Inbox Zero: Defer emails in Outlook-only confidential work environment?

June 4, 2013 11:05 AM

How can I defer emails in Outlook without installing new software or emailing outside of our company's domain? Do you have best practices for achieving inbox zero despite constraints?

Hello,

I'm a big fan of inbox zero, and use the iphone app Mailbox to achieve this with most of my personal accounts (with the gaping exception of my outlook.com email much to my chagrin).

I want to consistently achieve inbox zero at work, and receive upwards of 200 emails a day in my role as a manager. I often receive email that I would like to remove from my inbox, and would like it to appear back several hours later. Here are the catches: I can't install anything to my machine which requires administrator access, and I rarely can send emails outside of the company as many contain personal information for customers and I won't risk data-breaches.

Does anyone else follow inbox zero and have the same constraints? What are the best method for dealing with deferring email that you have?

posted by Draccy to Technology (2 answers total)

Best answer: Flag it and set a follow-up time. You can change the default follow-up time to whatever you want, I believe. Then either use the tasks list or a smart folder for flagged items to follow up on the individual emails.
posted by stopgap at 11:23 AM on June 4, 2013

Best answer: Send it to yourself using the delayed delivery function. Delete from inbox, knowing there's a backup in sent mail if anything goes wrong. Even better, automate all this with a macro.
posted by prentiz at 1:11 PM on June 4, 2013