Randy Dean shows how to force folders to the top of alphabetical lists by prefixing them with a special character like an exclamation point. The trick works in Outlook, Gmail, and Windows File Explorer. A few seconds saved per action adds up to weeks over years.
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All right. Hi everybody. Randy Dean, Email Sanity Expert here. Hey, wanted to share with you. It's a really simple little tip, but it's probably one of my favorite and over time might be one of my biggest time-saving tips too. So let's go out and show you. It's probably easier to just show you rather than try to tell you how to do this. I'm going to first pop into my Microsoft Outlook, and I just want you to take a look down here at my folder directory under my inbox. And you'll notice that if I get down here to the word vendors and then all of a sudden it goes back to the letter A. Wait a second. Notice what's different. The little exclamation point. See, if you put a little special character in front of the name of the folder when you're creating the name of the folder, you can actually supersede alphabetization. Let me, I'll show you. I'm going to right-click. I'm going to go to New Folder and I'm going to do exclamation point, New Folder. And now I'm going to click over here and notice it now just popped right here into this part of the directory above the normal alphabetization. And here's what's cool about this. That little tip does not just work in Outlook. It also works in Gmail. See, if I take a look at my folder directory here, take a look at this. Once again, the little exclamation point. So when you're creating new labels and/or folders, when you create those new folders, if you want to move them to the top of your directory, put that little special character in front of it. It also works in here in your Windows File Explorer. Let's go to my File Explorer and let's go to my my business one, take a look at this special characters in front of the name and then you sort by name and it's going to supersede alphabetization yet again. Now, of course, one little thing that you want to remember here is that if there's a folder that you really truly like, like let's say I wanted to get my Documents folder here up at the top, I could right-click here and use my Pin to Quick Access, which would then move it up here into what you see up at the very top, your quick access directory at the very top of your Windows File Explorer. And by the way, if you're in Outlook, you can also do something very similar. Let's say I wanted to move Accounting Finance up here to my favorites. All I would have to do is right-click and add to favorites, and that would move Accounting Finance up here into the favorites. And notice this about favorites, you can collapse it and reopen it. So if you'd rather see just your normal directory, you can do that very easily. But then if you have a few favorite folders, you can always have this open and see that a little bit better too. And so like I said, just play around with this. It probably works in almost any software directory which has an alphabetization option. You can put in a special character, move the stuff you use the most up near the top. It'll save you a few seconds every time, but I'll tell you what, Saving a few seconds every time over years and years means days and weeks of time you weren't expecting. So with that, I'm going to say thank you for your time. Once again, this is Randy Dean, Email Sanity Expert. If you'd like to learn a little bit more about me, go visit my website, randaldean.com. Hey, we passed 5,000 on the subscriptions for YouTube, so please subscribe if you haven't yet. Let's, let's make an effort for 10,000 next. And if you'd like to get my productivity PDFs, send me an email. Randy@randaldean.com, and I'll get you a few different PDFs, including one that'll help you surf my YouTube channel a little bit more easily. And once again, thank you for your time. Bye now.
