How to Organize Your Inbox with Outlook Folders
Email has evolved from an enjoyable form of communication to a necessary evil. Between the never-ending barrage of incoming emails and the time-consuming process of sorting through messages to find what’s important, there are countless reasons why people dislike it so much.
Fortunately, there are ways to repair your relationship with your inbox by organizing it using folders and labels. In this article, we will introduce how you can use Outlook Folders so you can enjoy a more organized and productive email inbox.
If you are a Gmail user then you should read our guide How to Organize Your Inbox with Gmail Labels.
What are Outlook Folders
All modern email providers and clients provide ways for you to organize your inbox via a filing system, similar to how you would file and organize regular mail or documents. While sometimes named differently, these systems can help you file away specific emails into designated sections of your choice so you can stay organized and retrieve important emails at a later time.
Outlook has kept its filing and naming system straightforward; Outlook Folders. With Outlook you can create individual folders where you can file away specific emails of your choice.
How to create an Outlook Folder
Creating new folders in Outlook is simple and straightforward. To create a new folder in your Outlook inbox, follow these steps:
- Scroll down to the bottom of the left-sidebar of your inbox.
- Highlight and click on New Folder.
- Type in any name you want for the new folder and hit enter.
- That’s it!
Your new folder is created and will appear in the sidebar menu of your Outlook inbox.
Moving Emails to Your Folder
Now that you have created a new folder in your Outlook inbox, it’s time to begin moving emails to it so you can stay organized. Thankfully, it is no different than how you use folders on your computer or laptop. Follow these steps to start filing, retrieving, and removing emails from folders that you’ve created.
- Navigate to your list of emails
- Click an email in your inbox from the list view
- While still clicking on the email, drag it to the destination folder in your left-sidebar
If you want to remove an email from your folder, it is just as easy as adding it to your folder.
- Click on your Folder to see a list of emails within it
- Click and an email from your folder
- While still clicking on your email, drag it to the new destination in your left-sidebar
Add a Folder To Your Favorites
If you want any of your custom folders to be upfront and center in your inbox, you should consider adding them to your favorites. Favorites are an easy way to get access to your folders to make email retrieval easier and faster.
Adding a folder to your favorites is as easy as right-clicking on it and selecting “Show in Favorites”.
Any folder added to your Favorites list will be found at the top of your left sidebar.
Rearrange Your Outlook Folders
Now that you’ve added new Folders in your Outlook inbox, added a folder to your Favorites, and moved emails over to it, you may want to reorganize the order of your folders.
If you want your new Folder to be at the top of your list, if you want to bury your default Inbox folder or do away with your Sent folder, then simply click the folder you want to be moved and drag it up or down to change where it sits in your folder listing.
Automatically Send Incoming Email to a Folder
Take your Outlook Folder organization to the next level and by using Outlook Rules to automatically send emails to your new folders without the need to manually drag and drop individual emails.
If you’re ready to create custom rules to let emails bypass your inbox to populate your custom folders, then take a look at our guide on how to set up Outlook Rules to organize your inbox.
The Future of Email Organization
Creating Folders in Outlook is a great way to organize your inbox by allowing you to file certain emails away for later retrieval. If you are looking to go beyond manually creating folders, dragging emails to them, creating and updating Outlook Rules, then you should consider InMoat.
InMoat enables you to file away unimportant emails to be reviewed at a later time so that your default inbox can be focused on important emails. No need to worry about complex configurations, filters, or manually filing emails.
To learn more about how InMoat can help you gain control of your inbox to be more organized and productive, then check out an overview of InMoat features.
