[Weekly Tech Tip] Microsoft Outlook Send Later Feature

Send Later: How This MS Outlook Feature Can Save You From Hasty Words

Find out how Send Later can safeguard productivity and save you from sending regrettable email messages. Learn how to use Send Later. Look at the benefits.  

Nearly everyone who communicates over email has faced this issue — you feel irked by a message so you fire off a hasty response full of sharp words. This initiates a flurry of back-and-forth messages, losing time and potentially leading to even more severe consequences such as damage to your reputation, the loss of a client, or even harm to your career.

To help you avoid this scenario, MS Outlook has a nifty feature called Send Later. Keep reading to take a look at the details and to learn all about the benefits of this function.

Why You Should Use Send Later

In addition to saving you from sending out hasty words, Send Later has the potential to save time. On average, workers spend 2.6 hours per day on email, but you can cut this in half with the following strategies:

• Reduce how often you check your email.
• Turn off notifications.
• Deal with all emails right away. Delete, put them in a folder, or respond.
• Minimize the number of emails you send.

On average, workers receive 121 emails per day, and a lot of these messages are internal. If you and your employees use the Send Later feature, you can reduce your internal messaging, saving time and potentially improving productivity.

When employees have emails set to Send Later, they can add to their messages throughout the day. This practice helps to ensure they cover all the essentials in a single message and reduces unnecessary back and forth between colleagues throughout the day.

Delaying a Single Message or Scheduling All Emails?

Send Later offers two main options. You can save a single email to send later or you can set up the program to delay all your emails. For instance, if you write an email when you’re hot under the collar, you can use the Send Later feature to delay sending for a couple of hours so that you can reassess your words after you’ve had a chance to calm down. Alternatively, you can opt to send all your messages later.

How to Delay Delivery

To delay a single message with Send Later, select More options from the tags group in the ribbon. Find delivery options and check Do Not Deliver Before. Then, select a date and time from the drop down menu. When you hit send, the message stays in your outbox until the assigned delivery time. If you change your mind, you can delete the message anytime during that window.

How to Schedule All Messages

You can also use the Send Later feature to put a delay on sending all your emails. To use this feature, you need to create a rule. Find Manage Rules and Alerts under Files. Then, select New Rule and follow these steps:

1. Find Start From a Blank Rule
2. Select a template
3. Apply rule on messages I send
4. Choose the options you want in the select conditions section
5. Under select actions, choose defer delivery by several minutes
6. Enter the number of minutes confirmed by selecting OK
7. Choose any exceptions you want
8. Name your rule
9. Turn on the rule
10. Select finish

With this option, the emails also stay in your outbox until the scheduled time and you can make changes as desired.

Benefits of Send Later

In addition to saving you from sending hastily written emails, Send Later can also help to boost productivity. For instance, if you set all your emails to be dispatched at 5 pm, you avoid spending the whole day dealing with email and feeling chained to your inbox. Instead, all your emails get sent at once, and you can deal with the responses when you return to work in the morning.

Should Your Enterprise Use Send Later?

Send Later can bring you a range of personal benefits, but at the same time, this feature can also help your entire organization. By instructing your employees to use this feature, you can save time, improve communication, minimize potential conflicts, and safeguard respect throughout your enterprise.

To learn more about how the right approach to tech can help improve your business, contact us today. At BC Networks, we provide IT services to companies throughout the San Francisco Bay area and beyond.