Monday, January 09, 2006
2nd winner to Outlook Productivity contest - Andy Gray
Andy Gray is the second winner to the Outlook Productivity Contest. Here was his entry:
Simplify email reference and archiving:
Don't go overboard trying to construct a complex hierarchy of folders for saving messages you want to keep, then spending a lot of time to file each message into the correct folder by topic. This significantly increases the number of places that something _isn't_ when you go to look for it later.
Instead, simply create a separate .pst file for each calendar year (e.g. 2005.pst). Create a very simple hierarchy (perhaps just a single Reference folder) into which to drag messages you want to keep. Change the AutoArchive settings for your Sent Items and Deleted Items folders to archive into this file, and you'll automatically get a dated archive of your sent and deleted mail also.
Then when you want to find something, either sort the Reference or Sent Items folder by recipient or by sender, and/or use search tools to find a keyword in the appropriate folder. More often than not, you'll find what you're looking for with a minimum of fuss.
At the end of the year, burn a copy of the .pst file to CD for archiving.
Andy has a copy of Michael Linenberger’s book, Total Workday Control, coming as well.
Congratulations to Steve and Andy. I’ll have a couple more contests coming in the next few weeks.
