Ever have to convert from an email system that encourages keeping everything to one with limitations? Well, here’s a way to encourage Inbox Zero. I looked at a few different scripts to start from, but this one was the most helpful. Note that this only works with “old” Outlook, new Outlook has no AppleScript support at this time.

tell application “Microsoft Outlook”

set accountName to name of default account

set myInbox to folder “Inbox” of exchange account accountName

set mySentItems to folder “Sent Items” of exchange account accountName

my DeleteReadMessages(myInbox, 14)

my DeleteReadMessages(mySentItems, 14)

end tell

on DeleteReadMessages(targetFolder, cutoff)

tell application “Microsoft Outlook”

set cutoffTime to cutoff * days

with timeout of 600 seconds

set theMessages to (messages of targetFolder whose is read is true)

end timeout

set today to (current date)

set countEmailsDeleted to 0

set mailboxName to name of targetFolder

repeat with theMessage in theMessages

try

set messageTime to time received of theMessage

set messageAge to today – messageTime

if messageAge > cutoffTime and (is read) of theMessage is true then

set countEmailsDeleted to countEmailsDeleted + 1

permanently delete theMessage

end if

on error errorMsg

log “Error: ” & errorMsg

end try

end repeat

display notification “Outlook cleanup ran at ” & today & ” – ” & mailboxName & “:” & countEmailsDeleted & ” messages were deleted.” with title “Email Cleanup” sound name “Sosumi”

end tell

end DeleteReadMessages