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I have a LOT of tasks that are either far in the future or have no due date and are not urgent.  I hate having to scroll through these to try to find the relevant, time-sensitive tasks I need to work on daily.  Here is how I keep my “back-burner” tasks from taking over my to-do list.

  • First, you will want to put all of your non-relevant or non-time sensitive items in a subfolder of your main tasks folder.  I call mine “Back Burner”.

  • Next, click on the “tasks” toolbar and highlight the “To-Do List”

  • Click on “view” in the toolbar, and then click on “view settings”. 

  • You will see a box that looks like this:

Outlook View Settings

  •  Click on “filter”, then choose “advanced”.

Outlook Filter View

  • We are going to put in a few rules to help make our tasks easier to find and see what is relevant.  each one will be under all task fields:

  • Show tasks that don’t have a due date: We already moved all the non-critical stuff to the “back burner folder”, so these need to show up.  I use them as “work in progress” tasks for items with no due date.
  • Choose “Due Date” from the list, and choose “does not exist” from the conditions drop down.  Click Add to list.

no due date resized 600

  • Show tasks that are overdue or due in the next 30 days.  This keeps tasks far in the future from cluttering up your to-do list.

  • Choose “Due Date” from the list, and choose “on or before” from the conditions drop down, type “30 days after today” as the value.  Click to add.

tasks due 30 days out resized 600

  • Don’t show “Back Burner” tasks.

  • Choose “In Folder” from the list, and choose “doesn’t contain” from the conditions drop down, type “Burner” as the value.  Click to add.

Outlook Tasks

  • Now add any other criteria that might make sense to you if you need more refinement.

  • Next, click on “Change views” and then “manage views”

Outlook Manage Views

  • With the top one highlighted (<Current view settings>), click on copy.

Outlook Copy View

  • Name it something  that makes sense to you. 

 Outlook Custom Task View

  • The settings box will pop up again…just say “ok”. 

 Outlook Custom Task preview

  • Now, test that your To-Do looks like you want.  If not, just click on “view settings” in the toolbar and customize the columns and the look and feel.

  

I hope this helps you manage your to-do list!

Thanks,

The Gravity Systems Team

Gravity Systems, Inc.
Business Computer Services