Tips & Tricks: Outlook 1 Minute Delay
Have you ever hit send on an email and said “Oh #$%^&*…” followed by one of these:
…I forgot to attach the document.
…did I hit reply all?
…I really shouldn’t have sent that.
…I think I copied “so-n-so”. (that you typed in the CC line to see how to spell their name)
…and many others? [Please leave some that you have said in the comments!]
Assuming you have said one of those at least once, this tip is for you! We are going to walk you through how to make Outlook wait 1 minute before it sends any email. Since I have used this for years, I have also learned that it can be painful when you are in a hurry to leave somewhere and don’t want to wait 60 seconds. Because of that, we will teach you how to create an exception that will allow an email to automatically leave your inbox.
Outlook 2016 for Windows (Sorry Mac users, no such option yet!)
- Open Outlook 2016 for Windows and navigate to your inbox.
- On the Ribbon you will see a Rules button, click that button and select “Manage Rules & Alerts”
- From the Rules & Alerts dialog box click the New Rule button.
- Select “Apply rule on messages I send” and click Next.
- Do not check any check box on the next screen and click Next.
- You will be warned that this rule will be applied to every message you send, which is what we want so simply click Yes.
- Now check the box for “defer delivery by a number of minutes and click on a number of in the bottom portion of the dialog box.
- The Deferred Delivery dialog box will appear and already say 1. Simply click OK then click Next.
- You cannot get the delay to be any less than 1 minute!
- Here is where we will apply an exception.
- I have always used “except if it is marked as importance” and changed the importance to High. The only downside to this if you send an a “Thanks” note as your last email on Friday afternoon, you might mark it as High importance so you don’t have to wait for it to send.
- Choose the checkbox next to the exception that will work for you. I am using “except if it is marked as importance” and then clicking importance in the bottom section of the dialog box.
- In the Importance dialog box, choose High and click OK then click Next.
- On the next screen, name your rule. I like “My Oh #$%^& Rule – 1 Minute Delay” and click Finish.
- I exported the rule if you want to save time. Download it here!
Have other topics that you would like to see us cover in our tips & tricks section. Send us your suggestions in the comments section below!