Paul Cornell : Personal Productivity

Outlook 2010: Macro for Moving Selected Items

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:52:00 GMT

It has been a really long time since I wrote Microsoft Outlook VBA code. But when a customer last week asked me if there was a way to write some VBA code to move selected Inbox items to an Archive folder, I felt right at home. Here's what I came up with for him:

Sub ArchiveItems()

    ' Moves each of the selected items on the screen to an Archive folder.
    Dim olApp As New Outlook.Application
    Dim olExp As Outlook.Explorer
    Dim olSel As Outlook.Selection
    Dim olNameSpace As Outlook.NameSpace
    Dim olArchive As Outlook.Folder
    Dim intItem As Integer

    Set olExp = olApp.ActiveExplorer
    Set olSel = olExp.Selection
    Set olNameSpace = olApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")
    ' This assumes that you have an Inbox subfolder named Archive.
    Set olArchive = olNameSpace.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox).Folders("Archive")

    For intItem = 1 To olSel.Count
        olSel.Item(intItem).Move olArchive
    Next intItem

End Sub

Simplifying My Computer: Outlook

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:15:00 GMT

I’ve been trying to simplify my computer so that I can work faster and with less distracting visual clutter. Today, I’m taking on Microsoft Outlook. (I’m currently using Outlook 2010 Technical Preview.)

Here’s what I did to simplify my Outlook layout:

I hid the Navigation Pane: on the View menu, in the Layout group, I clicked Navigation, and then I clicked Minimized.
I hid the To-Do Bar: on the View menu, in the Layout group, I clicked To-Do Bar, and then I clicked Minimized.
I minimized the Ribbon by pressing CTRL + F1. (You can show the Ribbon by pressing CTRL + F1 again.)
I turned off all of the e-mail notifications: I clicked the Office Button, I clicked Outlook Options, I clicked the Mail tab, and in the Message arrival area, I unchecked all of the boxes, and then I clicked OK.

Now that my Navigation Pane is minimized, I use the following shortcut key combinations:

To view my Inbox, I press CTRL + 1.
To view my Calendar, I press CTRL + 2.
To view my Tasks list, I press CTRL + 4.
To view my Outlook Folders, I press CTRL + 6. (To hide my Outlook Folders again, I press ESC.)
To compose a new e-mail, I press CTRL + 1, and then I press CTRL + N.

What have you been doing to simplify your computing experience? Please let me know in the comments following this post.

OneNote Replica of Todopaper

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:25:00 GMT

Someone recently asked how Microsoft Office OneNote could possibly be used as a replica of popular list manager Todopaper. Here's what I came up with:

Add your to-do items to a OneNote page, one item per line.*
If you want a to-do style check box next to an item, position the cursor on the desired line and insert a To Do tag (by pressing CTRL + 1 -- that’s default behavior in my version of OneNote anyway). When you complete an item, click the corresponding check box to put a check in it.
If you like strikethroughs, triple-click the line, and then select strikethrough formatting for the selected text.
Add some headings to group the items for easier visual scanning.

* By the way, to save time creating new OneNote pages, you can click the Open New Side Note tray icon to create a new page and display it and type the content in there. You can access these pages later by clicking the Unfiled Notes button in the lower-left corner of OneNote itself.

Most Important Tasks

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 23:33:00 GMT

I find the concept of most important tasks to be very helpful in identifying my most important work and having a sense of accomplishment while completing it. I got this idea from the following two blog posts:

Purpose Your Day: Most Important Task (MIT) on the Zen Habits web site
Geek to Live: Control your workday on the Lifehacker.com web site

Here's a summary of these blog posts' key recommendations:

Near the end of each day, create from one to three most important tasks to tackle during the next day. Ask yourself "if I completed only these tasks today, would I feel a healthy sense of accomplishment toward my personal or professional goals?"
Make at least one (hopefully all!) of your most important tasks each day relate to your personal or professional goals.
Make sure you work on your most important tasks first. Get one most important task done first each day and then check your e-mail.
Make post-work appointments, and create a wrap-up-work timer if needed, so that you can get out of your office on time.

Tackling E-Mail, Part 4: Using Outlook Keyboard Shortcuts

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:54:00 GMT

Here are the keyboard shortcuts that I use most frequently in Outlook 2007 to speed up creating and managing my e-mail:

Delete: Ctrl + D
Close Window: Alt + F4

New...

    Mail Message: Ctrl + N
    Task: Ctrl + Shift + K
    Note: Ctrl + Shift + N

Go To...

