Using the Due Date Field in Outlook Tasks

August 8, 2018

As you know I have written 7 books on task management and email management. In my task management materials, I talk a lot about how to get tasks done. One typical way older to-do list systems try to do that is to focus obsessively on setting due dates on all tasks. But anyone who has studied my materials know I don’t believe in that. That’s because doing that leads to a lot of fake deadlines, and then a Cry Wolf phenomenon takes place where you just start ignoring those fake ones, and then ignore all deadlines, and important ones get dropped.

Instead, I say set a due date only when there is a true hard deadline. That way you will honor your deadlines. Then, in my MYN system, I say set a start date on ALL tasks, that way you indicate when you want to do the task (whether due soon or not) and it gives you greater control. And in my simpler 1MTD system, we don’t use start dates, rather, we simply set the priority to indicate urgency.

How to Set a Due Date

But how do you set a due date? Usually I say simply type it into the text subject line of the task like this: “DUE: Friday, Turn in status report.” That works well.

Now, if you are using Outlook for tasks, you may know there is a Due Date field in the task form. But for MYN I recommend you avoid it. That’s because it has an unfortunate hard linkage to the start date, one that makes the Due Date field almost unusable. So just use the subject line text method as above.

But in the simpler 1MTD system, since we don’t use the start date, using Outlook’s Due Date field can make sense because there is no conflict. It gives you the advantage of turning the task red when overdue and enabling you to set pop-up reminders. The problem is it’s a bit complicated to use the Due Date field in the To-Do Bar of Outlook, even for the simple 1MTD system. It takes a bit of study.

Where to Learn How to Use the Windows Outlook Due Date Field

The good news is I give complete instructions on how to use the Outlook Due Date field in 1MTD in two places. One is video 4.7 in the full version of my Windows Outlook Inbox Ninja video course. The second is in video 7 of my new Windows Outlook One Minute To-Do List video course. So study one of those videos (they are nearly identical) and consider using the Due Date field in Windows Outlook with 1MTD.

Michael