Ways to help manage and clean up your inbox in Outlook

Your inbox is a busy place. Even with categorization and automatic sorting, things can still grow overwhelming! Here we’ll go over tips and tricks to help manage your emails through searching, auto-replies, ignoring emails, and cleaning up your inbox!

For finding any email - Using the Search Bar

Using Outlooks’ integrated search is a quick way to find any email. You can search by name or email address, or any other word that may pertain to the email you are searching for.

But through use of the Search Ribbon, you can refine your search even more!

The Search Ribbon will appear at the top of Outlook as soon as you click into your search bar. From here, you can:

  • Search through specific folders/mailboxes
  • Search for attachments
  • Search specific categories
  • And much more!

For when you’re away - Setting up auto-reply (out of office)

Planning on being away from the office for a few days? With the use of Automatic Replies, you can make sure all emails during your absence are notified! This will help cut down on some extra email clutter while you are away.

To create an Auto-Reply:

  1. Select File at the top right of Outlook
  2. Select Automatic Replies (Out of Office)
  3. Select send automatic replies
    1. From here you can select exactly when you’d like these replies sent
  4. Type in the text box what you would like for you automatic reply
    1. You can select different options for inside and outside your organization
  5. Select OK.

For silencing unneeded emails - Ignoring conversations

No longer needed in an email conversation? Well, through the use of ignoring conversations, you can silence that constant ringing in your inbox!

To Ignore a conversation:

  1. Select the conversation or email.
  2. Select Ignore.

Note: This option may be a drop-down option next to the delete icon.

  1. If prompted, confirm by selecting Ignore Conversations.

For tidying up - Cleaning up your inbox

Too many redundant emails clogging your inbox? Through the use of the clean up function, Outlook can clear out your inbox and leave you with room to breathe!

To Clean Up your emails:

  1. Select the conversation or an email.
  2. Select the Clean Up option

Note: This option may be a drop-down option next to the delete icon.

  1. Choose what you would like cleaned.
  2. Select OK if prompted.

All of the emails are now sent to the Deleted Items folder!

With that, you can now manage your emails like a pro! Next week we’ll be going over some tips and functions within Outlook’s Calendar!

Stay tuned!