Productivity - Better Outlook inbox - Highlight mails with colours

After several requests (most of them done by myself in front of a mirror), I decided to share some productivity tips by writing this post.

This one is about the Outlook, one of the most used mail clients out there, but don't get me wrong. I hate mails. If you have ever worked with me in the last years, you know I do. I might have said it. A couple times. Or more. Anyways, if you have to work with a tool, any tool, you should make the most of it. And Outlook is not that bad. Have you worked with Lotus Notes? That's hell. And not to brag, I was quite good using it (and very customisable as well! If someone is still dealing with Lotus Notes, I may write an article on it).

Enough chitchat.

This post will help you to have some visual (colour) aids on your inbox to focus on what matters the most. Mails from team? A green-ish tone will help. A mail from an unimportant maillist? Greyed out. A mail from boss? (Obviously) bold, blood red.

That's more or less how your mailbox will look like at the end.

To do so, we'll tweak the default view of the mailbox.

1- Open Outlook

2- Click on "View"

3- Click on "View Settings"

4- Click on "Conditional Formatting"

5- Some rules are set by default, and you can create your own...

6- Add a new rule for your bosses? click Add

7- Set a suggestive name...

8- Set how you want such mails to appear by clicking on "Font..."

9- What about setting on a blood, bold red? Not a bad idea... very suggestive.

10- Click Ok

11- Now, you'll have to set a specific criteria for them. Having this rule highlighted, click in "Condition..."

12- You can set several criteria to identify them. Most common is setting the "From..." field

13.Once criteria is set, click Ok.

Mails on the current mailbox that match the given criteria should have different colours now.

?Other suggestions of mail highlighting:

• Set a greyed out font for mails that are where you are copied
• Set a different colour for mails sent only for you
• Set a different colour for mails you receive through maillists
• Set a different colour for mails within your team

Did they work for you? Are you living on a better place without mails? I'd bet you wouldn't make it to here if you wouldn't really be desperate to reduce your pain of mail usage. Share your thoughts!