Over the past several years, I've had the opportunity to write about almost every area of agency life, from leadership skills to providing practical ways to solve everyday problems. I've found that the articles most likely to receive comments or compliments deal with an almost taken-for-granted piece of technology–Outlook.

Research shows that the average e-mail user spends one hour and 47 minutes on e-mail every day. Mastering these easy Outlook tips will dramatically cut that time and thereby increase productivity. Many of the agencies I work with free up an hour or more each day simply by taking advantage of a technology that's usually already in place. So here's the first half of my Baker's dozen of tips and tricks that will reduce stress, raise efficiency and help staff have more fun protecting people's stuff.1. Click and drag How many e-mail messages are in your Inbox? If you're like many agencies, the number could be anywhere between 500 and 5,000. I'm amazed at the false sense of security people get from believing that keeping e-mail in the Inbox is a good way to organize their professional lives.While you doubtlessly know that you can click and drag an item into a folder, I've found that the majority of Outlook users are not aware that they can click and drag any e-mail to create a Calendar item, a Task or even a Note or Contact. If you left-click before you drag into a Task, Calendar, Contact or Note, the item will be copied in the new location, thus giving you two copies. But if you right-click on the item, you're given the option to move it, complete with attachments.While most of your work is done in your management system, cleaning out your Inbox by using time management tools such as Tasks and Calendar is an excellent way to stay organized. You can also reduce that deflating sense of dread that comes over you when you're greeted by 5,000 e-mails in your Inbox.2. SchedulingThis will sound like a foolish question, but how often does an underwriter take longer than expected to respond to an endorsement? (When doesn't one, right?) It's easy to feel that your request has fallen into a black hole, never to be seen again.But what if you tried something that is professional, courteous and proactive? Create an e-mail something like the following:"On July 8, 2008, an endorsement was sent to you for processing. Like you, my goal is to provide the highest level of customer service to our valued clients. Please respond and let me know the status of this request. If you have already responded to this request, thank you for your service."