Tuesday's Tip #55: Focused Inbox

Outlook's Focused Inbox

Who doesn't need help having a more focused inbox?? I will take ALL the help I can get. Outlook's built in Focused Inbox feature allows you to take advantage of automatic organization so you can quickly and easily see the more important emails and filter out the less important ones. Additionally, you can customize how Outlook organizes your emails by adding emails to the focused or the other lists.

Turn the Focused Inbox Feature On

1. Click on the View tab in Outlook.
   
   
2. Click on Show Focused Inbox button. This toggles the feature on/off.
   
   
   
3. Click Focused to view the focused emails. This should be the more important emails. The marketing and mass emails should be in the Other category. You can toggle between the 2 filters. You can also turn it off completely. 

Customize the "Focused" List

As you use this feature, you will need to "teach" Outlook what should be in the Focused list and what should be in the Other list.

1. Right click on a message in the Focused  list and choose Move to Other. Or, right click on a message in the Other list and choose Move to Focused.
   
   
   Move means move just the selected message.
   Always Move means move all messages from the sender. 

If you don't see Focused and Other in your mailbox, you might have a Clutter folder instead. For more information, see Use Clutter to sort low-priority messages in Outlook.