When you create an Outlook task, you can also set a reminder to alert you visually and audibly at a specified time. When you set the reminder, Outlook defaults to 8:00 AM. Most of us are going to use a variety of time values, so the default is irrelevant.


If you routinely use the same time for reminders, you can save yourself a few clicks by changing the default, as follows:

  1. Click the File menu.
  2. Choose Options under Help.
  3. Click Tasks in the left pane.
  4. In the Task Options section, click the Default Reminder Time dropdown.
  5. Choose the new time.
  6. Click OK.

It’s not a huge change, but lots of small changes add up over the run of a day. Fortunately, customizing Outlook is easy, most of the time.