Time Management and Productivity with Microsoft Outlook

As a starting point, collect all your tasks in one place.

You may be surprised how many "hidden" lists and reminder system exist... How about

• Notes on scratchpads

• Tasks in some planner app on your smartphone

• Emails that sit in your Outlook inbox as "reminders"

• Calendar events... that you need to prepare

• ...

Having all of them in one list is the basis for our upcoming prioritization activities.

The base principles of time management

Because "It doesn't matter how fast you run …if you're heading in the wrong direction"
(Steven Covey)

• Do the right things (vs. doing things right)

• The Pareto Principle (the 80/20 rule)

• Why you need full clarity regarding your goals and your personal key tasks

Online-Worksheet: your annual review - created today

• here you find the link to a Google docs online worksheet

• the content will be only visible to yourself - download the document before filling it in ("File / Download")

• ...or print out the attached pdf document if you prefer pen & paper

• The difference between "urgent" and "important" - the Eisenhower-Matrix

• Apply these principles for better prioritization of your tasks

Application of the Eisenhower principle

• Why the order of your tasks makes a difference

• At the end of the day a few things may not be accomplished - make sure that no key task is among them...

Do the important things first!

• What is your “MIT” - your most important task of the day?

• What would you do if your day had only 1 hour today?

In this lesson, you’ll get to know a new addition to this course: your personal AI productivity assistant.

It’s designed specifically to support you with everything related to time management, planning, focus, priorities, and Outlook—interactive, personalized, and directly based on the course content.

Just give it a try and use it as an extra layer of support in your daily work. You can also ask it directly about specific sections of the course. All you need is a free ChatGPT account.

The AI coach is new to this course—your feedback is therefore especially valuable.

Feel free to leave a comment or question so I can continue improving it. Thanks :)

• Did you know that 40% of items on to-do lists actually never get done at all?

• Yet to-do lists are extremely popular – 70% of all office workers have one.

• But these lists have at least one big issue: they typically focus on the current day and on what is ‘urgent’...

• How does that relate to the Eisenhower principle?

We check your current to-do list (or whatever you currently use for your task management)

What can we learn from that?

• In the previous exercise you have checked your current to-do list 

• What can you learn from that?

• Why the calendar based planning is the better approach

• The 5 advantages

Online-worksheet: your NOT todo list

• here you find the link to a Google docs online worksheet

• the content will be only visible to yourself - download the document before filling it in ("File / Download")

• ...or print out the attached pdf document if you prefer pen & paper

• A quick run through the major calendar settings - what you may want to optimize

• Switching between the various views

A quick walkthrough: How to navigate the Outlook views and a few calendar settings

• View switching (using mouse or keyboard)

• Work time

• Time zones

• Why you need focus to achieve high quality results

• Tips for handling of distractions

• How your performance varies during the course of a day

• Everybody is different – where are your “high performance” times?

  Try to schedule your difficult tasks there

• How does your calendar currently look like?

• Do you have enough quality time blocks?

In this exercise we check your current calendar...

• How much time do you spend in meetings?

• Where are your meetings and appointments located?

How fragmented are your days, how can you optimize your schedule?

Outlook calendar 101:

• Meetings vs. appointments

• Shifting items

• Meeting planning and status

• Recurrence

⌨ Exercise: plan and shift Outlook appointments

If you are already familiar with this (and never have the problem that "...this meeting was not in my calendar here...") just skip it. Otherwise you may want to have a closer look.

Sometimes Outlook is doing magic things, but sometimes the magic is simply caused by the user…;)

How to

• create appointments and meetings

• ...shift and cancel them correctly

• Recurring appointments

• What should go into the calendar - and what should not?

• Adhere to these best practices to set up a plan that can work in reality

• We get to know the ALPEN method for practical planning guidance
  Later on in the course there is a planning exercise with step-by-step instructions to create your first plan!

• How to prepare the planning session

• Before/after example: this is how Paula does it

Exercise (download)

• clustering, sorting, time estimations - how to prepare your todo list

In this exercise we will sort and cluster your current to-do or task list in 5 easy steps, so that the weekly planning can be done quickly!

