I dread wading through my email every day.
Sound familiar?
But recently, I found an app that’s actually made managing my inbox fast and fun—Outlook by Microsoft. I use it constantly, and it’s completely transformed my routine.
Before you worry that this is like the old corporate software that you used to use years ago, don’t. Really! Outlook’s app (available for free on iOS and Android) is sleek, modern, and easy to use.
I’ll get straight to the good stuff. To start with, you can customize Outlook to work and look the way you want—you can have a different signature on each of your accounts, set different alerts for incoming messages, and create your own email VIP folder (for the most important messages) with the “Focused Inbox Only” setting.
You can also—get this—clear an email out of your inbox for now but schedule it to reappear whenever you’re ready to deal with it (basically your own mobile Boomerang).
For all the Google Calendar users, it cuts out the stress of switching between programs by letting you access all your schedules within the app. Then, you can send invites straight from Outlook and include a map to an event or a link to a Hangout to make sure everybody shows up at the right place at the right time (because we’ve all had the “Which Starbucks are you at?” moment).
And, finally, you can access your cloud storage (like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive) from within it so you don’t have to search for the attachments or information you need. Plus, you can also choose to connect your Evernote reminders or Facebook events for true one-stop organization.
Basically, this does it all—and on the go! If you’re like me and clearing your inbox seems like the last thing you’d want to do, this may be the ultimate solution. This way, you can spend your time on more important things (like getting your actual work done).
Looking for more ways to improve your life? Check out:
- Google’s free (and updated) sticky note tool
- One Big Thing, the free to-do list app
- Gratefulness, the free app that helps you end every day in a good mood
