Reducing Your Email 'Ding'-stractions™ Using Outlook Categories

NOTE: The steps listed below are for Outlook 2016. You may need to modify the steps if you're using a different version.

This page will focus on vastly reducing the 'Ding'-stractions that make us less productive. Why am I suggesting that when you're distracted by the seemingly benign 'ding' of an incoming email that you're less productive? Shifting our attention from one task to another, as we do when we're monitoring email — while trying to write a report, analyze data, or think through a strategy — disrupts our concentration. When we return to the initial task, we use up valuable cognitive resources reorienting ourselves. Research reveals that when we're engaged in an activity, even minor distractions can have a profound effect, and regaining our initial cognitive momentum can take, on average, as much as 20 minutes. Ouch! [Source: Mark, Gonzalez, & Harris, University of California, Irvine, 2005.]

The image immediately below is our goal. This method recognizes that every manager/leader has multiple priority 'sources' and each should be ranked accordingly. For example, most of us have a boss (or bosses) above us; this will be (typically) Priority Level #1. Next, your direct reports; this will be Priority Level #2. You also probably have many significant contacts such as key customers, internal/external peers, board members, or other senior leaders inside your organization (but outside of your chain of command); this will be Priority Level #3. Finally, everything else will be your No Priority Level (your 'Ding'-no-more category).

First, let me explain why (in many expert's view) Outlook Categories are better (and much faster) at organizing your Inbox than multiple topic-named or theme-named Folders:

• Categories are grouped in your Inbox and use a single-folder organizing structure which makes visual (and electronic) searching much easier. It's like having a set of folders all in one folder (which means you have all the advantages of a single folder structure as well as the advantages of a multi-folder structure).
• You can assign more than one Category to an email so you don't have to agonize (and waste time) trying to decide which folder to put it in (you know you've done this!).
• If you use various customized Views (and if you don't you should!), each Folder will need to have that custom view applied to display your information properly. (Multiply that time by the number of folders you have and you'll see why this is a time-waster.) With Categories, you can have all your views set to ONE folder which is fast and efficient.
• Outlook Rules for auto-organizing incoming emails work much better when assigning to Categories than when moving to Folders because the Rule leaves the email in the Inbox where you can still read it without having to mouse over to your Folders and locate it (amongst all those Folders).
• Your emails all show up in each Category without taking additional space.
• Finally, if you follow the Linenberger method, with Categories when you're done with a series of emails then you just drag them to your (single) Processed Mail folder.

Here are the comprehensive steps within Outlook that will set up your email handling strategy for maximum efficiency:

1. Turn off all notifications. On the File tab, choose Options to open the Outlook Options dialog box. Go to the Mail category. In the Message Arrival area, deselect all settings (Play a Sound, Briefly Change the Mouse Pointer, Show an Envelope Icon in the Taskbar, Display a Desktop Alert).

2. In the Categories area, right-click on All Categories. Using New (for each category), add the following categories: 1_Prime, 2_DirectReports, 3_KeyContacts, and z_NoPriority. This will 'float' your highest priority categories to the top and the lowest priority to the bottom.

3. In your Contacts area, set up Groups for each of the separate priorities and then add your 'priority' individuals to his/her respective Group. You will do this to allow adds/deletes from the inclusion list without having to edit your Rules that allocate your inbound emails to the correct Categories. Then set up a rule to assign your z_NoPriority category to all remaining emails.

4. On the Home tab, set up Rules for each of these Categories (separately) to assign each member of the Group to the appropriate category and have it play a sound when an email is received. Note: You are able to allocate different 'sounds' for each of the priority categories (if you prefer).

5. Click on the View tab. Under View Settings, go to your 'Group By...' tab and set your 'Group items by' to Categories (Ascending) with Show field in view checked.

If you've set up everything correctly, the image below should reflect what your screen now looks like. At this point, SAVE YOUR CUSTOM VIEW by clicking on View -> Change View -> Save Current View As a New View.