How to Display the Remaining Days of Your Outlook Tasks

Outlook shows due date in Task list as default. You can also show the certain number of remaining days before the due date via the method introduced in this article.

In To-Do list, we can check the due date of every task. To a certain extent, it can remind us to complete the tasks as soon as possible. But actually there is a more direct approach. That is to show the certain number of remaining days before the due date. Here are the concrete steps.

Customize a Column of “Remaining Days” in Tasks View

1. For a start, switch to “Tasks” pane in Outlook.
2. Head to “View” tab and click “Change View” to ensure that the current view is “List” view alike. If not, please change it.
3. Then click “View Settings” button.
4. In the new popup dialog box, click “Columns” button.
5. Another dialog box will show up, in which you need to press “New column” button in center.
6. Next assign a name to this new column, such as “Remaining Days”.
7. As for the column type, you need to select “Formula” from the dropdown list.
8. In “Formula” field, you can directly copy and paste DateDiff(‘d’,Date(),[Due Date]). Or you can click “Edit” to show a bigger editor and enter this formula.
9. And click “OK” to save this new column and back to the previous screen. You can see the new column has been added in the right box. In addition, you can utilize “Move Up” and “Move Down” button to change the order of shown columns. I prefer to position “Remaining Days” next to “Due Date”.
10. Finally click a series of “OK” to return to “Tasks” home page.

After finishing the above steps, remaining days of tasks to be completed will be shown absolutely. Besides, you can see the days past of overdue tasks, which is usually shown in negative number. If you are averse to see it, you can apply the following formula to change it to positive number.

Show Days Past of Overdue Tasks in Positive Number

1. Repeat the first 4 steps introduced in the above method.
2. In the dialog box of “Show Columns”, click on “Remaining Days” column in the right side and press “Remove” button in center.
3. Next click “Properties” button at the bottom of left side.
4. You can change the formula to Abs(DateDiff(‘d’,Date(),[Due Date])). Click “OK” to save the changes.
5. Press “Add” button to add it to column list.
6. Finally click several “OK” to back to Task home page, where you can see the negative number has become a positive number.

Backup Outlook Data Files Regularly

If you’ve used Outlook for several years, you must have discovered that Outlook is considerably prone to corruptions. Once Outlook gets corrupt, all formulas, items and rules will be compromised as well. Therefore, it is pretty important to make a regular backup of your Outlook data files, such that you can easily retrieve Outlook data via backups. Of course, provided you find that the backup doesn’t contain the recent significant data, you can also resort to third party software like DataNumen Outlook Repair, which is expert at Outlook recovery.

Author Introduction:

Shirley Zhang is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including sql recovery and outlook repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com