You can also ask Outlook to track your items automatically using the Journal. The first time you click on the Journal folder, you’ll see this window:

 

 

This gives you a summary of what the Journal folder does. If you want to turn it on, just click Yes. Once you do this, this window will appear:

 

 

(You can also get to this box by clicking the Tools menu, clicking Options, and clicking the Journal Options button.)

 

The Journal Options are pretty easy to use. In the first section, select what items you want to record. Then in the next window, pick what contacts you want to record activities for.

 

The bottom set of options allows you to track files from other Office applications you have installed. (Remember that Outlook can only track activities when it’s open).

 

Once you click OK, the journal will be set up! Outlook will now track sent and received items of the type you specified for the contacts you checked.

 

Here’s an example of the journal with some entries:

 

 

You can see how the entries all appear in timeline view, sorted by type. (Remember that we can use views to change the way the journal looks.)

 

When you open a journal entry, you won’t see the actual item, but rather a link to it:

 

 

You’ll also see that journal entries have a contacts button in the bottom left hand corner. You can use this button to manually link journal entries to contacts so that your journal entries appear under the activities tab.

 

That’s all there is to using the journal!