Outlook: Tips to Organize your Inbox

Keeping Outlook organized is important, especially as more and more emails build up in our Inbox. By keeping your Outlook inboxes organized, you can manage your time more effectively and find communications easily and fast. HFA does not (currently) delete any emails from any users mailboxes, so it's important that you delete any unnecessary emails or archive emails for long term storage and clean them from your mailbox using the steps below.

Archive vs. Delete

In Outlook, "archive" and "delete" are two different actions you can take with your emails. Here's a brief explanation of what each of these actions means:

Archive

Inside your primary mailbox is a special "Archive" sub-folder. When you click on the Archive button in Outlooks tool bar, emails are moved into this folder where they show up in Search Results inside your primary mailbox, and are fast to interact with. This can help reduce clutter in your main inbox and other folders, and make it easier to find important messages later on. However, archiving emails this way does not free up any space in your mailbox. The Outlook Mobile App has a quick swipe shortcut, just swipe left or right and an email can be moved quickly into this folder.

Online (or In-Place) Archive

Some users need an additional mailbox to hold archived emails, usually because their primary inbox is very large. HFA has a policy for these users that will move all emails over 2 years old to your Online (or sometimes called 'In-Place') Archive. This special archive folder shows and acts like a separate mailbox underneath your primary mailbox in the Outlook left-side panel. To search emails in the Online Archive, you must select the Online Archive first, then search within it. The Online Archive contains a mirrored copy of your main inbox folder structure, granted that the items in the folders are all over 2 years old. For example, you might have a recently created folder with emails less than 2 years old in your main inbox. These folders won't appear in your Online Archive until there is at least one email over 2 years old.

Delete

Deleting emails in Outlook means moving them to the Deleted Items folder (find it by expanding your Inbox folder, and look for a folder named Deleted Items). This is a temporary storage location for messages that you no longer need, like the Recycle Bin in Windows or Mac OS. You can either choose to “Empty” the Deleted Items folder (by Right-clicking it), or let Outlook automatically clear it out periodically. When you delete an email in Outlook, it is not permanently removed from your mailbox until you empty the Deleted Items folder. This can be useful if you need to recover a message that you accidentally deleted, but HFA does not automatically clean this folder out, so you’ll have to do this yourself! So please, keep tabs on this folder and clean it out occasionally. Doing this will make your Outlook profile run much faster.

Create your own Custom Outlook Mailbox Folders

Do you find yourself drowning in a sea of emails every time you open your inbox? If so, it's time to take control of your email and get organized with custom inbox folders in Outlook. Creating custom folders is an easy and effective way to keep your inbox clutter-free and prioritize important emails. You can also set powerful rules for subfolders to perform tasks like “Delete all emails older than 6 months” or to move certain emails to your Archive on a timed interval.

Here’s how to do it:

Right-click your Inbox folder in the left panel in Outlook
Choose “New Folder…”
Select the folder type as "Mail and Post Items."
If you want the folder to appear at the same level as your Inbox, select "Mail and Post Items" in the dropdown menu under "Folder contains."
If you want the folder to be a subfolder of your Inbox, select "Inbox" in the dropdown menu under "Select where to place the folder."
Click "OK" to create the folder.

Once you have created your custom inbox folders, you can start organizing your emails by moving them into the appropriate folders. Simply drag and drop emails into the desired folder or use the "Move" feature in the ribbon to move emails to specific folders.

Organizing your inbox with custom folders can help you stay focused and prioritize important emails. It can also help reduce clutter in your inbox and make it easier to find specific messages when you need them. Plus, it's a great way to project a professional image to colleagues and clients.

How to Create Mail Rules to Move Messages in Outlook

Do you receive a large volume of emails every day? Do you struggle to keep your inbox organized and find important messages quickly? If so, you can save yourself time and hassle by creating mail rules to automatically move messages to specific folders. In this guide, we'll show you how to create mail rules in Outlook to move messages and keep your inbox tidy.

Open Outlook and go to the "Home" tab in the ribbon.
Click on the "Rules" dropdown button and select "Create Rule."
In the "Create Rule" dialog box, select the conditions that you want to apply to the messages you want to move. For example, you can choose to move all emails from a specific sender, with a specific subject, or that contain certain keywords.
Once you have selected the conditions, click on the "Next" button.
Choose the action you want to apply to the messages. In this case, select "Move the item to folder."
Click on the "Select Folder" button and choose the folder you want to move the messages to. If you don't see the folder you want, you can create a new one by clicking on "New" and following the prompts.
Click on "OK" to save the folder selection.
If you want to apply the rule to existing messages in your mailbox, check the box next to "Run this rule now on messages already in the current folder."
Click on "Finish" to save the rule.

Your new rule is now active, and any messages that meet the criteria you specified will be automatically moved to the selected folder. You can create as many rules as you need to manage your email more efficiently.

How to Add Folders to Your Outlook Favorites

If you're like most people, you have a few folders in Outlook that you access frequently. Maybe you have a folder for your boss's emails, a folder for a specific project, or a folder for emails from a particular client. Whatever the case, it can be frustrating to have to navigate to these folders every time you want to access them. Fortunately, Outlook makes it easy to add your favorite folders to a special section called "Favorites" so that you can access them quickly and easily. Here's how to do it:

Open Outlook and go to your mailbox.

Locate the folder you want to add to your favorites.

Right-click on the folder and select "Add to Favorites" from the dropdown menu.

The folder will now appear in your "Favorites" section at the top of the folder list.

That's it! You can repeat this process for as many folders as you like, and they will all appear in your "Favorites" section for easy access. If you want to remove a folder from your favorites, simply right-click on the folder in the "Favorites" section and select "Remove from Favorites." The folder will still be accessible in your mailbox, but it will no longer appear in your "Favorites" section.

In addition to making it easier to access your most frequently used folders, the "Favorites" section can also help you stay organized by grouping all of your important folders in one place. So, take a few minutes to add your favorite folders to your "Favorites" section in Outlook today and enjoy easier, more efficient access to your email.