4 ways to streamline your tasks

1. Customize your view

The Tasks View is important because you can see at a glance what your tasks are and their status. Choosing the appropriate view here saves time because you can determine which item is most critical on your list without scrolling through all other tasks still marked as incomplete. For example, do you prefer to manage your time by the next task needing completion or by the client name? A variety of options in the Tasks View lets you sort tasks according to your requirements.

To view your tasks in Outlook, on the Go menu, click Tasks to see the Tasks View. You will see a window that displays tasks and sections similar to those shown here (what you see may look slightly different from this, depending on your version of Outlook).

There are three key sections of the screen to note:

• Tasks Navigation Pane The Tasks Current View is represented on the left side of the screen. This illustration shows the Simple List view is currently displayed.

• Tasks Subject This column outlines the current tasks you have established. In the simple view, you see a subject and a due date.

• Tasks Completion check mark This column indicates the task has been completed, both with a check mark in the box and a line through the task.

First, decide which Current View works best for you. For example, if you prefer to see items in a visual format, try the Task Timeline. If not, you might prefer the By Category view, which lets you see tasks by the categories you have established in a text-only view. This view is particularly helpful if you have specific groups or individuals to complete tasks for. Try out different options until you find one that suits you best.

Below the Current View pane, you will see Customize Current View. Selecting this prompt will open a window that allows you to sort your tasks by subject, status, due date, percent complete, or category. There are literally dozens of ways you can customize your task lists to suit your needs. You can even change the font and column sizes.

Try out different options here. You can always change things back if you don't like the way your tasks appear with a new choice. The trick is to decide what will help you most easily streamline your tasks so that you aren't digging and searching for information. Your views may not look anything like a co-worker's and that's okay. This is your chance to personalize Outlook to meet your goals.

Another consideration when setting up your view is the Reading Pane, which is on by default in some versions of Office. The Reading Pane allows you to immediately see any notes associated with the task selected. This view can be a great time-saver because it quickly offers you all the information you need to complete a task. To choose where you want the reading pane to appear or to turn it off, go to View, point to Reading Pane, and click an option.

2. Detail your time, billing, or mileage

It's not easy to remember the date you drove to an appointment at a client's home or how much time you spent completing a task in the office; most people try to remember to bill the time or mileage later. Often, that means deciphering multiple sticky notes or scraps of paper.

The Tasks Details screen, however, eliminates that mess by giving you one place to store that information for easy retrieval when invoicing a client. To view the Tasks Details screen, either create a new task (go to File, point to New, and then click Task) or open an existing task from the Task View by double-clicking the desired task. Once the desired task is open, do the following:

Outlook 2007 users: On the Task tab, in the Show group, click Details.

Outlook 2003 users: Click the Details tab.

At the end of each billing period, you can then easily sort through the information by clients and add up the details quickly.

In this screen, you can see that below the Date Completed box, there are several boxes in which you can enter information. These boxes allow you to type any information you want.

• Total Work Enter the total number of hours you have spent on a given client. When you invoice the client, it will be easy to do a search by client and tasks and tally the number of hours.

• Actual Work Record the actual number of hours spent on the task.

• Company ( or Companies)— Enter the company involved. Sometimes a task will not specifically name the client, so this information is key to helping you track which tasks were performed for each client.

• Mileage Enter the relevant date, mileage, and purpose of the trip.

• Billing Information Enter the billing information related to the specific task. Perhaps you charged this task at the full rate but if not, this is a good place to remind yourself of the rate charge. You can add a note to yourself about why the full rate was not charged, for example.

3. Create a task from an e-mail message

Does an e-mail message landing in your Inbox often translate into one more item in your to-do list? You can get the pain over quickly by creating a task directly from the message.

• Drag the message that you want to convert to a task to the Tasks button in the Navigation pane. The message subject is copied to the task subject line, and the rest of the header information and the message body are copied into the body of the task item.

• On the Task or Details tab in the task window that opens, select the options you want.

If the message has an attachment that you want to include in the task, you’ll need to drag the attachment separately from the message to the task.

And that’s not the only way to get an e-mail message into your to-do list. When you flag an e-mail message in your Mail folder, it automatically appears in your to-do list, although it is not converted to a task.

Tip: You can also convert a contact to a task if you want to assign a task to the contact. Just drag the contact from your Contacts folder to the Tasks button in the Navigation pane.

4. Send status reports for tasks

If you ever have a client or task that is of utmost importance to your boss, this tip will become a favorite. In Outlook, you can send a status report periodically to your boss. It's a great way to let her know you are handling things efficiently or to remind him how well-organized you are.

The report is automatically generated from Outlook into an e-mail message that you send.

To send a status report directly from Outlook

• In Outlook, open the task for which you want to send a status report.

• On the Actions menu, click Send Status Report . Outlook launches an e-mail window with your task status automatically added to the bottom.

• Enter recipient names in the To , Cc , and Bcc boxes. If the task was assigned to you, the names of people on the update list are automatically added.

• Add any other information you want in the e-mail message.

• Click Send .