Now, what if you have entered a couple of good search terms and still can’t find the email you are looking for? Check the search scope to see if you are searching just one folder or all of them. By expanding your scope to ‘All Folders’ you avoid having to think about where the email may be filed.

If the results are still way too many and you have run out of words to add you can use the search ribbon to improve your filter. Some of my favourites are ‘From’ or ‘To’, ‘Attachments’ (if you are looking for one), and the little arrow next to ‘This Week’ (so you can search for emails from this month or last year).