I’ve had responsiveness and always-on pressure on my mind a lot lately. The interest or need to be uber responsive to clients propels you to regularly (aka constantly) check your mobile device or email, especially in the evenings or on the weekends. This can perpetuate always-on pressure because you feel attached to your phone.

Life hack #18 in the 39 Life Hacks to Combat Burnout eLearning program is to utilize features in Outlook to help manage messages. Not all messages need immediate attention, and Outlook helps you to focus on the more important or urgent ones. Here are 3 techniques you can deploy.

• Change message color: After identifying VIP’s or time-sensitive projects, you can assign a color, e.g., red, to those messages. When you come out of a meeting or in the evenings, you simply look for any messages in red and respond right away. The other messages can wait until your designated time to triage email or when you are back in the office. Click here to learn how to set this up.

• Setup a sound alert: Similar to the color, you can setup a sound alert, much like texting, when messages come in from your VIP’s. I particularly like this for evenings and weekends. Then you can relax, knowing that if a message comes in, you will be notified. Click here to learn how to set this up.

• Move messages to a folder: You can setup a rule to send messages from your VIP’s directly to that folder, rather than you Inbox. Then you can simply check that folder for new messages and avoid getting sucked into all of the messages in your Inbox, which you can deal with later. Click here to use this rule.

Using any or all of these techniques enables you to be responsive and have some time for yourself. Win-win, I’d say!