Small Business

Take Control of Your Inbox with Categories and Flags

By Dave Johnson

Updated on: March 11, 2009 / 10:41 AM EDT / MoneyWatch

Give me four minutes, and I'll give you a cleaner, better organized inbox. Watch the Business Hacks exclusive video after the jump (for best results, switch to full-screen mode) for an overview of how categories and flags can help you convert Outlook 2007 from a no man's land of neglected messages into a finely tuned collection of sorted, filtered, and organized messages marked for appropriate action and follow up.

Stuff you'll see in this video:

Categorize your messages according to project
Create a Search folder that instantly displays all the messages in a particular category instantly, no matter where you stored them
Turn e-mails into tasks
Set alarms and reminders to warn you when follow-up action is necessary on an e-mail

What do you think about these BizHack videos? Tell us the good and the bad, and suggest topics for future entries. We're all ears.