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Archive for task

Use Outlook to create and share standard processes with others

Thursday, September 8th, 2011

You can easily create templates of appointments and tasks for standard work processes and project plans with Smart Schedules for Outlook. These templates can then be used to create an entire series of appointments and tasks for new projects in the future. Do you know that you can also easily share your process templates with other Outlook users?

You can export the templates you have created in Smart Schedules into a zip file. This zip file can be sent to your members who use Smart Schedules. The templates can be easily imported into Smart Schedules from this zip file by using the import function in Smart Schedules.

Below are instructions on how to can easily share Smart Schedules Templates with others.

1. Export the Smart Schedules templates from your computer
2. Send the Zip file to your members
3. Import the Smart Schedules templates

1. Export the Smart Schedules templates from your computer (Your End)

  • Start Outlook and go to your Inbox
  • Click the Project Centre button on the Smart Schedules toolbar/ribbon
  • On the Project Centre window, click Create/Edit Templates under the Project Commands section
  • Select the templates you would like to send to your members from the list of templates (multiple templates can be selected with the use of the Ctrl or Shift key on your keyboard)
  • Click Export button. If the Export button is not displayed on the screen, then click on the Show Import/Export Templates link

Show Import and Export Template link

  • Enter a name for the zip file and save it to a preferred location on your computer.

A zip file will be created containing the templates you selected for Export.

2. Send the Zip file to your members

You can now attach the zip file to a email and send it to the member(s).

3. Import the Smart Schedules templates (Member’s End)

You can now advice your member(s) to follow the steps below to easily import the templates into their Smart Schedules program:

  • Start Outlook and go to your Inbox
  • Click the Project Centre button on the Smart Schedules toolbar/ribbon
  • On the Project Centre window, click Create/Edit Templates under the Project Commands section
  • Click Import button. If the Import button is not displayed on the screen, then click on the Show Import/Export Templates link

This should now import the templates into the Smart Schedules program.

I hope this tip helps you get more out of the time you put into creating process templates in Smart Schedules.

How to organize Appointments and Tasks in Outlook by Project

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

Many of us use Outlook’s appointments and tasks to manage our daily lives and projects… and yet Outlook does not give us an easy way to manage projects inside Outlook. Outlook users frequently ask us how they can see all appointments and tasks that make up a project in one place.

Why is this important?  As we finish a step, it is important to know what the next steps are to get the project completed. Things also don’t always go according to plan… and we need to see what else gets affected when things change.

Our research showed that there is no simple way to organize and view tasks and appointments under projects…  so we added this functionality to our Outlook Project Management addin Smart Schedules for Outlook.

With Smart Schedules for Outlook you can:

  1. Assign existing (or new) tasks and appointments to projects
  2. Quickly see all tasks and appointments for a project at the click of a button.

Here are step by step instructions showing you just how easy this can be:

Assign existing (or new) tasks and appointments to projects

  1. Open Outlook and go to the Calendar/Task folder that the existing appointment/task is located in
  2. Select the appointment/task
  3. Click on Assign Project button on the Smart Schedules toolbar/ribbon. This will display the following screen:
  4. Assign to Project

  5. Select an existing project from the Project list.
    Note: You can also type in a new project name if you would like to create a new project and add this selected appointment/task to that project.
  6. Click OK.

Quickly see all tasks and appointments for a project at the click of a button.

Smart Schedules Project Centre makes it easy to see all appointments and tasks that you have associated with a project.

  1. On the Smart Schedules toolbar, click Project Centre
  2. From the Project drop-down, select the Project to which you assigned the appointment or task
  3. You will now be able to view the appointment or task assigned to the project and all other related appointments and tasks for the project as shown below:

Project Centre

Next Steps…

Smart Schedules for Outlook was designed with the help of almost 20,000 Outlook users. Try it for yourself today and tell us what you think.

Download a fully functional version of Smart Schedules for Outlook.

Watch a short video of our Outlook based Project Manager (Smart Schedules)

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Converting Outlook Emails to Appointments or Tasks

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

You may want to convert an email to a Task or Appointment if you need to take some action on it. Your Outlook Task List and your Calendar are where you should put any items that you need to work on.

Here are two ways to ‘magically’ convert an Outlook email to an appointment or task item

Method 1: Drag and Drop

1. Right-click and drag the email you want to convert.

2. Drop the item to the Task or Appointment folder where you want the new item to be created. A menu appears as shown below:

Copy Item to another folder

Outlook 2003/2007

 

Copy mail item to another folder

Outlook 2010

3. On the menu, select the option you want to use. You can either copy the email to the new location or move it there. The original email can either be copied as text into the body of the new task or appointment… or it can be attached to it. Personally I prefer to choose Copy as Attachment. This makes it easier to access the full contents of the email and then do a Reply if I need to.

Once you select an option, the new task or appointment will be created.

4. Fill in any additional information needed, and save the item.

Method 2: A Simple Button Click

There is a easier and more powerful way of doing this if you are a user of our addin QuickFile for Outlook. QuickFile adds a few extra buttons to the Outlook toolbar or Ribbon to give Outlook some extra functionality.

