Organise your motel and computer life with outlook tasks.
With all the conferences and seminars I go to I seem to find lots of tips and programmes which are so good and time saving I feel I just have to share them and help to make the running of your motel or just your computer life even smoother.
This post stems from a seminar with Debbie Mayo Smith and her book 101 quick tips. The post is about Outlook and the various short cuts and features which you can use with this programme. Some of you may already be using Outlook but some may still be on outlook express. My own personal opinion is that outlook is a far better programme as it has a calendar, tasks, appointments, reminders and other functions which outlook express doesn’t have. Outlook express is simply to receive and send e-mails where Outlook has far more features than that.
Basically Outlook is an e-mail programme combined with a diary and so you can organize your follow up tasks and appointments from e-mails and also set reminders so you don’t forget to do those essential things. I will concentrate on tasks in this post and show how you can improve your organization skills by the use of this programme and a few simple tips.
Once you have outlook you will see a list of folders in the side pane which will include one called Tasks. To create a Task click on this folder then click the New button. Alternatively go to the File menu click on New and then click Task.
In the subject window type a name for your task. Then complete any other boxes on the TASK and Details tabs for information you want to record for the task. If this is a task you need to reoccur. Eg: Paying PAYE click Recurrence, click frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly) for which you want the task to reoccur.
On the Task tab you can set who the task belongs to, assign the task to someone else, make it reoccurring, assign a due date, assign a start date, assign or change it’s status, set a reminder date and time, assign contacts to it, assign catergories to it, make it a private task.
On the Details tab you can, assign a date for it to be completed, assign work hours, assign mileage, assign billing information.
For an animated tutorial on tasks you can go to http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/assistance/HA010929451033.aspx
I find the task set up invaluable for reminding me to contact people and do jobs set for a future date. In the motel business this would be great to remind you to follow up on deposits, confirm group bookings and numbers, pay GST and PAYE, unit spring cleaning rosters and numerous other things.
There are also however tips and shortcuts for setting a task. For instance if you receive an e-mail from a client saying they will confirm numbers for a large group booking by a set date then all you need to do is to click on the e-mail and drag and drop it in to your task folder icon. This will automatically open a new task which contains the content of the entire e-mail. If you want the task to show on your calendar just drag and drop the e-mail in to your calendar and it will pop up with a calendar item containing all the details of the task. Just remember the date will be set to the date you receive the e-mail so if you want to change it to the due date and add a reminder you will need to change the calendar item details then save the item.
If the task is for another person: for instance if you are asking a group booking liaison person for confirmed numbers, then you can click on the task and drag it to your inbox. This will make a new e-mail with all the details of the task for you to simply add a recipient to. Pop in their e-mail address and they have the details from you in writing. If you need to ensure you get the answer back from them for the confirmed numbers just add yourself to the e-mail as a blind carbon copy BCC and when you receive your copy of the e-mail just drag and drop it back to the task folder. This will then set up another task in your Outlook which you can follow up on. When this task comes up for you if you have not received a reply from the person just drag and drop your task back to the inbox which will create another e-mail to that person and say in the message line. I haven’t heard from you yet.
A reoccurring task may be include such things as to contact your VIP customers every two months, send a newsletter every three months or clean light shades or drapes on a regular basis. By creating a reoccurring task it takes the guess work out of when you did it last and when you need to do it again.
There is also an option of a flag instead of a task. This is a quick process of just a right click on the flag at the side of an item such as an e-mail, task or appointment . Then you can set when you want to be reminded of this item. A flag can only be created from an existing item however where a task can be created from scratch.
If your contacts have Outlook and you send them a task they can accept or decline simply by using ALT + C to accept or ALT + D to decline. An automatic e-mail will reply for them. This also works if you need to set up a meeting time for a committee in your calendar but that is another lesson.
October 29 2009 03:27 pm | Uncategorized
Sharon James, Waikato Business Broker on 30 Oct 2009 at 3:13 pm #
Kathie, I use Outlook in conjunction with Business Contact Manager and couldn’t do without them. Thanks for the tip about dropping emails etc directly onto the task or calendar icons, that’s new to me and I’ve already tried it out with great success. Another way to save time