Work Smarter using Digital Productivity Tools

Microsoft 365 provides a number of wonderful productivity tools, including Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft OneNote, Microsoft Teams and Microsoft To Do, each of which can be  very effective on its own. But the real power of these tools comes when you start to use them together, creating a fully-integrated productivity solution to manage your workload. The best thing is that you and your team already have these tools available, and you probably use most, if not all, of them. By investing a little bit of time in our innovative new ‘Digital Productivity Tools to manage your workload’ program, you can learn how using these Microsoft tools together can help you and your team to better manage workloads, be more productive and be more digitally savvy.

The program is incredibly practical and hands on. Attendees are asked to bring their laptops, their mobile phones and/or their tablets to the training session. You’ll learn how using these productivity tools from Microsoft in an integrated way can help you and your team better manage your workload. More than likely you’ll also discover ways to modify your current workflow to one that is more paperless. Greater efficiency and less paper? That’s definitely a win-win!

We also reinforce common productivity and time management principles of planning, prioritising and staying focused in order to achieve more while using the available technology. In other words, it is not just technology for technology’s sake, but rather how to get more done in the same amount of time using the technology you most likely already have. It really is about working smarter, not harder!

Some knowledge of the using the following applications is strongly encouraged before attending our “Digital Productivity Tools” training: Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft OneNote (basic use) and, ideally, Microsoft Teams (basic use) as well.

Program Overview

We work with you to design the program contents and the delivery format of the training. It can be run as a Half-Day event or a Full-Day event or my preference is two half-day events. But we can also run a much shorter 2-hour session for more digitally savvy groups that only wish to focus on some important Microsoft 365 integrations.

Managing workload from your email

Email overload is still a very common problem in today’s modern workplace, and it can be difficult to capture and keep track of all the tasks the incoming emails often generate. We’ll show you better ways to manage your inbox using the 4Ds and some of the little-known features of Microsoft Outlook that can save you time. You’ll learn powerful ways to manage all the new tasks generated by your email traffic, and how to ensure that important emails are not lost! We also look at ways to manage your email on your phone and tablet.

Using a Digital To Do List.

We then go through the various digital to-do list options in Microsoft 365, including OneNote, tasks in Outlook and an often overlooked app called Microsoft To Do. We’ll show you how using To Do with the other Microsoft 365 applications can make your to-do lists more accessible and mobile.

Digital notetaking using Microsoft OneNote

Making and storing notes in Microsoft OneNote offers some significant advantages over traditional paper-based notebooks. For this session, it is ideal if you already have a basic knowledge of OneNote, though it isn’t essential. We’ll show you smarter ways to take, store and retrieve notes. We’ll then show you how to manage your workflow more efficiently by using OneNote in conjunction with Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft To Do and Microsoft Teams.

MS 365 Integrations with Microsoft Teams

In this part of the training, I will show the group how to use some important integrations that Microsoft Teams allows that can help make managing your Workload easier. Things like using Microsoft OneNote in Teams or sending emails to Teams etc. I also show you how to better track both personal and Team Tasks inside MS Teams using Tasks by Planner & To Do.

Multitasking and Technology

Finally, because the focus of this program is on the use of digital tools, we need to address the trap of believing that these tools will somehow allow you to multitask. While it’s common to believe that we can multitask, the reality is that humans are not good at doing so. This is not through any fault of our own – it’s just the way we are wired. Trying to multitask can instead see us jumping between tasks and losing our focus. We’ll show you ways to avoid this and introduce strategies to stay focused for longer.

In this section, we also show you and your team a smarter way to manage all your notifications in Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams.

Features of our Digital Productivity Tools program

• Comprehensive training manual. (PDF)
• One month of personalised follow-up via email.
• Support access to a trainer for three months.

Flexible Delivery Options

We can tailor our Digital Productivity Tools program to suit your organisation or team’s individual needs. Potential approaches include:

• One-day face-to-face training.
• Two Half days Face to Face (Spreads the one day content to avoid overwhelming participants)
• Half-day face-to-face training (assumes participants are already skilled users of Outlook, OneNote and Teams).
• Online delivery in smaller sessions.
• One-to-one coaching either in person or online over several sessions.

Contact us today to discuss how our Digital Productivity Tools program can benefit your staff.