Are You Taking Advantage Of Microsoft Outlook’s Focused Inbox?

Microsoft Outlook’s Focused Inbox feature is a convenient way to reduce the clutter in your inbox and see what really needs your attention. Learn how it works in this quick guide.

Do you find a mess every morning when you open up your Microsoft Outlook inbox?

Regardless of how robust your spam filter is, a lot of different content can make it into your inbox every day. If you only have so much time to review your new messages and need to focus on the top priorities, it can be difficult to parse at a glance.

That’s why Microsoft Outlook offers the Focused Inbox feature.

What Is Microsoft Outlook’s Focused Inbox?

The Focused Inbox is a feature that uses machine learning to sort your emails, analyzing incoming messages, and putting high-priority emails in the “Focused” tab, and the rest under the “Other” tab.

Essentially, it’s like another layer of spam filtering, but instead of sorting out dangerous or time-wasting emails, it sorts out low-priority ones. The contacts with whom you correspond the most, or emails that are sent specifically to you, will end up in your Focused Inbox. Other content, like newsletters and articles (which don’t necessarily qualify as spam), will be filtered into “Other”.

Why Should You Use Microsoft Outlook’s Focused Inbox?

The Focused Inbox is ideal for users that have limited time for email, and a surplus of emails.

Whether you’re on multiple teams or projects, or deal with contacts that engage in long reply-all email chains, the Focused Inbox uses AI to track your habits and push the emails you need to see to the top of your list.

It’s almost like having a personal assistant that tells you what you need to know right now, and leaves the rest for when you have more time to sort through it.

A Step-By-Step Guide To Using Microsoft Outlook’s Focused Inbox:

  1. Open Outlook.
  2. Click on the View tab.
  3. Click the Show Focused Inbox button.

To enable Focused Inbox in the Windows 10 Mail app:

  1. Open Mail.
  2. Click on the Settings (gear) button in the bottom-right corner.
  3. Click on Focused inbox in the right pane.

To enable Focused Inbox in your Outlook account:

  1. Open Outlook web.
  2. Sign-in with your Microsoft account.
  3. Click the Settings (gear) button in the top-right corner.
  4. Turn on the Focused Inbox toggle switch.

To learn more about the features offered by Microsoft 365 and its many apps, make sure to check out our on-demand library of past Microsoft webinars, and see the schedule for upcoming broadcasts.