Here are three quick maneuvers you’ll want in your Outlook email bag of tricks to make managing email easier:

Right-click an email to make a Rule. If you’ve got an email in your Inbox that you always move to another folder, forward to your assistant, or do some other repetitive action with (and you don’t want to go to the trouble of creating a Rule from scratch as we discussed before), just right-click your mouse on the email as it appears in your Inbox and choose “Create Rule …” from the menu.  Outlook will bring up the Rules Wizard, with several suggested rule conditions (such as the sender’s name or the email’s subject line or body content).

That makes it easier to plug in Rules as you come across emails that are good candidates for automated handling from that point forward.

Right-click an address to add it to your Contacts. Once you’ve opened an email, use this shortcut to add the sender to your Contacts: right-click on the sender’s name and choose “Add to Contacts.”

You can fill in other information for the sender (snail mail address, phone, etc.) while you’re at it.  Or … not.  Either way, it’s an easy way to store new email addresses for future use.

Right-click a Contacts entry to start a new email. Don’t start an email the long way by going up to the New Item drop-down, choosing New Message, opening a new mail window, and clicking To to find the email address in your Contacts.  Instead, right-click on the Contact’s name and choose “New Message to Contact.”  You’ll automatically get a new message form with the Contact’s email address pre-filled in.

You can also use this technique to schedule a meeting (“New Appointment with Contact” or “New Meeting Request to Contact”) or assign a task to him or her (“New Task for Contact”).

What other “one-click tricks” do you use to make short work of tasks in Microsoft Outlook?  Share ‘em in the comments below.

Deborah Savadra specializes in helping law firms use Microsoft Office applications.  Her blog http://legalofficeguru.com features video tutorials on solving common Microsoft Office problems. You can follow her on Twitter at @legalofficeguru.

Image credit:  TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³ (Flickr)