Emails (continued)
Following on from my last blog on emails, a few other thoughts have come to mind about emails, which I outline below.
Ever lost an email and don’t know where you moved it to?
If you are trying to find an email, did you know that you can sort your emails into a different order (rather than date)? For example, you can put emails in name order of emails received or sent.
Or you can also search emails by name, topic etc by putting the search term in the
Search
box.
Also, have you checked your Junk or Spam folders recently?
Calendars
Do you use a physical or IT version?
I have a good friend who insists on using a Filofax but that is because she (1) prefers the paper version and (2) doesn’t carry her work phone around with her all the time.
If your email and calendar sync to your work phone, and you always carry your work phone around with you (as I do) then this may be your preferred method. You can then add appointments to either your phone or PC calendar meaning you always have an up to date version of your calendar with you.
Other things to remember when entering diary appointments;
• Is anyone else going to have access or need access to your diary? If so, then you are going to have to make your appointments clear. For example, entering name “John” at 2pm on Wednesday is not going to help your colleagues or employees know where you are and with whom!
• Again, if other people have access to your emails, will they realise your appointment is outside the office and will they account for the travel time to and from your meeting? So, if your meeting is at 3pm and is 20 miles away, will they realise you will be leaving the office at 2:30pm? If not, enter your travel time to and from your meeting in your diary – saves someone booking a meeting with you at 2:30!
• Could you use your, or another, calendar as a central point in which all members of staff enter their meetings/appointments? I have found this particularly useful in the past, especially in smaller offices. Also, I do think that a company appears more professional if the receptionist knows what is going on, who is coming through the door and who they are visiting.
• In Outlook, did you know that you can mark your appointments as “private”? This prevents those with access to your calendar seeing any information about your appointment.
• Do you have any recurring appointments, and these can be weekly, monthly or broken down to such times and dates like the “last Friday of each month”? If so, use the
Repeat
option when setting up your appointment.
• Enter your appointment as soon as you make it, otherwise there is a very good chance you will forget.
• Is your appointment with someone? If so, use the
Invite attendees function. When you enter the appointment, invite the person, or ask them to invite you, so it enters the appointment straightaway both in your diary and theirs.
• If you are unsure of the other attendees’ availability, use the
Scheduling Assistant
which will let you look at their diaries and see when they have time free for your meeting.
• Do you want a reminder set for your appointment? If so, this again can be set when creating your appointment or you can actually get Outlook to email you the reminder.
• Are there any documents or information relevant to your meeting? If so these can be added to the appointment when you are setting it up.
Louise’s Top Tip:
Some of you may find this extreme but as I say I do like to be organised – I colour code my appointments (for example, I colour code clients' work) so when I look at my calendar I can immediately see what I have on and when.
Finally, have you thought about outsourcing the organisation of your emails / diary or being trained on Outlook?
Outsourcing it to someone (with my experience and skills) will help relieve the burden from you and ensure it is done in the most efficient way possible.
I hope the above has been useful. Any questions or comments, please email: louise@taylormadeservices.org.uk
13 July 2020