My Love Affair with Microsoft Outlook

 Lots of people hate Microsoft in general, and refuse to use their products. However, you are missing out if you are one of those people. Microsoft Outlook is one of the best programs out there for organization.

My New Year's resolutions always include the same things: lose weight, be organized, spend more time with family etc etc. The one thing all those have in common is that you need to be organized in order to complete them.

My favorite tool, one I am in love with, to stay organized is Microsoft Outlook.

It does everything, and can sync with almost any other planning system you use. It is better than the Blackberry software alone, or the PDA software alone. It is better than a Franklin Covey planner alone. It is simply the best planning software out there.

There are so many things you can do with MS Outlook.

First of all, most of us probably have this software free at work. Most offices use it. So you are going to have to mark your personal appointments as "private" by checking the little box in the corner. That way people at your office cannot see all your appointments. But free software is always better than costly software.

You can use it to schedule everything. It has the ability to use reoccurring appointments - for those students who have classes that occur every week. Then you don't have to input each appointment separately. The software also has a "Notes" section where you can write notes to yourself.

If you use a paper planning system, you can schedule everything in Outlook and then print out the appropriate sized pages for your planner. This does two things - first it allows you to print the pages so you can read the writing on them (which is sometimes an issue for people with bad handwriting like myself). Secondly, you save money by not buying a whole set of planner pages. These can get to be expensive - especially if you use personalized pages from Franklin Covey (their standard pages aren't too much, but are still more expensive).

If you want, you can even give everyone in your family a different color, and print in color, so that you can see where everyone is going to be from day to day.

You can schedule tasks in whatever increments you want.

MS Outlook also will set an alarm to ring on a desktop (or PDA, Blackberry or other electronic device) anywhere from 18 hours to 10 minutes before the task is due, or scheduled to occur. This can be particularly useful if you schedule in things like "Call home to make sure kids got home." Then you don't have to keep looking at the clock while you are at work, you can simply wait for the pop-up.

MS Outlook will also "sync" with PDAs and BlackBerrys (maybe other things too, but these are the two I use). I don't have to use separate software, I can simply use the software that comes with my devices to sync them to the MS Outlook information - including contacts, notes and the calendar.

If you are in love with Franklin Covey - like I love the brand - then you can also use their software that works with MS Outlook. It is seamlessly integrated to make MS Outlook function more like a planner, and less like a utilitarian work scheduler. It is great.

In order to keep track of my weight and keep a food diary, I have a "notes" section in MS Outlook where I write down everything I eat during the day and what I weigh-in at each Friday. Then I can keep it electronically and private, so I don't have something lying around (like a book) that people might look at. I can also input the information into the note from my BlackBerry so that i can do it when I am out without pulling out a separate book.

It does all this, and much more!

 If I haven't convinced you yet to use MS Outlook, then send me a comment to address your question. There are so many tutorials out there on the web, that I simply wanted to tell you why to use it - not how to use it.

Here are my Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Use MS Outlook.

5. It is idiot proof: Even the most technologically backwards person can use it. My 88 year old grandmother does - to keep track of birthdays and when she needs to pay bills or go to the doctor. If she can do it, so can you.

4. You can color coordinate your family: It may seem like a small thing, being able to know - at a glance and by color - where your family is and what they are doing, but ask a mom with 2 or more kids, it can be a lifesaver to be organized with your time so that you aren't dropping 3 kids off at 3:30 in different places around town.

3. MS Outlook can coordinate with anything: Microsoft did one thing right with the program when they allowed it to sync with anything else. Also when they put various printing options in place so that you can print out pages for any paper planner. Being able to coordinate all your planning devices with one piece of software is a huge plus. I worked with 3 different programs for a while - using one is so much better.

2. It is versatile: It does almost anything, or can be made to do almost anything. It all depends on how creative you are, and if you want to download freeware or other programs to add-on various functions to it. Because it is so commonly used, there are tons of additional programs to use with it.

1. It can replace every other planning system you use:I like simplicity, and one planner is easier to manage than 3. It can sync with my BlackBerry, so that I can put tasks on my BlackBerry and add them to Outlook, or on Outlook to add to my Blackberry. It can sync with my PDA so that I don't have to use the bad planning software that comes with a Palm. And when I was using a paper planner, it printed pages out in the right size with all the information.

It is a great tool - and a free tool for most people.

SO give it a try - what's the worst that happens...you like it?