Date: January 7th, 2008

Author: Susan Harkins

One of the most frustrating tasks I face is remembering to respond to E-mail messages in a timely manner. If I don’t answer an E-mail immediately, it soon drops out of generic cialis buy sight and out of mind. Before you know it, I’ve let something important fall through the cracks.

Flags can be helpful, as far as they go, but as is, they’re useless if you can’t see them! Of course, you can sort by flags, but that simply groups messages by flag category—it doesn’t alert you to follow-up reminders that are past due or quickly approaching.

The easiest solution is a custom view that includes the Due By field. However, if you’ve tried that and it didn’t work you probably used the wrong date field. You must sort by the E-mail Due By field in order for this helpful view to force overdue and current E-mail reminders to the top of the reading pane.

To create this custom view, select the appropriate folder and do the following:

The fields at the top of the reading pane should now include Due By. Simply click this field to sort messages by the flag’s due date. Over due items will sort to the very top, followed by any items for the current day, and so on.

This technique depends on the use of flag reminders. If there are no flags, or your flags have no due dates, the sort is moot. To set a Due By date for a follow-up flag (red by default), do the following:

1. Right-click the flag icon and choose Add Reminder.
2. The Flag To item should be Follow To (make sure to select that item if it’s not already selected).
3. In the Due By control, choose a date from the dropdown calendar.
4. Click OK.

Now, a single click sorts your most critically timed reminders to the top of the reading pane, where you can quickly deal with the most urgent.