• Step-by-step approach: how to convert your todo list into a weekly calendar plan

• Before/after example: this is how Paula does it

• Why Outlook task categories can be helpful

• More overview with colors

Now let's create your first weekly plan...

Here is how to do it, you can also read the step-by-step instructions in the next lecture.

Now we are going to create your first weekly plan.

We will use the ALPEN method and your prepared task or to-do list to go ahead.

Here comes the step-by-step guide and a few tips as a summary!

Here is a summary and recap of part 1 of the course: what is the big picture?

We followed an adapted version of the so-called "Deming cycle" - the Plan-Do-Check-Act loop:

• We used a combination of several well-established time management and prioritization methods:
  - The Pareto, Eisenhower, and MIT principles
  - The Alpen method and the weekly plan

• And we went through these exercises to apply these methods to your personal situation:
  - The annual review
  - The Not to-do list
  - The weekly plan
  - The weekly review and retrospective

In the following lectures, you'll get to know many tips & tricks on how to use Outlook to implement these methods in your daily work.

• Tasks and reminders - what's the difference?

• Why reminders should not go into the calendar

• A simple approach for reminder tracking (demo with Outlook)

• The "daily task" alternative

• Step-by-step instruction to set up the reminder system in Outlook

• A few minute's work that will pay back...

Now is the perfect time to set up the reminder system for you - and try it out right away!

• The new todo list

• Exercise: cleaning up & getting ready for the next session

• How to keep your to-do's in the Outlook task list

• Quick and easy: the sticky notes method

• More flexibility with a Kanban board

Download: Kanban template

• No plan survives first contact with the enemy (von Moltke)

• How to handle unforeseen interruptions

• The most important rule of all: adapt if necessary - and then follow your plan!

• Slicing the elephant - the step-by-step method

• Total focus with tomatoes - the Pomodoro technique

• Apps to try it out

• Review the last week - what can you improve?

• A recipe to follow

An exercise for the end of the work week: Let's take a quick look back... How did the week go?

So, the system keeps getting better.

Top productivity issues and what you can do about them

• too many emails

• not enough overview

• time wasted for information retrieval

These are the topics for the following part 2 of the course around Outlook productivity

• How can you reduce the number of incoming emails?

• In this and the following lectures we will take a closer look at:

  • Outlook rules

  • Outlook inbox display settings

  • An efficient filing system

And let's not forget: writing fewer emails means less emails in return! (use recurring meetings and 1:1 meetings)

• How to use Outlook rules for automatic sorting and an improved overview

• A few practical examples and tricks – what is possible with rules?

In this exercise we will create an extra folder for newsletters (or other e-mails that you receive regularly) - and automatically route them to this new folder.

In this way, newsletters are less of a distraction at work, and you can read them specifically when you have time.

• There is often no way around going though the remaining emails in your inbox

• How optimized settings may help to make the job a bit easier

• Here's how to visually filter out emails that aren't addressed directly to you

• Get a better overview with the 'conversation view'

In this exercise we will go through a few display settings for the Outlook inbox - so you can test what works best for you.

• Switch the e-mail display in the inbox to the single-line layout

• Enable Conversation View

• Optically filter emails that you receive "in copy" - because these e-mails are usually less relevant

• What options to you have in Outlook for retrieving of information?

• How to use search folders effectively

• A more advanced approach: the filing system

• Practical tips for setting this up

How to find e-mails: we look at

• search folders and

• a category based search approach

In this exercise, we'll revisit a few tricks for finding and tracking emails.

• A quick and time efficient way to follow up on emails

• Two methods that work

Putting the pieces together - from defining your key tasks to planing and tracking: this was your learning path...

Going forward - use your practice and exercise results and keep them up to date. And make sure to download the e-book (or bookmark the online version)

Summary downloads

• all exercises

• checklists and lecture summaries 

  -> As pdf files for your future reference. Have fun!

• Meetings are the number one time wasters in today's office life

• This is what you need to know to achieve results in meetings

A few books that I can recommend in case you want to learn more about specific aspects of the course

'You don't always get your goals. But you always get your standards'

Tony Robbins

In this 10-minute video Tony explains why you sometimes get the 'shoulds' - but you always get the 'musts'

Very motivational