How to save your ass by delaying your emails in Outlook

So I just about had a heart attack. I had drafted a confidential email and clicked send with the wrong person in the cc: line.

I’m sure you have done that before. What saved me is that I have a rule in my Outlook at defers all of my outgoing email by one minute. This way the email sits in my outbox waiting for me when I have a “oh crap” moment after lifting my finger from the mouse.

Here is how you can set up a similar rule on your computer:

  1. Open Outlook 2010.
  2. Click “Rules” > “Manage Rules and Alerts” (on the home tab, under the move section)
  3. Click “New Rule”
  4. Under “Start a Blank Rule” pick “Apply Rule on Messages I Send” and click next.
  5. On the “Which condition(s) do you want to check screen” just hit next.
  6. Click Yes to applying this rule to all messages you send.
  7. On the “What do you want to do with the message screen” under “Step 1” click the last option “Defer delivery by a number of minutes”
  8. Under “Step 2” click the blue “a number of” text, input 1 minute and click ok.
  9. Optional: On the next “Are there any exceptions” screen I would suggest selecting the 3rd option “except if it is marked important” clicking the blue text again, and choosing high importance. This will allow high importance (the red exclamation mark) emails to send immediately.
  10. Give the rule a name (Defer all mail by 1 minute?) and click finish.

That’s it! Send me a thank you email the first time this saves your ass.