Discussion on:

Organize your Inbox by converting Outlook 2007 e-mail into tasks

One of the ways to also do this is to tag the email for follow up. Just rightclick in the Followup field. Select the desired timeline and voila.

You can add reminders as well.

If you actually set a date for it and then go to your calendar, I believe you see the email in the lower-pane. You can drag it to the calendar and presto - it's also an appointment. Ever so handy.

I use tasks quite a bit otherwise my inbox would be unmanageable and I wouldn't be able to remember all the tons of things I have to get done. This is a a nice tip that will make creating tasks a bit quicker and easier for me. I am a task fanatic and find that if I keep all the relevant emails and files in the tasks, I only have to go to one place and eveything is at my fingerips. It's also helpful if I need to go back to a completed task for reference purposes

When I create tasks from emails sent from Outlook, the task double spaces the entire email. Does anyone know any workarounds? I believe this is a fundamental problem because even gmail users receive Outlook emails with double spacing.

Thanks.

I just might try this. Anything's gotta be better than my current way of organizing tasks, which involves trying to keep them all in my head -- and failing.

Also works in Outlook 2003. And you can drag to the Calender as well.

An even better way to do this this is to RIGHT Click and Drag the message into tasks - this brings up a menu that lets you choose to:

Copy as a task with text, Copy as a task with attachment, move the item as a task with attachment

Personally I use the last option most frequently because it removes the item from my mail as well as leaving the message available for me to respond to should I need to while working the task.

THese same options work when moving an item into the caledar by a Right click and drag move.

I was "doing this the hard way" (which I am wont to do) by opening the item and copying/moving it to the Calendar (or Task), but this is "more better" for sure. Oh, and I discovered that you don't have to HOLD the right-button while trying to simultaneously hold the left button to move it. Just right-click, release, then left hold and move.

Most email at work is a task and it is a little intense to turn every email into a task. I just treat my inbox as a task list and move anything that is not an action item to a personal folder. However, I use copy to another folder to move mail to Calendar items for reminders and follow-ups.

Great tip! I used to right-click on a message, then move it to Tasks, but later I'd have to double-click on the envelope icon to open the message to read it. This tip makes more sense. Thanks!

As Andrew pointed out it works in 2003 also, and for those of us that use corporate machines with limits on inbox size limitations, this is a good way to keep it flushed below the max level, since Tasks do not count against inbox size.

Also, if you get emails that pertain to a Task you already created, besides just adding it as an attachment, you can use Insert>Item from the menu. If you select "Insert as Text only" it will include the header information of the email. Very important when you want to show authorization/approval trails.

To responde to a previous email that is part of your Task, use the Send Status Report button.

I'm not sure that statement is acurate. If you are using MS Exchange in a corporate setting, not just the "TASK" folder but all the folders in your profile are counted towards the size of your mailbox in the Server. The only way it does not count is if you create a separate Data file and move your messages to that file. To check the Total size, right click on your Mailbox (not Inbox),select Properties, click on "Folder Size button then click on "Server Data" Tab.
As you scroll down the list of folders, you will find "Task"

Great tip. But I have a programming question about appointments. Most appointments I receive have a "When:" field, however, I can not find that field
under "Customize View-Filter-Advance-Field". Any suggestions?

Excellent tip - another feature that is also helpful is that you can drag the message to your calendar icon and it will open up the calendar with all the email in it so you have a reminder of what the meeting is about (you can set the date and time). Further to this, you could also drag the email to contacts icon and it will list the letter in the contact window. You can cut and paste any particulars (this is very advantageous if it is someone you will likely not contact often but need a reminder of why you have them under contacts. - Mike

I have been reading a great book on Outlook and time management. It's called "Take Back Your Life -Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to get organized and stay organized.", by Sally McGhee and John Wittry (ISBN-10: 10-0-7356-2343-0 ) published by Microsoft.
It's not perfect but it has great suggestions.

Well, Outlook is a very powerfull tool indeed but it is very hard for a business user to leverage all the hard core engineering inside. This is why we tried to replicate Priority Inbox in Outlook. We are in beta at the moment and you are able to download your version of Priority Inbox for Outlook for free. Check it out at http://www.priorityinboxforoutlook.com

And don???t forget to send us your feedback!