Get Focused!

You may be used to using the ‘Focused Inbox’ in some versions of Outlook and you’ve grown to like the functionality of it.

I recently got a question from a user who had used this feature previously and liked what it did.

The ‘Focused Inbox’ is very clever and learns about the way you work and figures out what it thinks you want to focus on.

One aspect of it they found useful was the fact that it would filter out all emails that they were cc’d on upon their return to work after a break.

However, the desktop version of Outlook that they were currently using did not have the focused inbox feature which was a bit of shame.

“There must be a workaround though”, they told me. Hmm was that a challenge for me I wondered.

Yes – of course there is a workaround.

If you make use of the ‘search folders’ which I know you all know about anyway, right?

Create a new search folder from Folder > New Search Folder

Select ‘create a custom Search Folder’ and click Choose

Give it a Name – I chose ‘Focused Inbox’

Click on Criteria and then go to the Advanced tab. Three fields need to be added:

In Folder – to make sure it only searches on the Inbox

To – to make sure it’s only searching for emails where it contains my name

CC – to make sure it’s only searching for emails where the cc box doesn’t contain my name

To add fields click on Field > Mail fields and find the relevant field and then set the correct condition.

Here’s what it should look like once complete.

Once it is set up and confirmed that it is working as it should I drag this new folder up to my ‘Favourites‘ et voila a Focussed Inbox.

Of course, extra criteria can be added as necessary to make the Focussed Inbox exclude other types of emails depending on how you want it to work for you.