If you need more information or are investigating the issue separately, respond to the whole Contact Group to let everyone know that you are responding and then reply to the individual separately. Make sure to respond to the Contact Group after the issue is resolved with the resolution. In this way, the resolution can be referenced by other people on the Contact Group. If you suspect inbox repair tool alternative that what you are looking for might be in an accepted meeting request (and therefore is on your calendar), try selecting All Outlook Items. After you start creating Quick Steps, you will find that there might be other ways that you can optimize the number of clicks required to get something done. Whenever you find yourself doing the same thing repeatedly, try creating a Quick Step.

• Search folders are useful for gathering information from across different mail and RSS folders.
• Treat these streams of information much as you would a large newspaper — there might be a useful or interesting article, but reading the whole paper would take considerable time.
• Sometimes you receive a message that is really meant for someone else to deal with.
• Otherwise, consider using an online meeting app such as Microsoft Teams or meeting by phone.
• This becomes even more complicated if there is more than one appropriate folder per message.

Delete it

To find a message with an attachment, select the Search box and on the Search tab, select Has Attachments. Or, start by typing the name in the Search box, and then press the down arrow key to select From to narrow the results. After you have processed your messages, the best place to do work in Outlook (reply to messages and so on) is in Tasks. By switching to Tasks, you won’t be distracted by messages arriving in your Inbox.

Which Contact Groups should go to a folder instead of my Inbox?

The same category set applies to all items, so if you use a category for contacts, keep it. Messages sent to large distribution lists and to RSS feeds can easily overwhelm your Inbox. Treat these streams of information much as solve office 365 mailbox sync Delays you would a large newspaper — there might be a useful or interesting article, but reading the whole paper would take considerable time. Let rules help you to read what is most interesting and pertinent to you. Read and unread states in Outlook help by showing you quickly which messages have been read at least once and which have not.

Daily review: Managing your time and tasks

Limiting the time you spend reading messages to once in the morning and once at the end of the day could significantly improve your productivity. The Quick Steps feature lets users automate repetitive email tasks with a single click. For instance, if you frequently move messages to a specific folder, you can set up a quick step to move them faster with one click. Rules allow you to move, flag, and respond to email messages automatically. For example, you can create rules that change the importance level of messages as they arrive, automatically move them to other folders, or delete them based on certain criteria.

When to create a Contact Group in Outlook

If you find you're regularly creating meetings with the same group of people, create a group in the Navigation Pane so that you can more easily see people’s free-busy information. These groups can also include rooms, which can make it easier to find an available room to meet in. The Room Finder pane contains suggested times for the best time for your meeting (when most attendees are available).



Search folders can be especially useful when you need to gather information that is saved in different folders — for example, when preparing for a quarterly meeting. Set your Contact Group folders to auto archive every six months or more frequently if they are time sensitive — for example, a Contact Group for finding carpool rides should be archived daily. Sentences prefaced with the Microsoft 365 logo are references to other Fix Outlook and Office 365 Errors 2025 Microsoft 365 products, such as Microsoft OneNote, and Microsoft SharePoint Server. Sentences that mention AutoArchive and Outlook Data Files (.pst) are marked with an icon of a folder and file . If your organization doesn’t deploy these products or features, these sentences can be disregarded without impacting the overall document and work flow.

View the calendar and inbox side by side

Once an item has been flagged, it will appear in the To-Do Bar. By flagging it and filing it into your reference folder, you have processed it, and now you can move it out of your view. But because it’s in your task list, you can move on to your next message, knowing that you will return to your flagged items later. If you receive a large volume of messages (more than 200 messages a day), search folders might be a good way for you to parse mail from different senders. If you are short on time, for example, between meetings, you can read the messages in blue – messages sent directly to you. Often these messages are waiting on you for the next step and are the most important.



However, the read and unread states of messages can be easily be triggered by clicking around your messages so they aren’t a perfect record — just a tool. Create Contact Groups (formerly known as personal distribution lists) in Outlook when you want to make it easier to send messages to a group of people outside your corporation. For all groups inside your corporation, create a public Contact Group (ask your IT administrator about how to do this). Send your calendar in a message when you set up meetings with people who can’t see your free/busy information, such as people outside of your company. Create a single task, mark it with the @Meeting category, and set the Start Date or Due Date to the date of your meeting. As the meeting date approaches and discussion points come up, add comments, bullets, and thoughts to the task as they occur to you.