Outlook Today: Your morning coffee before the onslaught

Let's take a look at your morning. Chances are it takes you a while to wake up. You may need a shower, a shave, some coffee, breakfast, and maybe a chat with your loved one. Then—and only then—will you feel steady enough to wrestle with that onerous inbox of yours. I am very much this way: The last thing I want to do first thing is jump right into email. It's tempting, I know. How beautiful those bolded folders are with their brilliant blue unread mail counts, just itching to take over your brain, your time, and your life.

In September, I wrote about how to start up Outlook to show anything but mail, and the examples I gave of other places to start up in were Calendar, Contacts, SharePoint Lists, and RSS feeds. However, I missed mentioning something that is near and dear to one of my cohort's heart and now that I know about it, mine too <sigh>.

Take a look at what my mailbox greeted me with this morning:

Not pretty, no.

Yes, I will eventually get to all of that (well, maybe not all 23,251 pieces of unread mail), but I'll do a good job of weed whacking it by the time I close up shop for the day. But does it do me any good to just jump in there and get caught up in all of it before I even know what my schedule is for the day or what tasks I've laid out for myself? It does not.

And here's where Outlook Today comes in. Outlook Today is a snapshot of your whole day—your calendar, your tasks, and any mail folders you'd like to see (just how many messages are awaiting). It's front and center, and all your mail folders are to the left of it (ready to pounce, no doubt). You get an overhead look at your upcoming meetings and appointments and what you need to do today...and then you can move on from there. You can also customize that Outlook Today screen. For example, you can choose how many days of your calendar you'd like to see, how many tasks and how to arrange your them, and even the style and color of the Outlook Window.

Here's what you get when you select the Summer style:

Interested in trying it out?  Brainstorm has a really great demo that shows you what Outlook Today can offer.

Always start up in Outlook Today

1. Click the File menu, then Options, and then in the left column, click Advanced.
2. In the right pane, under Outlook Start and Exit, click Browse.
   • If you're using Outlook with Exchange, click Mailbox - Your Name or Mailbox - Your Email Address
     
   • If you're using a Person Folders file (.pst) as your mailbox, click the name of that file.

See what Outlook Today is before you commit

Okay, I get it: You're not into blind dates. You want to see what this Outlook Today thing is all about before you commit. In Mail, if you're using If you're using Outlook with Exchange, click Mailbox - Your Name or Mailbox - Your Email Address. If you're using a Person Folders file (.pst) as your mailbox, click the name of that file.

I really like starting my work day in Outlook Today; not everyone does. But I guess you won't know unless you try it out.

— Annik