How And Why You Should Schedule Your Emails

Life gets busy—and you don’t always have time to sit down and send an email. But what if you could write an email when you have some extra time—and send it later without even lifting a finger? Our short guide will walk you through how to schedule an email in Outlook. But first we’ll share some of the benefits, including the ability to:

A graphic representation of a busy calendar with multiple things scheduled.

Set it and forget it.
Keep important emails from getting “buried”.
Simplify different time zones.
Never miss important dates.

Set it and forget it. You try to stay organized but on busy days, it’s hard to drop what you’re doing and send an email. Even if it’s sitting in your drafts ready to go, you have to pivot from your current task and hit send. If the timing of the email is important and you find yourself doing something else at that moment, you could miss a deadline. Instead, write the email, set it to send later, then forget about it.

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Keep important emails from getting “buried”. It doesn’t take long for an email inbox to get crowded. Between shopping, social media, and everything else we do online, many of us are deleting upwards of 200 spam emails every day, making the concept of “inbox zero” something of a pipe dream. The challenge is getting an important email into your recipient’s inbox without it getting buried. If you have an idea of when the person you’re sending the email to checks their messages, you can try to time it just right to get toward the top of their inbox.

Simplify different time zones. Sending emails can get complicated if you’re dealing with different time zones. You can choose to send it according to the time zone where it’s going—so you don’t have to do the math to figure it out on your own. This can be especially helpful if you’re sending international emails and you want the message to be in their inbox first thing in the morning.

Never miss important dates. A simple birthday or anniversary email can go a long way toward letting someone know you care. If you have a few minutes, you can send well wishes to friends and family by scheduling them out months in advance.

“What if you could write an email when you have some extra time—and send it later without even lifting a finger?”

How to delay or schedule an email in Outlook. Scheduling an email in Outlook is a little bit of a different process from other email platforms. We’ll show you how to do it using both the desktop and mobile versions.

Follow these steps when using Outlook on your desktop.

Click “Message Options” from the “Tags” group on the taskbar ribbon. This is the little arrow in the bottom, righthand corner of the group and will open another window called “Properties.”
Look for the “Delivery options” section of the window. Click the “Do not deliver before” check box.
Choose the date and time you’d like to have your email sent.
Click “Close.”
Click “Send” after you’re finished composing your email. The message will be sent to your Outbox until it’s sent. Until then, the message is available to be edited as needed.

Note: Make sure that your computer is on with Outlook running at the time you have your email scheduled.

A graphic representation of a desk at work with many items to take care of.

If you use the Outlook mobile app, follow these steps.

Compose your email.
Tap the three dots on the taskbar above your virtual keyboard.
Tap “Schedule Send.”
You’ll be presented with options that say “Tomorrow” or “Next Week” with accompanying times. If neither option fits when you want to send the email, tap “Choose a Time.”
Use the scroller to find the date and time you’d like to send the message.
Tap “Send” and your email will be scheduled.

Knowing how to schedule an email in Outlook can be a game-changer—helping to keep you organized and on task.