There are many different types of task and time management services available today. But you do not need them if you have an Office 365 subscription. This step-by-step and in-depth guide will show you how to boost your productivity with Microsoft Outlook. Time blocking, time logging, and task systematization are the three basic methods for becoming a top performer.

The Desktop Alert is an alert window that pops up when you receive a new email, a meeting request, or a task request to the Outlook default Inbox.

Microsoft Outlook uses the semicolon as a separator between addresses. However, a natural way to type multiple addresses into the To, Cc, or Bcc fields is to use commas. If you are used to commas, you can customize Outlook to recognize commas as separators.

Outlook proposes easy and fast way to import contacts from the CSV file to your Outlook. It can be prepared in Excel or saved in another Outlook instance (see How to export Outlook Contacts to a CSV file).

You may want to save Outlook contacts for future use. For example, to move them to another PC, or add them to another email client. Fortunately, you can save all contacts to the file in CSV format.

The AutoComplete feature generates an AutoComplete list, also known as the nickname cache. This list is generated automatically after sending email messages from Outlook:

The standard Outlook work weekdays are Monday-Friday, and work hours are 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM. The Scheduling Assistant uses this information to show your availability when someone wants to schedule a meeting with you. Skype for Business can forward your phone calls to an alternate phone using this information.

Stationery provides an easy way to create a visual Outlook template with custom background color and image, fonts, bullets, colors, and effects. Unlike an email message template that includes both visual appearance and text, the stationery consists of visual appearance only. The default stationery applies to new emails, replies, and forwards. Thus, if you need an Outlook template for branded messages, you should use the custom stationery instead of the email template.

After recent updates, the ribbon in Microsoft Outlook can take up to 1/3 of the available screen space. Microsoft Office help tells that you can hide or unhide your ribbon, but you cannot reduce the size of your ribbon, or size of the text or the icons. False! You can change the mode and remove unnecessary white space around buttons, and, thus, reduce the ribbon size.

Time to time, when you send an email, you need to keep the text of the previous messages intact. E.g., if you use AutoCorrect in Outlook to check errors before sending any message, but you need to keep original text without any changes.