We have all been there, the overwhelming number of meetings, emails and tasks that seem to never end and the many ways we try to keep up with them. Being present for all your calls and staying on top of all your messages is a balancing act you have to perfect every day. Otherwise, you might miss an important deadline.
Luckily, there are tools to help you manage your tasks and ensure nothing slips through the cracks. Microsoft 365, or M365, has many tools and features that can make your workload more manageable.
In this blog, I will go through the M365 features and functionality you can use in your day-to-day to help prioritise your workload efficiently.
ONENOTE
OneNote is the best note taking app if you work within the Microsoft ecosystem. It helps you keep track of everything you are working on. Here are some useful features I have picked up that you can use to stay on top of your meetings.
- Meeting Details
Have you ever jotted down notes in a meeting and when you come back to it, you are not sure which meeting those were for or who attended the meeting? OneNote Meeting details is a great tool to use to auto-populate all the key information from your Outlook calendar such as title, date and time and participants.
Open a new page under Home then click Meeting Details. On the right side, a list of your meetings from your Outlook calendar will show up. Click the meeting you would like to use; this will populate the details onto your page.
- Notebooks, Sections and Sections group
In OneNote, Notebooks are the primary containers for your notes, like physical notebooks or binders. They can contain multiple Sections, which act like dividers in a binder, organising your notes into separate topics or projects. Section Groups are like sub-folders, allowing you to group related sections together.
Make sure that you sort these correctly according to what makes most sense to your role, as they can get out of hand fast if unmanaged.
- Tags
Tagging items on OneNote is a very overlooked feature, especially the check boxes. Having a long page of notes can get confusing if you are looking back at it. But using Tags will highlight specific sections of the page. You can use these to set a to-do list within your notes, so you do not forget to complete the action items you set.
- Copilot
Last, but certainly not the least, is the all-powerful Copilot. Integrated within OneNote, Copilot is an amazing add on that allows you to do the following: Create to help, understand to summarise, edit to suggest, and ask to gain info on the page on which you are working.
You can get a response to your request by just highlighting the text and typing the question on Copilot. This eliminates the hassle of copying and pasting back and forth and saves you time by staying on one window.
Some things you can do using Copilot is summarise notes, rewrite sentences and paragraphs to make you sound professional or casual and check for any spelling and grammatical errors.
TO DO
A simple but a particularly useful application, To Do helps you organise all your action items. It has the ability to add notes, delegate tasks, schedule reminders and organise your tasks for the day. To Do has become my primary app to stay on top of my workload.
As a bonus, if you are using the new Outlook, you can right click on an email, go to Advanced Action, then Create Task to add the email as a To Do item.
If you received an email but don’t have time to reply to it now, you can add it to your To Do list so you don’t forget responding.
PLANNER (NEW)
Microsoft are soon to release the new Planner application, which combines the Planner and To Do in one app. It allows you to manage your Tasks and view shared tasks across the organisation.
The new Planner app is currently available only as a Teams app. With the upcoming integration of the Planner with Outlook, Loop, Teams and Viva Goals, managing a team, project or personal goals will become even more seamless.
OUTLOOK (NEW)
You may have seen the New Outlook appear on your desktop. It comes packed with all the best features from Outlook for the web and combines these with your desktop. However, after speaking to colleagues and customers, I have found that it is not a welcomed update. Many users have yet to embrace this new version of Outlook.
Well, if you find yourself on the fence of about the new Outlook, below are some of the new features you should be taking advantage of.
- Follow a meeting in Outlook
Ever had a meeting that you want to join but are unable to? You can press the Follow button, which will send a reminder to the organiser to record the meeting. This will give you access to any transcripts and recording.
- Create a To Do task
One of the most useful features is creating a To Do task from an email. This makes sure you don’t forget about a task that you received over email. All you have to do is Right click -> Advanced actions -> Create Task.
Now, no one has the excuse of “It got lost in my emails.”
- Sweep (delete)
If you like to keep your inbox clean and tidy, organise your inbox using the Sweep feature. This offers several options, including automatically discarding all incoming emails from a specific sender, retaining only the most recent email or removing emails that are older than 10 days.
Just be careful as to not to Sweep any emails that you do not want to see permanently deleted.
- Calendar/To Do side view
The new Outlook has an updated Side View where you can view more than just your upcoming calendar meetings. You can switch the updated navigation pane to agenda view, which shows your meetings with no blank spaces, and you can also view your To Do task items.
- Bookings
How many times have you wasted a day emailing back and forth to set up a meeting? Or having to do the mental gymnastics of working out timezones for your overseas colleagues? Well, the Microsoft Bookings page is here to save your valuable time.
Simply setup your Personal or Shared booking page with the time slots you require. Then, share this link with your recipient to allow them to view your availability and book time in themselves.
- Copilot
Copilot offers a full range of prompts you can use with Outlook. Here are six key ones to help you get a better understanding of what Copilot for Outlook can do.
- Ask: Review last week’s emails and any which you were mentioned
- Summarise: View your upcoming meetings for the next two days
- Find: Look for a specific file someone sent you last week
- Summarise: Select any email then click the Copilot button to get a summary of the entire email thread in less than a minute, highlighting in simple terms the key points and action items for you to do. This is very handy for long email chains.
- Draft: Write down what you would like to speak about. You can be as vague or as descriptive as possible, Copilot will polish the draft for you.
Stay on Top of Your Work with M365
Microsoft 365 services, coupled with Copilot, offer a comprehensive solution to enhance your workflow, boost productivity and keep you on schedule. Whether you are a fan of traditional notetaking or prefer a digital approach, Microsoft 365’s versatile workspace caters to your preferences, helping you effectively manage your workload.
With OneNote for organisation, To Do for task management and the new Planner for team collaboration, you are equipped to take charge of your tasks. The seamless integration with Outlook and Copilot further streamlines your routine, freeing you to concentrate on what is important.
As our digital workspaces evolve, Microsoft 365 continues to be a reliable partner in our quest for efficiency and achievement.
To get a better understanding of Copilot and how it can benefit your organisation, take the Copilot readiness assessment. You may also contact us if you need help preparing your organisation for Copilot.
