We’ve all been there! We have just hit ‘Send’ and realised we forgot to attach the file, addressed it to the wrong ‘Peter Smith’, remembered too late that we did not include an important point, or even – God forbid – had second thoughts about sending the mail at all, especially in THAT tone!

All is not lost! Creating a simple rule will protect your reputation for professionalism. Here’s what to do…

It is a simple matter of creating a Rule in Outlook.

  1. Go to your inbox and from there hit the Tools menu on the top toolbar
  2. Click Rules and Alerts, and then click New Rule.
  3. Elect to ‘Start from a Blank Rule’ rather than use the Wizard.
  4. Click Check messages after sending, and then click Next.
  5. In the Step 1: Do not make any selection, simply click ‘Next’ at the bottom of the form.
    If you do not select any check boxes, a confirmation dialog box appears. If you click Yes, the rule you are creating will be applied to all messages that you send.
  6. In the next window select ‘Defer delivery by a number of minutes’. This then drops to the lower dialogue box.
  7. In the lower dialogue box, click on the blue underlined phrase and enter the number of minutes for which you want the defer sending your messages.
  8. Remember that most ‘Oh No!!!’ moments last no more than a minute or so.
    Click OK, and then click Next.
  9. Select any exceptions that you want.I suggest you never use exceptions in creating outlook rules – they can make the application of rukes sluggish. Click Next.
  10. Now specify a name for this rule box, type a name for the rule. Select the Turn on this rule check box. and click Finish.

There you are, you now have a couple of minutes ‘Oh No!’ time before your missive hits the ether.
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