To Do
A productivity tool within the Microsoft 365 suite that I’ve always found quite useful is To Do. I have included To Do in some of my previous blogs but to give a short summary, To Do is an extremely useful method for managing personal tasks outside of more complex tools like Project or Planner. The lightweight features within To Do make it ideal for someone who wants to manage tasks quickly and efficiently.
However the one issue that I’ve always found can pop up with task management in general is that during hectic times it can be difficult to find the time to consistently manage your task list. While ideally you would set aside a chunk of time each day to managing your tasks, sometimes a calendar jam packed with meetings can make this difficult. This is where Cortana steps in for me.
Cortana
Cortana has been seen in many different forms in Microsoft products, but now it is being billed as Microsoft’s AI powered productivity assistant. This covers things like a voice assistant and the ability to read email aloud, however the way I have found it most useful is it’s “Briefing Email”.
Using AI, Cortana sends you an email in the morning with a list of potential actions that may have been missed in emails and tasks that may be due today.
It also allows you to set “Focus Time” during the day to allow for work to be completed without distraction.
When using the Adaptive version of this email, tasks will be automatically added to To Do and focus time will be set within Outlook without the need for you to open the other apps.
These features show a real benefit to how AI can add to your existing Microsoft 365 tools to boost your productivity even more, saving you time each day to focus on getting work done, without task management feeling like a chore.
Give it a try and see if it can help you!
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