Colour-coding takes some initial work, but it's usually worth it. How you choose your colour-coding scheme depends on your needs. Do you need to quickly differentiate between personal and public information? Or do you need to easily spot required versus optional meetings? Once you've analysed your work style, edit the calendar labels to reflect the types of information you consider important. Editing your colour-coding scheme within the Outlook calendar is easy; just choose Edit / Label / Edit Labels, rename your labels and click OK.
To make messages from different senders appear in different colours, select Tools / Organize / Using Colors. Enter a sender's name and a colour where indicated and click Apply Color.
Within email, you can use the Automatic Formatting feature to make mail from different senders appear in different colours; messages from your boss in red, for instance; messages sent only to you in blue; and messages from a distribution list in light grey. Select Tools / Organize / Using Colors. Enter a sender's name and a colour where indicated, and then click Apply Color. To view your colour-coding rules, click Automatic Formatting at the top right of the Organize pane.
You can also use different coloured follow-up flags. For instance, we use red flags for vendor, blue for reader and orange for personal email follow-ups. But because you can't map flag colours the way you can labels, you have to remember what they stand for.
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