use Outlook email, it's probably because you're at least a moderately functional and productive human being who contributes to society. For that, congratulations. But there's always a little more room for anyone to up their productivity and kick things up a notch.
Maybe some hidden Outlook features won't be life-changing enough to skyrocket your productivity skills, but these features will at least help you spend less of your precious time trying to sort through emails. So give them a try.
1. Get rid of spam fast with Sweep
You may have seen the Swipe button located in the menu bar at the top of Outlook.com, but I don't know what it does. It literally lets you sweep the clutter out of your inbox quickly and efficiently. When viewing an email, click Swipe to reveal quick actions for that email, future emails, or its sender.
For example, if you receive an email as part of a newsletter that you want Outlook to take care of automatically, you can ask Sweep to take care of it. You can automatically delete all emails from this sender from your inbox, block all future emails from the sender, keep the last one and automatically delete the rest from this sender or always delete emails from this sender. sender older than 10 days.
Sweep is customizable and adaptable to different folders and categories, so you can choose to archive those emails instead.
2. Manage and customize your Outlook categories
Whether you know it or not, you probably use Outlook's Categories feature. This automatically sorts different types of emails into appropriate smart folders and brings out content that deserves your attention. The Photos category shows all the photos in an email and presents them in a nice gallery while the Shipping Updates category provides you with the tracking code and updates for a package.
But what you might not know is that these categories are completely customizable, and there's a lot more available to you than you could have enabled in the sidebar. Additionally, you can add your own categories and set rules for the emails within them.
To customize categories, click the Settings icon at the top right of Outlook.com and choose Manage Categories from the menu. Here you can choose which categories you want to enable (filter) from the long list and which ones you specifically want to show in the folder menu for quick access.
You can also create your own category by clicking New Category .
Tip: To use a new category, consider clicking Manage Rules in the Settings menu and establish a rule to automatically sort different types of emails into that category.
3. Outlook.com has keyboard shortcuts galore
Are you a keyboard shortcut fanatic? Or maybe you're just looking for faster ways to perform common tasks in Outlook. Either way, Outlook has a keyboard shortcut for just about every email function you use. There are dozens that cover everything from writing an email to reading an email to taking action.
To see the full list of keyboard shortcuts you can use, just press the ? key anywhere on Outlook.com. You can also check out the handy screenshot above.
How do you use Outlook.com?
Now that you know how to "scan" your messages, customize your smart categories, and navigate with keyboard shortcuts, you're well on your way to becoming an Outlook pro and someone who can conquer the tedious task of email.
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