Tuesday 9 November 2021

Clear clutter from your Outlook Calendar

Are you tired of seeing a sea of (especially recurring) meetings that you don't care about and that are polluting your calendar? Do you long for the days where your Calendar is Free and only shows meetings you actually plan to attend?

Well, you could always delete the offending meetings, but where's the fun in that? (Plus, I like to keep those "Office Hours" invites handy just in case I may need them some day)

The answer? "Show as FREE". Here's how you do it:

  1. First, setup a filter to hide all meetings that are marked as "Show as free". See How to hide appointments showing time as free in Outlook calendar? (extendoffice.com))
  2. Now, all you have to do is go through your calendar and mark any meetings you'd like to hide as "Show as Free" and watch them go!
  3. If you prefer a more dramatic approach, start by marking the offending meetings first, then set the filter and watch them all disappear at once!
If, at any point, you want to see the hidden meetings, all you have to do is go to "View (tab) => View Settings => Filter => Advanced", select the rule that filters out "Show as Free" and remove it. Once you're done, you can add it back to hide them again.