Conquering an overflowing Outlook inbox can be a daunting challenge. Before you throw in the towel, here’s a tip that can help get your messages organized into folders.

Outlook has a feature that allows you to assign rules to incoming and outgoing messages. This will allow us to automatically assign messages to the folders of your choosing. First, we need to create the folders. Create as many as you think you’ll need. For instance, if your email is project-based, you could create a distinct folder for each project. Another method is to create a folder for a specific person, such as your supervisor. To create a new folder, go to File, New, and Folder. Outlook will ask you for a folder name, and where to place the folder.

Next, we’ll create a new rule. To create a new rule, on the top toolbar go to Tools, then Rules and Alerts. We want to create a new rule, so select New Rule. Click the button next to “Start creating rule from a template”.

In Step 1, if you’ve created a folder to collect email from a specific person, select the “Move messages from someone to a folder” option under “Stay Organized”.

In Step 2, click the hyperlink “people or distribution list”, which will allow you to select the person(s) whose messages you’d like to organize into a folder. After finding the name(s), highlight them and click on the From button. When you’re finished selecting the name(s), click OK.

Next, we want to specify the folder to which we’ll collect the messages. Click the hyperlink “specified”, which will allow you to pick you’re newly-created folder. After you’ve selected the folder, click the Next button.

Next, you’ll be prompted “Which condition(s) do you want to check?” where you’ll want to select “from people or distribution list”. Click the Next button again.

The wizard will now ask you what to do with the message. Select “move it to the specified folder” and click Next.

You’ll be asked “Are there any exceptions?” and in this simple demo, there are none. Click Next.

This brings us to the finish, where in Step 1 you’ll be prompted to enter a name for the rule. You could use the person’s name for ease of remembrance. In Step 2, you can also apply this rule to any messages currently in your inbox, so check the box next to this option. Then click Finish, Apply, and OK. Outlook should have moved any messages for which the rule applies, and will automatically move any new messages to the specified folder that fit the criteria.

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