On the First Day of Christmas, BrainStorm Gave to me: Focused Inbox Making Email Easy

The holidays are in full swing here at BrainStorm! As our Christmas gift to you, we’ve put together gifts for the 12 days before Christmas – 12 tips on how to get the most out of your Microsoft Office tools. We’ll give you one tip a day up until Christmas to help you get your best work done more efficiently, and have the happiest holiday season yet.

Oh, the overflowing Inbox. We’re all used to being overwhelmed with the never-ending amount of email we receive. Important messages are often missed, falling to the bottom of the ever-growing stack.

With the ‘Focused Inbox’ feature , you can customize your inbox, make it smarter, and get to the good stuff faster.

In your inbox, select View, then Show Focused Inbox. Your email will instantly be sorted into ‘Focused’ and ‘Other’. Your entire library of emails is sorted by content, sender, and by the email addresses that you interact most with. This keeps automatic emails like newsletters, promotions, and unimportant notifications in your ‘Other’ folder to revisit later when (if) you have some free time.

Using your Focused inbox to get email from the real people trying to get a hold of you helps you to stay on top of what’s important first. Similar to fruitcake, this inbox is the gift that keeps on giving – the more you use it, the better it gets!

If you come across an email that you would rather have marked as more important, simply right click and select Move To. This allows flawless customization of your inbox, and over time, your emails will be right where you need them to be.

Was this useful? Stay tuned for more tips as our Christmas gift to you.