Marketing manager Grier was just plain tired of colleagues playing the expert in her domain. When a designer sent her an e-mail questioning her choice of quotes for a new product brochure, she snapped. “How about you do your job, and I’ll do mine!” she typed back rapidly and punched “send.” A split second later, she wished she hadn’t.
For example, you can undo an email to a coworker, but not someone who has a Yahoo or has another business email. Go to ‘Sent Items’ Double click on the email you want to recall. How to Recall an Email in Outlook Using Virtru Pro Fortunately, with Virtru Pro, you don’t have to rely on Outlook’s native recall feature if you want a little extra protection against sending an “oops” email.
Her better self knew that a dose of circumspection would have saved her from the now face-to-face damage control she had to do with an offended colleague. When was the last time you sent an email that seconds later you wished you hadn’t?
Maybe you forgot an attachment? Maybe you forgot to check spelling or to delete the e-trail below your message that had personal comments — too personal. Or just maybe, like the fictitious (but realistic) person I’m calling Grier, you were irritated, and you realized you should have slept on your response before firing it off? You and Your Team.
Don’t let poorly-crafted communications hold you back. It’s for these sorts of reasons that several years ago I decided to put a two-minute delay on all of my office emails. It’s come to my rescue many a time, allowing me to pop into my outbox and fix inaccuracies; add the PowerPoint file I forgot to attach; or re-edit a sensitive message for nuance.
I’d love to say it’s simple to get started, but if you use the version of Outlook that I use — Outlook 2013 — you’ll need to navigate a rabbit’s warren of clicks and commands. It’s worth it.
Go to the “Home” tab and click on the “Rules” drop down. Choose “Manage Rules and Alerts”. Under “Email Rules” choose “New Rule” and under “Start from a blank rule” click on “Apply rule on messages I send.” Click “Next,” which will show conditions — you don’t need to choose any of these, just click “Next” again. On the final menu (the “Actions” page), check “Defer delivery by minutes” and fill in the blank. I choose two minutes, because it often takes me a minute to realize what I’ve forgotten!. Click “Next,” and fill in any exceptions to your new rule. Then, click “Next,” and “Finish” (Don’t forget this last step, or all your clicks will be for naught.) (For info on different versions of Outlook go to: and search for “.” One caveat: users report that it doesn’t work on Outlook for Macs.) If you use Gmail, you’re in luck, as Google just added an “undo send” feature, which is much simpler.
To enable it:. Go to the little cog icon in the upper right-hand corner and select “Settings.”. Look a third of the way down the page for the “Undo Send” section. Check “Enable Undo Send” and then choose between 5, 10, 20 and 30 second windows of unsendability. Again, I’d go for longest interval to give your mental red flags a chance to flutter. Make sure you hit “Save Changes” at the bottom.
Three Common Saves Preventing a pickle like Grier’s is one way that a delayed send can save you from yourself. But it’s likely not the most common. In my experience, the top three rescues are from crossed messages, forgotten credits, and ingratitude. Crossed messages occur when one reads e-mails out of order, answering a question that a subsequent email has rendered obsolete. Or, when one efficiently answers screens full of email offline during a flight — only to synch up hours later and find the criteria changed when you were somewhere over Nebraska.
Then there’s the group e-mail, where replies cross in the ether, one carrying info that affects the other. Exclusion can happen, unwittingly, in messages acknowledging broad-based teams. Darn it if one doesn’t realize, seconds after clicking send, that she forgot to acknowledge the social media associate, or the company founder!
My favorite save is from sounding ungrateful. No matter how much we appreciate the shoulders we stand on, too often our emails cut directly to the task at hand.
Just as they sail away, we realize that we meant to open with thanks, and close with appreciation. Mercifully, a two-minute delay gives us a second chance to do just that. The Downside No change lacks drawbacks, and there are at least two when it comes to delayed sends. For one, in a meeting or on a conference call, you can’t circulate a document right away away. In our age of instant gratification, people can get frustrated waiting for your email to clear your inbox (even if it’s just two minutes!). For another, when responding to email on planes right up until the flight attendant calls for shutting down electronics, you have to find ways to sneak an extra few minutes of power.
But these grievances pale in comparison to the upside. In a digital world, we still need to think before we speak, but with a delayed send, we can rethink after we email.
Had introduced an interesting featured called “Undo Send” which would recall a sent email. The user has up to 30 seconds to use this feature. After that, the email is sent permanently to the receiver. Microsoft Outlook has a similar feature of recalling an already sent email which can be very useful in some circumstances. This undo send feature is not enabled by default in Gmail. The user has to enable from Gmail Lab settings. Outlook’s feature of recalling a sent email can also be enabled easily.
Then you will have the option to undo send email in Outlook. There are two ways by which you can enable this feature in Outlook. Similar to Gmail, you can enable a delay in Outlook sending emails or you can simply use the recall feature built-in Outlook by default.
Let’s discuss both ways one by one. Quick Summary.
Setup Undo Send in Outlook by deferring sent emails You can defer the sent emails by using Outlook rules. Follow the instructions below to set up rules for deferring sent email. Go to Home Ribbon – Rules – Manage Rules & Alerts – Create Rule Create new rule in Outlook. Select Apply rules on messages I send and click Next. Do not add any conditions. In the next window, select “defer delivery by number of minutes”. In step 2 box, click on the number to specify the no.
Of minutes to wait until the email is sent to the recipient. You can specify the delay from 1 to 120 minutes. Defer delivery by a number of minutes.
Do not add any exceptions. Name the rule and turn it on. Undo send – Defer delivery by one minute in Outlook Now all your sent emails will wait for x minutes before being sent to the recipient.
If you have accidentally hit the send button, you can easily stop the email from being sent by moving it from Outbox to Draft. Delay/schedule sending of a specific email in Outlook The above mentioned method applies to all emails sent from your Outlook profile. If you do not want a delay in sending all emails but just want to schedule an email to be sent later, follow the steps below. In the message compose window, go to Options – Delay Delivery Delay delivery of message in Outlook. Under Delivery options, select the Do not deliver before check box then click the delivery date and time that you want. Recall a sent email in Outlook If you have already sent an email accidentally, Outlook has a secret option to recall your sent email if it has not been open by the receiver. Just follow the steps below to recall an already sent email in Microsoft Outlook.
Open the sent email in a new Outlook window by double-clicking it. From the ribbon menu, click on the Edit Message button and select Recall This Message. Recall this message menu. It will give you two options: Delete unread copies of this message Delete unread copies and replace with a new message Select the appropriate option and click Ok. Recall this message options window Please note that this method will work only on emails which have not been opened by the recipient. Which method do you prefer for keeping yourself on the safer side? I use for my business emails which also has a built-in option of delaying emails at sending time.
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