Since you’re reading the BiggerPockets blog right now, I presume two things about you; you’re a real estate investor/agent/professional (or aspiring to be) and you use email on a frequent basis. If only one or neither of those traits apply to you, then read on as you may benefit as well.
Today I’m going to touch on organization in your business. I stay organized in my daily business activities via Microsoft Outlook 2007. I don’t think I’d be able to function without it.
Microsoft Outlook is primarily an email application that is chock full of various features that will allow you to not only manage your emails, but your business calendar, business contacts, tasks, notes, and etcetera. And with the advent of the Smart-Phone, most of what is managed via Outlook can also be synced to your cell phone, allowing you to stay organized on-the-go. You don’t need one of those sexy iPhones. I have a good ‘ole Treo and it does the trick.
How can Microsoft Outlook 2007 help me better organize my emails?
One of the new features of Microsoft Outlook 2007, that wasn’t available in version 2003 or earlier, is the category feature. You can categorize all of your incoming, outgoing, and deleted mail. I primarily, focus on categorizing my incoming mail. As you’ll see in the image below, I have titled multiple categories that apply to my real estate investing business. Specifically, the email pictured is categorized as a “Business Voicemail” as it was a voicemail left on one of my many Google Voice phone numbers.
So let’s say that I wanted to view all of my emails categorized as “Business Voicemails” at once. If I wasn’t using Outlook, I would have to search by keywords, or maybe just manually go through all of my emails. But since I’m using Outlook, I can go from this view which contains multiple categories (notice the category-colors):
To this view that consists of solely Business Voicemails:
To this view that consist of solely Realtor emails, all within a few simple clicks:
The categories that you designate not only can apply to emails, but to your Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Notes, and Journal entries.
By organizing and categorizing many aspects of your business via Microsoft Outlook, you will be better able to efficiently run your business.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Great article. I’ve been using categories in outlook for tasks, calendar items and notes for quite a while. I have not used them for emails. I have created a bunch of sub folders for emails. I think I like the category idea better since it will encompass different types of items.
Question: After you categorize the incoming emails do you leave them in the inbox, move them to deleted or move them to subfolders.
Rick, I just leave all of my emails in the inbox. I like to have a broad overview of everything at once.
.-= Justin McClelland´s last blog ..I will not lose =-.
Im a Mac/iPhone guy myself. Though there are some here in the office that use Outlook, for the most part everyone is going the Apple direction when they get a new computer or a new phone. The over the air instant email syncing from Gmail has changed the game and brought BlackBerry class enterprise features to everyone now. Without my Mac and iPhone I could not stay organized.
-Tyler
.-= Tyler´s last blog ..oct_0179.jpg =-.