Reading requires you to expend cognitive energy and your Microsoft Outlook calendar is no exception. Despite this, if you color-code your calendar events, you can more easily tell them apart at a glance and save yourself some time and energy.
Calendars are indispensable memory aids, but reading them can be a difficult task. Adding colors to your events makes it easier to choose related calendar items and understand what they are, without having to read every word.
By default, all Outlook events are the same color.
Despite this, you can use categories to tag your events and show those in the same category with the same color.
Then, even without reading the title of each entry, you will immediately know which events belong to which category.
We have covered how to use Outlook categories before, but here is a quick summary. Simply, they are like labels or tags that you can apply to emails, tasks and events. Each category has a name and a color, what enables you to order, filter or search items in Outlook by that category.
Clicking on a calendar event in Outlook, the option “Categorize” will be visible in the “Appointment / Meeting” of the tape. Click on “Categorize” to choose one of the categories you created.
If you want to add or edit an existing category, click on “All categories”.
In the image below, you can see the categories we set up for our calendar, including its keyboard shortcuts.
To apply a category, select a calendar event. After, click on “Categorize” and select a category or use your keyboard shortcut to apply it.
This can be time consuming if you have a lot of events on your calendar, but luckily, there is a shortcut. Outlook enables you to choose multiple events and apply a category to all of them simultaneously.
To do this, presione Ctrl (or Cmd on a Mac) and then select all the events to which you want to apply a certain category. After, in the same way as above, click on “Categorize” and select a category or use its keyboard shortcut to apply it to selected events.
Once you have added categories to all your events, your calendar will be much easier to read.
As an added benefit, if it also classifies emails and tasks, colors will sync with your events so you can find relevant items even faster. This is perfect for when you need to prepare for your next meeting!!
RELATED: Beginner: how to create, manage and assign categories in Outlook 2013
