Holly Uverity CPO®, Office Organizers
Many people use Outlook to manage their time, schedule appointments and keep up with their projects. Outlook is such a powerful productivity tool that it can be tough to fully learn how to use all the power of each of the modules. Here are a few of my favorite Outlook calendar tips; I encourage you to try some or all of them to see if they’ll work for you.
Change the Time Increments
Outlook defaults to time increments of half an hour, so you’ll see a dark line every hour with a fainter line every half hour. If it works better for you to see a different time increment, it’s easy to change. Simply right click in the white space to the left of the calendar where the times are listed. When you right click, you will see several options to create new appointments and new events, and you will also see the time increments that Outlook offers. Just choose one and see how it changes how your calendar looks. Some professional’s bill every six minutes so Outlook offers you that option as well.
Add or Change a Time Zone
If you live and work in two different time zones, it can be helpful to see them both at the same time. Also, if you are traveling and spending time in two time zones, it would be important for your calendar to always reflect the time zone you are in. To add or change a time zone, right click in the white space to the left of the calendar and one of the last options on that menu is ‘Change Time Zone.’ Click on that and a window will open. On that window, in about the middle of the page is a Time Zone section; it’s there that you can both change your time zone (simply click on the arrow and menu of available time zones will open) and/or add another one. When you click on ‘Add Another One,’ your options will change from gray to black so you can pick your second time zone.
Change the Hours of Your Workweek
Change the Days of Your Workweek
While you’ve got that window open, scroll to the top and you will see options for both changing the hours of your workday as well as changing the days of your workweek. Outlook defaults to a standard work schedule of Monday thru Friday from 8 am to 5 pm. How that looks in your calendar is that the time blocks both before 8 am and after 5 pm, as well as those on Saturday and Sunday, are a darker color than the other time blocks because they are outside of the standardized work hours. If you’d prefer to see your calendar reflecting the times and days you actually work, it’s in this window that you make those selections.
The first section in that window is called ‘Work Hours’; if it’s currently set at 8 am to 5 pm and you work from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm, just change the times in the boxes. Do the same for the days of the week – if your work week is Tuesday thru Saturday, simply choose those days as your work week days. Once you’ve made these changes, you’ll notice that your color blocks on your calendar will change to reflect the new dates and times you’ve chosen.
Change the Font – Change the Color
If you’re not happy with the color and/or font that Outlook is using, this window is where you change those as well. Scroll to the section called ‘Display Options.’ It’s here that you can choose a new font, a new size for the default font and a new color for your calendar. For some people, using a particular color has meaning so if that’s the case with you, I encourage you to change the color. Play around with both color and font until you find the combination that works best for you.
These are just a few of my favorite customizations in Outlook’s calendar; I believe that everyone should take a few minutes and make those customizations that will have the most impact. The better the tool works for you, the more inclined you’ll be to use it…and the more successful you will be.
Holly Uverity, CPO® is the owner of Office Organizers – The Entrepreneur’s Organizer. She can be reached at 281.655.5022, www.OfficeOrganizers.com or www.FB.com/OfficeOrganizers.