Simply select the email and then click the appropriate button on the toolbar 

QuickFile Toolbar

What is even cooler is that QuickFile for Outlook can also automatically create appointments and tasks from outgoing emails after they are sent. This is really handy if you need to take action on a future date on an email.

1. Compose your email as you normally would
2. Click the Send button, the Send & File screen will be displayed.
3. Click the Show Options >> link on the screen to expand the form
4. Click on Task/Schedule it! link to open the screen below:

Creating Appointment or task

5. Place a tick in the respective checkboxes to make an Appointment and/or Task.
6. Fill in the required fields and click OK.
7. After saving these setting click Send&File to send the email. (The Appointment/Task will also be created if you clicked on Send Only or Send&Delete)

According to your settings your Task and/or Appointment will be created.

If you aren’t a user of QuickFile yet, Click here to download a fully functional 30 days trial version of QuickFile for Outlook

Following Up On YOUR Sent Emails!

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

How often do you find yourself rushing around in a panic… trying to get some important task completed… maybe you forgot to do something you had promised someone else in an email… or maybe someone else did not do something you had emailed them about (if only you had followed up!).

Do you find yourself forgetting to take actions or follow-up on emails that you have sent out?

The result of missing these actions can be annoying or it can be catastrophic (I know I am overstating things but I HAD to use the word catastrophic after I thought of it).

  • You could miss out on an important opportunity
  • You could end up having to put in extra unplanned hours to get a task completed at the last minute
  • You could end up missing out on important personal or family time because you had to do the missed work at the last minute
  • You could end up looking unprofessional because you missed an important action

There is a FREE and EASY solution that already
EXISTS IN OUTLOOK!
Create a Task or Appointment from the Sent Emails
(It did NOT work well for me but you may be more disciplined)

The solution is easy… simply create a task or appointment in your Outlook Calendar for each email you need to follow up on.  You can modify the task/appointment so that it reminds you at the appropriate time.

Use this simple technique so that a copy of your email is attached to the Task or Appointment.

Every time you send out an email that requires further action or follow-up, go to the Sent Items folder and drag-and-drop the email from the Sent Items folder to either your Task List or your Calendar.

This will automatically create either a new Appointment or a new Task for you that you can then modify with due dates etc!

If you drag & drop using the right mouse button (instead of the left), you will also get options to attach the email to the newly created appointment/task.

Just getting the associated actions in your Calendar or Task List could be all the help you needed. But…

Unfortunately this did NOT work for me?

Why? Every time I send out an email I have to remember to go to the Sent Items folder (after waiting for the email to be sent)… It’s just too easy to forget… and it takes too much (unnecessary) discipline.

I had the team build some functionality into our QuickFile PRO application an year ago to help me out but even that wasn’t good enough… It did what was needed but it still needed too many clicks… what can I say… my mother was right… I AM LAZY!

But laziness isn’t a bad thing really… especially if you have a great programming team. So I’ve had them redesign one of the screens in QuickFile PRO for me.

I have been testing the new screen for the last 4 weeks and it works great.

It prompts me automatically every time I send out an email and…
I can file, create a task and/or an appointment all from
one screen.

We will release the new version at the end of the week.

This will be a FREE update for existing users and we’ll do a special discount for new users. I’ll tell you more about it when everything is ready.

In the meantime, try the free drag-and-drop approach to see if it works for you. Just moving those emails to your Task list or Calendar could have a great effect on your productivity.

Till later… when I show you our great new screen… Have a Great Outlook.

Here are a few ways to automatically get reminded to work on an email that you have received but do not need/want to work on till some date/time in the future.

Option 1: Flag the email with a reminder

This is an OK option if you don’t mind keeping the email in your Inbox (I’ve got some options later that will even remove the email from your Inbox until you need it).

Right click on the email, click Follow-up and then click Add Reminder.

Enter the relevant information in the screen and click OK.

The problems with this method are:

  1. The email actually stays in your Inbox which can be a distraction and affect your productivity.
  2. You can’t add any notes to the original email (unless you are using Email Notes for Outlook)

Option 2: Convert the Email to your Calendar or Task List (drag-and-drop)

Many Outlook users do not realise this but you can convert an email to a Task or Calendar by dragging it to the Task or Calendar folder.

A new Task or Calendar Item will be created and opened with the email content in it. You can set the appropriate date to be reminded.

I prefer to drag-and-drop using the right (instead of left) mouse button. This gives 3 options when I drop the email:

Copy here as Task with Text

Copy here as Task with Attachment

Move here as Task with Attachment

I choose either Copy or Move with Attachment options. This way the new Task has the email attached to it. I can simply double-click the attached email to respond.

Option 3: Use QuickFile for Outlook to remove your emails and have them magically reappear at the correct date and time

In an earlier post, we mentioned how QuickFile for Outlook can be used to DEFER emails. If you are a QuickFile user then this is the nicest option.

Categories : Outlook Email Tips
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