You can set Excel up to use today’s date (or any date), to identify past due dates and change the color of the past due text to a different color. This process is showing on Excel 2016 but works on 2007 and all new versions.
You can change the time increments shown in your Outlook calendar to allow for smaller more detailed calendar entries. This will work in Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, and Outlook 2010.