For some people reading this entry won’t happen until the effects of last night wear off. And to all those people let me say, “Congrats on the good time. Let’s keep it going until 2011!” Of course, it’s impossible to keep partying 24 hours a day, but there are great ways to get time back during our day that we may not have understood before. The major trick to getting more time is to be more structured … and with structure comes organization.

I enjoy relaxing and spending time playing as much as the next person. If you want proof you can see my Playstation Network Account and see just how much I like to play. But like most business owners, even though I enjoy a good time, I’m also spending a lot of time working on my business. Being able to get a spare 10 – 30 minutes would be great! Well here is a quick way to be able to do that using Outlook (my version is 2007) that can help out immensely!

Without going too much into Time Management, the real trick here is to start using Outlook Categories. I have a lot of friends who steer clear of Outlook Categories for some reason. After sitting with me for a few moments they start seeing the power behind the category system, but they are always hesitant at first.

If you are using Outlook the Category Information box is under the Actions toolbar.

By selecting an email, contact or calendar event the Actions toolbar will show the Categorize toolbar action which will expand to show all the categories you have and the option for All Categories.

Selecting All Categories will give you the following box:

Now here is where it gets exciting. From this box you can manage all the categories that you have in outlook. Add, Delete and Rename all of the organization. When you add a new category you get this:

So start creating a myriad of categories that will help you out with your professional, personal and whatever schedule you have. The nice thing about this system is that once you start organizing your Outlook using categories new and exciting functions will be available to rapidly speed through your productivity. You can create Automated Categories based upon keywords. You can create custom views for email, contacts and calendars based upon categories. You can send information to select categories instead of Distribution Groups (which are less dynamic and more maintenance) or exclude information from people in categories. Categories definitely speed up your productivity process in Outlook.

So here is your tip:

Take 10 minutes to think about your activities and group them into categories. Maybe your activities are professional or personal. Maybe it’s a path to advocacy and you want your contacts to move from prospect to advocate and you want to chart their course. Possibly you want to schedule events into different groupings. Whatever the possibility, think about how certain activities, contacts and messages can be organized into groups. Then once you have some thoughts. Open Outlook Categories and create those groupings together. If there are similar groupings utilize the lighter to darker path of colors (a path to advocacy is a great one here: a prospect is a lighter color while an advocate is a darker color).

Don’t start adding your categories yet. Your first 10 minute tip is just to think about the categories you want to use. When you start applying categories to emails, activities and contacts you will have different ideas of groupings. There is no harm in having the same color used twice, it is a graphical device used to help you recognize categories. So if you’re color blind and all green looks grey, don’t worry about it. The Category is important … not the color.

You’re second tip then is to start applying the Categories. You do that by following the same Actions, Categorize and then selecting the category you want to use. Do this AFTER you have created some categories to use. The process becomes quick and easy afterwards. Then with this powerful organization you can become more productive without having to hunt and find everything each time.