Staying organised with Rules

Do you need assistance to keep your Inbox organised?

Outlook and Gmail offer you a feature called Rules / Filters respectively. Rules and Filters can help you by: filing and managing follow-up messages, and notifying you in some way when you have received a particular message. To assist you in Outlook, I have created a video which will show you how I file incoming messages from Tim Ferriss (author of “The 4-hour Workweek”) to a folder called Tim. To do this, I’m going to create the folder first and then create the Rule. If you already have a folder to place your messages into, then skip the “creating a folder” step.

Staying organised to have fun

Step 1: To create my new folder

1. Position your cursor. For example, I’m selecting the Inbox as I want the new folder to be placed below the Inbox;
2. Then from the Ribbon, select Folder tab > New Folder icon;
3. You will now be prompted for the folder name (Tip: keep your folder names succinct); then
4. Click on [OK].

Step 2: To create the Rule:

1. Working from where these messages will be located (in this example, my Inbox), I’m going to click on one of Tim’s messages.
2. To have the Rule generator do all of the work, [Right Mouse] button on the message then select Rules.
3. There are several options here and I’m going to select “Always move messages from …”
4. Outlook will now ask you to “choose a folder” to where these message will be moved. So I’m going to select “Tim”.
5. Now click on [OK].

Outlook will now run through your Inbox to pick up and move any other messages that match this Rule. This may take a few minutes if you have a large inbox.

I hope you find this feature helpful and that it assists you to organise your inbox a little better.

PS: Let me know if you would like a video to assist with filters in Gmail.