How to schedule an email in Outlook (so it sends at the right time)

You finished writing an important email at 11:47pm. Sending it now screams "I work too late." Holding it in your drafts until morning means you forget. The fix: schedule it.

Outlook has built scheduled delivery in for years, but most people never find the button. Here's where it lives.

Quick steps — Outlook on Windows (classic)

1. Compose your email as normal.
2. On the Options tab in the ribbon, click Delay Delivery.
3. Under Do not deliver before, tick the box and pick a date and time.
4. Click Close, then click Send.

Outlook holds the message in your Outbox until the scheduled time. Your computer must be on and Outlook running for delivery — that's the old-Outlook catch.

Quick steps — new Outlook for Windows / Outlook on the web

1. Compose your email.
2. Click the down-arrow next to the Send button (top of the compose pane).
3. Choose Schedule send.
4. Pick a preset (Tomorrow morning, Monday morning) or click Custom time.
5. Click Send — the email moves to a Scheduled folder.

This version sends from Microsoft's servers, so your computer can be off and it will still go. Much better.

Quick steps — Outlook on Mac

1. Compose the email.
2. Click the Send Later button (a small clock next to Send).
3. Choose your date and time → Send Later.

Editing or cancelling a scheduled email

• Classic Outlook (Windows): open your Outbox, double-click the email, change the delivery time or click Delete.
• New Outlook / Web: look in the Scheduled folder in the left pane. Open the message and click Edit or Cancel send.

If you already hit Send and the delivery time is in the past, the email is gone — schedule editing only works before the scheduled time.

When this saves your life

• Time-zone teammates — your 8am is their 2am. Schedule for their morning.
• Quiet hours — your company has a "no Slack/email after 6pm" rule? Schedule for 9am next day.
• Project follow-ups — write the reminder now, send it on the deadline date.
• Looking organized — finish Sunday-night writing on Sunday, but let it arrive Monday at 9:02am like a normal human.

Things to watch for

• Scheduled emails can still bounce. If the recipient address breaks before delivery, you'll get the failure later, not now.
• Out-of-office replies still trigger when the scheduled email arrives — useful, sometimes embarrassing.
• Reading receipts track when the recipient opens, not when you wrote it. Use sparingly.

TL;DR

Use the new Outlook or Outlook on the web for true server-side scheduled send — your computer can be off. Classic Outlook on Windows works too, but the machine must stay on. The button hides under Options → Delay Delivery (classic) or the arrow next to Send (everywhere else).