    Mail: Ctrl + 1
    Calendar: Ctrl + 2
    Tasks: Ctrl + 4
    Notes: Ctrl + 5

Send/Receive: F9

Check Names: Alt, H, M
Set Follow Up Flag: Alt, H, W
Mark High Importance: Alt, H, H
Check Spelling: F7
Insert Hyperlink: Alt, N, I
Save Sent Item To: Alt, P, S

Bold Text: Ctrl + B
Italicize Text: Ctrl + I

Copy: Ctrl + C
Cut: Ctrl + X
Paste: Ctrl + V
Paste Special: Alt, O, V, S

Tackling E-Mail, Part 3: Delaying Responses

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:00:00 GMT

In addition to limiting the number of times that I check e-mail each day, I'm also doing the following to free up more of my time for project work:

Pushing back on all potentially actionable e-mail that doesn't have a clear action or deadline stated. I'm replying to the requestor and asking for it if missing or unclear.
Delaying for at least one business day taking action on all actionable e-mail unless the requestor asks for immediate action (and I agree with their reasoning why it needs to be done so quickly).
I'm considering adding some type of "what you can expect of me regarding e-mail" statement to my auto-signature. (Suggestions welcome, please add them in the comment below this post.)

-- Paul

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Tackling E-Mail, Part 2: Checking E-Mail

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 03:18:00 GMT

I try to look at my e-mail only two or three times a day. I get so sidetracked, so distracted sometimes at work when I look at my e-mail that I've had to stop doing it as much.

I've also turned off my Outlook e-mail notifications to keep me from getting sidetracked and distracted. Here's how I do it in Outlook 2007:

On the Tools menu, click Options.
On the Preferences tab, click E-mail Options.
Click Advanced Options.
Uncheck the following four boxes: Play a sound, Briefly change the mouse cursor, Show an envelope icon in the notification area, and Display a New Mail Desktop Alert (default Inbox only).
Click the OK button three times to close all of the open dialog boxes.

Checking my e-mail only twice or thrice a day has not seemed to be a problem for my coworkers or customers (yet!). I hope that people who really need my attention right away will use alternate means to contact me such as calling me on the phone, instant messaging me, or stopping by my office.

I'm curious: how many times each day do you check your e-mail? Have you tried to reduce the frequency? What has been the effect on your productivity and your relationships with your coworkers and customers? Please let me know in the comments below this post.

-- Paul

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Tackling E-Mail, Part 1: Inbox Subfolders

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:50:00 GMT

I use Microsoft Outlook to manage my e-mail (go figure, since I work for Microsoft!). I recently reduced and simplified the number of Outlook Inbox subfolders that I have as follows, and I feel like I'm really benefitting from it:

A Follow Up subfolder.
A Hold subfolder.
An Archive subfolder. [1]
A Bacn subfolder, which receives all e-mails where my name is not in the To box. [2]

For my Follow Up, Hold, and Archive subfolders, I use categories to group similar e-mails together.

Of course, I continue to use my main Inbox folder to receive e-mails where my name is in the To box. Also, I continue to use my Tasks folder to see a categorized/dated view of all of my e-mails with reminders attached to them. (And my trusty Calendar should go here without mention.)

Do you use a larger or smaller number of Inbox subfolders than this? I'd appreciate hearing from you in the comments below this post.

-- Paul

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Notes:

[1] I got the idea for the Follow Up, Hold, and Archive subfolders from the blog post Empty Your Inbox with the Trusted Trio by Gina Trapani.

[2] For more history, see the Wikipedia entry for Bacn. It seems good to me to have a Bacn subfolder instead of having it go directly to my Hold subfolder or – heaven forbid – the Deleted Items folder.

Getting (My) Things Done

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 05:51:00 GMT

When I first started working at Microsoft many years ago (almost 9 years, in fact), many of the folks at my new hire orientation told me that I would be "blasted by an information firehose." They were right, of course, and each year that goes by magnifies this issue even more. What I think they didn't tell me as much was that I would also be blasted by a "to-do firehose." There are so many things for me to read and learn, but also many things for me to do in relation to multiple ongoing projects. Now that I also manage a team of highly skilled, high-performing individuals, I also need to give people ongoing performance feedback and make sure there are opportunities to continue developing their skills and Microsoft careers.

Keeping on top of all of the stuff on my to-do lists (also known in my organization simply as "work items") has been tough at times. I've used several project-management systems, but a system that I've come to rely on over the past year is keeping a simple set of prioritized to-do lists, with one list per "context" (for example, one list of work items per ongoing project, one to-do list per team member for their skills and career development, and so on). I've also extended this to my personal contexts as well (for example, one to-do list for my home improvement projects, one to-do list for my personal goals, and so on).

This system, with acknowledgement to methodologies such as Getting Things Done (GTD), has worked really well for me. I'm curious, what similar systems that you've found both simple to set up and simple to use have worked for you?

-- Paul

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.