Outlook Tip: How to Avoid Sending Emails by Mistake
Have you ever sent emails by mistake or to the wrong recipients? You can avoid sending emails by mistake by cross checking the mail before sending, but then this is not possible all the time as some mails might have been sent urgently. Here is a simple Outlook tip to avoid sending mails by mistake using rules in Outlook. All you need is to create a new rule for sending emails.
How to create rule in Outlook 2003/2007
1. Go to the Tools menu and Click Rules & Alerts.
2. In the Rules & Alert box, select New Rule button.
3. In the Rules Wizard dialog box, Start from a blank rule. Highlight Check messages after sending. Click Next.
4. Click Next button in the next dialog box.
5. In the next box, select defer delivery by a number of minutes action. In Next Step, click a number of to set the number of minutes that you would like to delay delivery.
6. A pop up dialog box appears asking you to select the number of minutes you would like to delay delivery. I have selected 2 minutes here. Click OK and then Click Next.
7. Next, you can set exceptions to this rule if you need. You can check the appropriate one which suits you.
8. In the final step, give a name to the rule and turn on this rule. Click Finish and Apply. That’s it, next time you send a mail, it will be deferred by 2 minutes. In the meantime, you can cross check the mail and delete it if it was sent accidentally.
If you liked this tip, please give it a Thumbs up. 
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Nov 29th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Good for outlook users(corporate users??)
Nov 29th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
@Rajesh,
Indeed this is useful for corporate users.
Nov 29th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
I thought I was the only one using this trick!. I have it as ‘2 minute rule’
Nov 29th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
@Vinod,
These simple tricks are not used by many.
Nov 29th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
You deserve a link for this tip. Will be here shortly. Thanks for this nice trick. Its very important for people like us who use outlook in office
Nov 29th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Very important and useful tip many a times emails get sent out by mistake and then I start cursing myself for it.
Nov 30th, 2007 at 8:33 am
While sending emails with attachment, many people just shoot the mail, only to realize later that they forgot to attach the desired file.
To avoid it, I have made a practice to write the name of the recipient in the last, after finishing the writing work.
This prevents me to accidentally press SEND. It looks like a common tip, but has really saved me embarrassment many times.
Nov 30th, 2007 at 11:04 am
@Ashish,
Glad that you liked the tip.
@Keith,
Indeed this is a simple yet useful tip.
@Silky,
What you have mentioned is also a good way to prevent it.
Nov 30th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
This is a nice tip, useful for outlook users.
Dec 3rd, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Thanks for tip on how to defer the mail for a few minutes but I would like to get subject checked automatically… If I get a way I would update here
Dec 3rd, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Hey I did it.. Please extend the post for exception rule where you can add “except if the subject contains ‘a’ or ‘e’ or ‘i’ or ‘o’ or ‘u’”
Using this all messages containing one of the vowel would be sent immediately (that means you didn’t forget writing subject) and others would remain in outbox!
Dec 3rd, 2007 at 3:26 pm
@Jalaj,
Nice find. I think we can set lot of conditions using the rules.
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