How to create a recurring appointment in Outlook

I don’t know about you, but I have many appointments which repeat on a regular basis. I for one, certainly do not want to have to put those into my calendar one by one, it would take a long time. This type of appointment is referred to as a “recurring appointment” and is very easy to set up once you know where to click with Microsoft Outlook.

A recurring appointment is great if you want to remind yourself of regular tasks such as paying bills by the due date, your child’s sporting activities and much more. I use this feature to add birthdays into my calendar, and even as a reminder of when I need to send my newsletter out.

It’s important to remember that an appointment in Outlook is not just for when you physically need to go somewhere, such as a doctor appointment, it can also be used as a way of allocating specific tasks you need to complete on specific days.

To create a recurring appointment, follow these steps:

1. Open Microsoft Outlook
2. From the Folder Pane select the Calendar

3. Locate the day and time in the Calendar view where you wish to add a recurring appointment and click it once with the left mouse button

4. You will see a blue bar appear
5. Double click the time slot to see the Untitled – Appointment window appear:

6. By using the double-click to open the window, the Start time and End times have both been filled in for you based on the time slot in the calendar that you double clicked
7. You can now add a Subject e.g. Pay phone bill
8. In the Location you may choose to leave this blank if this does not apply to the specific appointment you are setting up OR enter an address or location for this recurring appointment
9. Ensure the Start time and End time are correct for both the date and time. If they are not, simply click the calendar icon to adjust the dates or the drop-down menu to adjust the time
10. Next, you should select how to show this time within the calendar, is it just that you will be busy, or will you be out of the office, use the drop-down menu to select the appropriate option
11. Now click the Recurrence button on the Ribbon

1. The Appointment Recurrence dialog will appear

13. You can now specify a recurrence pattern e.g. daily, weekly, monthly, yearly. I am going to choose Monthly
14. Now you can select if you want the appointment to always occur on the same day of the month or if it needs to be every third Tuesday. I am selecting Day 21 of every 1 month.
15. Next, you can specify the range of recurrence. Do you want the appointment to continue indefinitely in your calendar or does it need to stop after a set number of occurrences? Make your selection from the options
16. Click OK to return back to the appointment window
17. You will now see the Recurrence details shown in the window

18. Now click Save & Close from the Ribbon
19. Move ahead in your calendar to the next date that your appointment should occur on and ensure it is displayed in your calendar
20. You have now created a recurring appointment

You will now see your recurring appointment in your calendar in the time frame you specified. By default, you will also receive a Reminder on the day through the Reminders window. Click here for more articles relating to Microsoft Outlook.