Creating a task in Outlook is an effective way of keeping track of every task, so you know when it was accomplished. But manually creating a new task to delegate/complete for each email account separately can take up a lot of time, especially when you receive lots of emails.
To avoid it and save time, you can convert the email message directly into a task. By doing so, you can avoid copying every task detail pre-mentioned in the email. You just have to specify the dates and reminder details only.
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How to Create an Outlook Task From Email?
Among the two methods, the follow-up flag method doesn’t actually convert your email message into a task but to a to-do list. Nonetheless, you can find both the Tasks and To-Do List in the same section.
Using Drag and Drop Method
In this method, you simply drag and drop an email in your inbox into tasks. You can either use the left-click or the right-click when doing it. But right-click is a preferred method as it offers you more options.
On the Outlook Desktop App
- Open the Outlook app and select the inbox icon.
- In the right pane, select the message you want to convert into a task.
- Click the email message and drag it in the clipboard icon in the bottom left corner. Then, release it.
- Alternatively, right-click the email message and drop it in the clipboard icon. Then, select one of the following options.
- Copy Here as Task with Text: Converts the email message into a task but doesn’t copy any attachments with it.
- Copy Here as Task with Attachment: Converts the email message into a task and attaches the message to the task.
- Move Here as Task with Attachment: Convert the email message into a task and the attachment. Then, the original message doesn’t appear in your inbox.
- Make changes to the task, such as the Start date, Status, Priority, or any other, according to your preferences.
- Click Save & Close in the top right corner.
On Outlook Website
- Open a browser and sign in to your Outlook account.
- Click Inbox and select the email message you want to convert to a task.
- Click My Day (checklist icon) in the window’s top right corner.
- Under the To Do tab, drag the message in the Tasks section and drop it inside Add as a task.
- Alternatively, you can right-click the email message and select Advanced actions > Create task.
- Right-click the task under the Tasks section and set a preferred reminder/due date.
Using Follow Up Flag
Using this method, you flag the email message, and it ends up in the To-Do list section. However, the original message is still dependent on the converted task. This means if the original gets deleted, its associated tasks also get removed.
- Click the inbox icon and select the email message.
- Then, click Follow Up in the top menu bar and select a preferred date.
- Alternatively, you can right-click the email message and select the Follow Up option.
