Are you sending tons of emails? Receiving even more? Looking for the ways to make it faster, save some time, and go home by 5?
Say “No” to the mouse. Set up your email environment for pure keyboard operation.
Mouse usage assumes one click at any given time. On other hand (hand!!) keyboard allows ten fingers to hit it almost simultaneously. Notice the performance gain you can achieve? This one falls under Concurrency category of Performance Frame I’ve adopted for personal performance engineering.
I use Outlook 2007 (OL 2007) for email processing. Stop reading now in case OL 2007 is not your email client. Some shortcuts are relevant to older Outlook version though.
Creating email items in Outlook 2007
I am using two types of email items – “New Message” and “Post in This Folder”. “New Message” is just an email and “Post in This Folder” serves me to create personal tasks and capture notes. I do not use Tasks and Notes features in OL 2007 . I am on tools diet (Phase 1 - Seiri). It pays off for me over time.
- “New Message”. Ctrl + N or Ctrl + Shift + M.
- “Post in This Folder”. Ctrl + Shift + S.
- Send/Post the item. Ctrl + Enter.
Customize Quick Access Toolbar
Quick Access Toolbar is of great help and it allows setting shortcuts for most common actions. My most common actions on email items are editing email, revising content of the Post, and setting a category for email item. Follow up this demo to familiarize yourself on how to customize the Quick Access Toolbar : Demo: Place your favorite commands on the Quick Access Toolbar. Here is my quick access toolbar:
- Received Emails.
- Edit Message – Alt + 1.
- Categorize – Alt + 2.
- Posted Posts.
- Revise Contents – Alt + 1.
- Categorize – Alt + 2.
All time favorite shortcuts
- Reply. Ctrl + R.
- Reply all. Ctrl + Shift + R.
- Forward. Ctrl + F.
- Move (#1 favorite of mine). Ctrl + Shift + V.
- Delete (useful when the item is open). Ctrl + D.
Self test
Try creating (Ctrl+N, Ctrl+Shift+S), sending (Ctrl+Enter), moving (Ctrl+Shift+V), replying (Ctrl+R), forwarding (Ctrl+F), editing/revising (Alt+1), and categorizing (Alt+2) your email items using keyboard only. I know at first it is weird. Give it some time. You’ll be thanking me later. You will be thanking when it moved into your basal ganglia (credits go to J.D. Meier).
What am I missing to eliminate the mouse completely?
6 comments ↓
This post is too techie for me I’m afraid, and personally I don’t mind slowing down a little… but I am REALLY impressed, Alik!
I seldom mouse around when a keyboard shortcut will do the trick more quickly & efficiently.
Don’t neglect Ctrl+Sh+G to flag. (I usually follow this by typing Tab, Tab, N, Tab, Space, ). I invite you to try this yourself to see how it works.
Also, I frequentlyuse Ctrl+2 to get to my Calendar & Alt+RtArrow or Alt+LtArrow to navigate back-&-forth through recently visited folders.
When in OL, try Cntrl+N for new email and Ctrl+Enter for sending it. You are gonna love it!
Jimmy,
I do not use flagging anymore. It complicates stuff and requires me to look into more places. I am on the tools diet - less tools, less places to look into.
As I will be posting more on that I’ll show how I do follow up without flags in very simple, consistent way. It is all about making pipelines of items for streamlined processing. One of the tricks that work for me for following up is adding myself to the CC line. There is a bit more to that – stay tuned ;), I’ll be showing how to keep the Inbox empty… fast.
Ctrl+2 and Alt+Arrow - my best friends too.
Thanks for the additions!
I don’t have OL2007. After reading this, it may change. I’ve to stumble this. You’re the best when it comes to Microsoft products.
Shilpan
Now write a post about how to manage mails from gmail to OL2007 and vice a versa.
Shilpan
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