4AM. I worked into the night, bleary and spent. I finished the email to our biggest customer of widgets in 14 states, CC:d to my supervisor and his boss. It contained the worst error I had ever made.
Colossal fail was lurking; my words would soon writhe and turn like a viper, stabbing their venom deep into my career. I pressed the SEND button, as my eyes were caught by the barb in the text. My failure showed clearly, but as I blinked again, it was done.
As I slumped, my mind reeled in horror. I had sent the MISTAKE of a lifetime! Late-night emailing was no excuse. I was finished at WidgeCo. I would never catch the message. It was gone. My race was run. Time to search some local Internet advertising for the nearest truck driving school.
But then, something beautiful happened. I had crafted a mail rule the week before - this quiet friend delayed all my outbound messages for three golden minutes. It even had a bypass - it would send immediately if the subject held three spaces in a row.
A ray of precious sunlight appeared through my windows as I smiled and clicked Outbox > Delete Message, I lived happily ever after, my mistake absolved with two minutes to spare.
Creating the 3-minute delay in Outlook 2007:
Colossal fail was lurking; my words would soon writhe and turn like a viper, stabbing their venom deep into my career. I pressed the SEND button, as my eyes were caught by the barb in the text. My failure showed clearly, but as I blinked again, it was done.As I slumped, my mind reeled in horror. I had sent the MISTAKE of a lifetime! Late-night emailing was no excuse. I was finished at WidgeCo. I would never catch the message. It was gone. My race was run. Time to search some local Internet advertising for the nearest truck driving school.
But then, something beautiful happened. I had crafted a mail rule the week before - this quiet friend delayed all my outbound messages for three golden minutes. It even had a bypass - it would send immediately if the subject held three spaces in a row.
A ray of precious sunlight appeared through my windows as I smiled and clicked Outbox > Delete Message, I lived happily ever after, my mistake absolved with two minutes to spare.
Creating the 3-minute delay in Outlook 2007:
- In Tools > Rules and Alerts, click 'New Rule.'
- Check 'Check messages after sending'. Click Next > Next
- Answer ‘This rule will be applied to every message you send’ with Yes
- Check 'Defer delivery by (a number of) minutes'
- Click (a number of) and select a number, 3 is good. Click OK > Next
- Check 'except if the subject contains (specific words)'
- Click (specific words). Press space 3 times and click Add.
- Click OK > Finish.
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