To avoid losing action items as my e-mail flows in, I make extensive use of the “Flag for Follow Up” feature in Outlook. Having grown tired from clicking around the dialog box with the calendar that pops up next to the “Due By” field, I created the following VBA macro:

Sub FlagForXMinutes(intMinutes As Integer, strFlagRequest As String)
Dim Item As Object
Dim SelectedItems As Selection
Set SelectedItems = Outlook.ActiveExplorer.Selection
For Each Item In SelectedItems
With Item
.FlagStatus = 2
.FlagDueBy = CStr(CDate(Format(CDbl(Now) + intMinutes / 1440)))
.FlagRequest = strFlagRequest
.Save
End With
Next Item
End Sub

I’ve assigned a couple of buttons on my Outlook toolbar with the following macros attached:

Sub FlagForFollowUp15Minutes()
FlagForXMinutes 15, "Follow Up"
End Sub

Sub FlagForFollowUp30Minutes()
FlagForXMinutes 30, "Follow Up"
End Sub

I have not played around with too many variations, but this works with items contained within Public Folders as well as Meeting Requests and Responses, thanks to the “Dim Item As Object” declaration which provides some added flexibility.