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Defer It

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A big part of the flagging in Outlook 12 is about forcing the question: When am I going to deal with this? This question is forced when right clicking on the flag column in mail and getting the following menu.


Outlook 12 Flag Menu

Making a selection here marks the mail with a start date and due date and causes the item to appear in the To-Do Bar. Clicking on Custom… gives you the most flexibility – allowing you to set the start date, due date, and reminder. You can also add a custom "follow up" string that appears in the infobar of the mail. This string can be used to remind you of what you were planning on doing with the mail. For example: "Send Thank You note."


Outlook 12 Mail Item with "Send Thank You Note" string

Comments

  • Anonymous
    December 14, 2005
    There is no Yesterday in list ;-)
  • Anonymous
    December 15, 2005
    As a side note here (and not to detract for the really cool new flaggin options) I like to keep anything actionable actually on the task list. So in Outlook12 and even versions before it I drag emails that require action to the task Folder which automatically creates a populated task for me in which I can set that flag on.

    The main reason I do this is to get it out of my inbox. I want my inbox empty. Also if the original email has attachments you can use the right mouse button to drag it and choose "as attachment" on the context menu that's displayed. I love that.
  • Anonymous
    December 15, 2005
    You can use the new task flagging model and still get things out your inbox - you just have to file your flagged items instead of deleting them or relying on the task to keep track of them. I do this now and I find that it is really useful to file flagged items. In this way, I have the item both for reference (in the folder) and as a task (because it is flagged.) When I finish the task and mark it complete, I still have the original for reference in the right place.

    Hope this helps!

    -Melissa
  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2006
    I really like the direction that Outlook 12 is headed. These GTD-like features keeping me anxiously awaiting the official release. I hope that these improvements continue.
  • Anonymous
    May 31, 2006
    The comment has been removed