Small City Law Firm Tech

Have you ever sent off an email asking the recipient to complete a task by a certain date, then scribbled a note somewhere to remind yourself to follow up to ensure that task was completed?  Or just tried to rely on your own memory to follow-up on your request a couple of days later?  Maybe you have a great memory and don’t need help following up your own requests to others -  if so, you’re a rare bird indeed (and a lot of us are very envious of you) and this tip isn’t for you.

If you fall in the forgetful category, or just want the software to do the remembering for you, so you can free up your memory for more important stuff (like picking up groceries on the way home from the office), then this tip is for you.  (I’m really sympathetic to the ‘I forgot’ excuse:  One of the first bits of info about myself that I pass on to Burgar Rowe newbies when training is this: put any requests of me in writing and send them because if I’m just told verbally I will have forgotten by the time I turn my back and walk away.  My memory is that bad.  I suspect it’s the same for others of a certain age… Sometimes I even email myself reminders via this process in Outlook)

1. Compose your email
2. Click on ‘Follow Up’ on the Ribbon

1. From the ‘Follow Up’ drop down list, choose ‘Custom’

1. In the Custom box, click on the Start Date and choose the date you wish to be notified for follow up by clicking on the day in the pop-up Calendar.  The Due Date will automatically change to the same date.  If you like, you can choose an even later date for the Due date, but I tend to leave the dates the same.  You may leave the ‘Flag to’ at ‘Follow up’ or change to one of the other choices, if you like.

Now for the really important part:

1. Click  in the Reminder box to checkmark then choose your ‘date’ (same as the dates in boxes above makes the most sense) and choose your reminder time.
2. Click OK

Optional:  You can also flag the email for follow-up  in the same manner for your recipient(s) and give them a reminder also by ensuring that the ‘Flag for Recipients’ box is checked and the Recipient’s Reminder box is checked, with date and time set.  Doing so may make you unpopular, but it precludes your recipient(s) from claiming they ‘forgot’…

1. Send your email as usual.

At the recipient’s end, the email will appear in their Inbox looking like the below – showing the mail as flagged for follow-up with a reminder, and it will appear similarly in your sent items

At the set date and time for follow-up a Reminder will pop up on your screen. You can use this reminder to open the associated email for follow-up, by double-clicking on the item, or by selecting then clicking on ‘Open Item’.

If the Recipient has already replied, you may dismiss the Reminder (to make it go away permanently), or, if you would like to give the Recipient more time to respond to your request, you may drop down the ‘Snooze’ field and choose to be reminded again at a later day/time (you may continue to do this as many times as the Reminder pops up until you either mark the follow up as completed by clicking on the red flag, or Dismiss the Reminder).

If you are at all uncertain about whether you are setting up the Follow Up flag and Reminder correctly, you could practice by sending emails to yourself, and playing with the various settings.

Note: because I am both the recipient and sender of the email, you’re seeing 2 reminders, when you’d normally only see one.

No more forgetful excuses!