How To : Turn off Email Notifications in Outlook

When I moved from manager’s role to that of Technical contributor, I realized that for Individual contributor, getting a continuous span of undisturbed time is very important to get something worth while done. At times like this, email notifications can be distraction that needs to be turned off.

Most of us are conditioned to respond to (or at least read) every email sent you immediately. But over a period of time, you realize the not every email needs immediate attention. While communication is important, the method need not always be email. If something is really time critical, (I have observed that) people you reach you by other means as well (apart from the email they sent you) Other emails are important by not time critical.

Default settings in outlook are to notify you (in multiple ways) of new email in your inbox. But do not need to know about each and every single email the instance it reaches your inbox. You can turn off these distractions by turning off the email notifications completely. But it is hidden very well by Microsoft

To turn off these notifications, navigate to the following location:

Tools->Options->Preferences->Email Options->Advanced Email Options

Now you will see screen similar to the one below. Uncheck all these check boxes.

While the above screen shot (and the location to reach this option) is taken from Outlook 2007, Options for other versions of outlook shouldn’t be very different.

Automate repetitive tasks using AHK

I have been a big supporter of automation where possible. I was reading about how “ActiveWords” was the best piece of software, and that is when I became aware of AutoHotKey, or AHK as it is fondly called. I learned more about AHK on LifeHacker

Considering that I came to AHK looking for ActiveWords replacement, it is no wonder that I use Hotstrings feature extensively. It would not be wrong if I said that is probably the only feature of AHK I use. So let me explain How I use AHK to automate lot of repeatative tasks, mostly related to typing same set of words lot of times.

It would not be out of place to here to mention texter, AHK based tool developed by LH team.

Expand Acronymns

I have created Hotstrings for regularly used acronyms. When I type them, AHK will automagically expand them. This has a huge benefit that I am free to use the acronyms when I type, but my readers aren’t left wondering about what it means. Some of the commonly used ones are YMMV, AFAIK, BTW etc.

SMS style typing:

SMS is used extensively in India, so I’ve seen new professionals – fresh out of college – are used to new SMS-lingo. But in professional communication, it is a complete no-no. AH to the rescue, add your SMS word to your Hotstrings list and let AH complete it. I personally don’t SMS or IM as much, but I have seen people use ‘ur’ a lot, when they mean your.

Pleasantries:

I also have Hotstrings for likes of Regards, Thanks etc.

Frequently used names :

I have Hotstrings like bg=Bill, lt=Linus, esr=Eric etc. I work a lot with my counterparts in Japan where you address people using -san. So it helps to have HotStrings like gt=Takei-san.

Authentications :

I’m too paranoid to allow the browser to remember my username and password, so this is my next best thing. For company internal websites, I need to enter something like domain\username. I’ve created a hotstring like d\u. This is replaced by domain\username by AHK

Are there any negatives of AHK ?

Well, these aren’t the cons in true sense of the word, but there are some practical problems I face. After extended use of AHK Hotstrings, one may see following side effects :

• May forget correct spellings
• Feel like crippled without AHK on guest PC

Do let me know in comments how you use AHK or texter in your daily lives to automate the repetitive tasks.

Note : Originally posted on the Kaizen Blog on October 31st, 2007

Can’t use AHK ? because you are  on Linux ?  Don’t worry, come back to check the review of similar tool on Linx

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Integrate Rainlendar Calendar with Thunderbird

So after I started using Rainlendar as my Desktop calendar, now I had two calendars to maintain. One was Rainlendar Calendar, and other was Thunderbird calendar via lightning plugin. It would asoon get cumbersome to update both the calendars. Wouldn’t it be nice if they shared the same calendar ? If they did, irrespective of which calendar I use to create/update the events and taks, the other would always be in sync.

Unfortunately, the default file format used by Thunderbird ins’t .ics (or iCalendar format). By default, it stored the calendar in storage.db. But there is a way around it.

While Thunderbird does not use .ics file format for its own calendars by default, it supports use of iCalendar on the network (like Google Calendar) But Rainlendar calendar is not on the network.  So you trick Thunderbird (or lightning, depending on the way you look at it)

• Go ahead, and create new calendar on network.
• choose .ics format, but use file:// protocol to point to existing calendar created by Rainlendar.
• Then you can delete the default one called Home. (If you have only once calendar, you are unable to delete it.)

Thanks to this thread on Ubuntu Forums for providing me this idea.

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