I\u2019ve created 4 new video lessons about this in the Outlook Inbox Ninja Video Course<\/a>, and the first one is free for all. It\u2019s Lesson 1.11. So go to that link now and watch Lesson 1.11. But if you\u2019d rather read <\/em>about this instead, read on below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Example of Where Personal Retention Policies Make Sense to Use<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s a good example, I get a lot of daily and weekly news-oriented emails. I like to let some of them stay around in my Inbox or Archive folder (often categorized as READ LATER\u2014see Inbox Ninja Lesson 1.6) for about a week or so, just in case I have time to read them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But after about a week they are old news and useless. So these days, when I first get them, I apply a retention policy to auto-delete them in a week. This helps keep my folders clear and means there is less mail I must delete manually. Doing all this is easy using Exchange retention policies. It\u2019s especially easy if you combine them with Outlook rules or Quick Steps\u2014it takes just a few seconds to set up first, and then it\u2019s automatic after that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I can\u2019t tell you how useful this is for automatically clearing\nout old mail!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let me go into a bit more detail on how this works. And\nagain, if you want to go to the Outlook Inbox Ninja video\nset<\/a>, I\u2019ve just added a brand-new video lesson to that Ninja set\n(Lesson 1.11) that shows visually what I present in words below, and it\u2019s free\nfor all to watch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve also added three more new lessons to the paid set that expand on this and they are mentioned below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Check to See if You\nCan Do this<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is the first step to using these retention policies.\nYou should first check in your Windows desktop Outlook to see if the personal retention\npolicy features are active for you. To check that: <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you can see the Assign Policy button, great! You are part\nway there. If you cannot see it, well, you\u2019ll have to talk with your Exchange\nAdmin staff and ask them to activate it for you. If you have your own Office\n365 subscription with Exchange, and you administer your own Exchange account, I\u2019ve\nadded a video to the Ninja course that may help you add that button, it\u2019s Lesson\n8.3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside the Assign\nPolicy Button<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Assuming you have that Assign Policy button active, next we\nneed to check what\u2019s inside. Default Exchange retention policies usually\ndisplay the choices shown in the following figure. The ones we need for this\npurpose are the Delete policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your list might have more or less to choose from than shown here, but if you\u2019ve got the Delete policies I show above, then you are all set. If you are missing the Delete policies, or you want to add some more choices, say a 3-day or 1-day delete, both of which are useful, the new Inbox Ninja video lesson number 8.3 shows you how to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How to Use Delete\nPolicies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n These policies do what they say. Once you apply them to\nmail, the mail will auto delete after the time-period expires. Note that the\ntime period is measured from the Received date of the mail, not from the day\nyou applied the policy, so keep that in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you apply them? Well, one way is to select one or more emails, and then use that Apply Policy button and menu to manually apply such policies to the selected email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But you will almost never do that! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t worry, you didn\u2019t waste your time finding or\nactivating that Assign Policy button, because it IS the first step\u2014it is\nrequired to go to the next step. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But using that button is way too much work. Rather, the idea\nis to have policies applied automatically<\/em>\nto certain types of mail. To do that, you will use either Quick Steps or\nOutlook Rules with features that become active once that button is active.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Using Quick Steps\nwith Retention Policies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In prior videos in the Outlook Inbox Ninja set, I show you how to use Quick Steps to quickly process mail (Lesson 1.8). And I show you how to apply a READ LATER category to incoming low-priority mail you possibly want to read later, but that you want to dismiss for now (Lesson 1.6). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, I\u2019ve just added a brand-new video lesson to that Ninja set (Lesson 1.12) that shows how to combine all these together. It shows how to create a Quick Step command that both assigns a READ LATER category AND applies a Delete-after-1-week policy to the email. AND it optionally files the mail into your single folder where you can read it before it is deleted. So, if you own that course, go watch that new lesson 1.12, it\u2019s really good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that\u2019s only one way to do it. With certain mail it makes sense for you to use an Outlook rule<\/em> instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Create a Rule to Set\nthe Retention Policy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For certain mail, instead of using a Quick Step, you should create one or more Outlook rules to set some delete retention policies on incoming mail, based on sender name or text in the subject line. This is possible because, once the Assign Policy button discussed above is active, then another Outlook rule choice is added to the \u201cSelect Actions\u201d page in the advanced Rules Wizard. Down at the very bottom you will see the choice highlighted in the figure below. This choice will only be there if the Assign Policy button I described above is visible\u2014they are linked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next Steps for Rules<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is beyond the scope of this short article to teach you\nhow to create Outlook rules. My Outlook Inbox Ninja video\ncourse<\/a> teaches you how, and I\u2019ve just added another video lesson\nthere specifically for setting these retention rules\u2014see the brand-new Lesson 2.10 Using Retention Rules<\/em>. It\nwalks you through all the points for this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But if you do know how to create Outlook rules, the tips\nabove should be enough to get you going on this incredibly valuable use of Exchange\nretention policies. In no time you\u2019ll be having much of your low-priority mail\nget auto-removed after a week, or a month, or whatever time is appropriate for\nthe given sender or subject. So, use these tools, and enjoy your more-empty\nInbox!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Microsoft Exchange includes an elaborate, mostly behind the scenes, facility to automatically delete old mail. It\u2019s got a ton of rather complicated features mostly set by your Exchange Administrator if they choose to use them. But there are some optional … Continue reading ![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.michaellinenberger.com\/images\/assign-policy-button.png\")
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