Defer/Delay Outlook Email Delivery

This is one setting I think everyone should use – it defers the sending of an email in Outlook, giving you some options when you realize you sent your boss the mail you meant to send to your colleague (probably because it was about your boss)

I’m not sure when it was introduced, but I still have some VBA which would do this programmatically, so I’m guessing it’s a 2007/2010 feature.

It’s very simple though – we just create a new ‘rule’.

From Outlook, click FileàManage Rules & Alerts

Select New Rule…

Select ‘Apply rule on messages I send’ from the ‘Start from a blank rule’ option & click ‘Next >’

Don’t tick any boxes in the next screen, just click ‘Next >’ again

You should get a warning message – just click ‘Yes’

Tick the ‘Defer Delivery […]’ option

Click on ‘a number of’ link, and set how many minutes you would like to delay delivery by & click ‘OK’

Hit ‘Next >’

Add any exceptions if you want to – or just hit ‘Next >’

Give you rule a meaningful name and hit ‘Finish’

You may be warned that this is a client only rule – that’s ok – just click ‘OK’

And that’s it – click ‘OK’ on the final rules screen to close it.

Now, when you send an email, it’ll stay in your Outbox for the designated number of minutes, giving you a chance to rectify any job-threatening mistakes!

2 comments