Tip of the week # 639
29 January 2021


Set up a rule to delay delivery of all your emails (Microsoft Outlook) *

This week's tip has been inspired by Charlotte who told me about an Outlook feature she has in permanent use that delays sending all her emails by 10 minutes. "It has saved my bacon so many times" she wrote. And as I frequently spot my mistakes after I sent a message, I've also switched it on. And don't worry ... you can still send a message immediately, using a simple override word.

Here' s how:

  1. Click on the Manage Rules & Alerts button on the File tab.
  2. Click on the New Rule button.
  3. Under Start from a blank rule click on Apply rule on messages I send.
  4. Press ENTER twice or click on Next twice.
  5. Press ENTER or click on Yes to accept that the rule will be applied to every message you send.
  6. Select the defer delivery by a number of minutes check box.
  7. Underneath, in the Step 2 box, click on a number of.
  8. Specify the amount of minutes you wish to delay the delivery by and press ENTER or click OK.
  9. Click on Next.
  10. Select the except if the subject or body contains specific words check box.
  11. Underneath, in the Step 2 box, click on the specific words hyperlink.
  12. Type the word you wish to use as an override trick.
  13. Press ENTER or click Add.
  14. Click OK.
  15. Click on Next.
  16. Click Finish.
  17. Click OK twice.

Unless you type the magic word you specified in step 12 in the subject line or in the body of your email, your message will temporarily go in your Outbox folder from where you can amend it until the number of minutes you selected in step 6 has been reached. If that folder is too far down the bottom of your list, you might want to right-click it and select Add to Favorites.

Thanks for the tip, Charlotte! I only knew how to do this for a single email.

By the way, two months ago I started drip-feeding a shortcut of the week on LinkedIn. Follow #CleverClogsTipTime if you want to keep an eye on them. (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/hashtag/?keywords=CleverClogsTipTime)

Related tips

  1. Schedule your e-mail message to be sent at your preferred date and time : tip_503.php
  2. How to sort your Outlook folder list the way you want it : tip_276.php


* Unless stated otherwise, these tips were written for Microsoft Office 2010.