Amid the hustle and bustle of modern life, managing stress and staying productive at work can be overwhelming. It’s no surprise that mental health is the leading disability globally, with 1 in 4 adults affected by mental health conditions at some point of their lives. Despite its prevalence, it remains one of the most stigmatized and hidden disabilities, with 75% of people living with mental health conditions not seeking the help they need. This results in over $1 trillion in lost productivity each year.

This World Mental Health Day, we’re sharing our team’s productivity tips to support your workday.

Stay focused on what matters most to you

In a world filled with constant notifications, chats, meetings, and action items, staying focused can seem like an insurmountable task. This constant context-switching strains our cognitive energy and can leave us feeling uneasy. Finding ways to help manage these distractions can be an important contributor toward reducing stress.  One of our favorite features is using Viva Insights, which allows you to schedule uninterrupted blocks of time in your calendar so you can concentrate on specific tasks.

You can also customize your notification settings in both Windows and Teams to significantly reduce the noise and help you stay focused. Navigate to the settings menu and tailor the notifications to fit your workflow. You can decide which notifications are essential and which can wait, ensuring that only the most important alerts grab your attention. Moreover, you can now customize the sound of your notifications too. Whether you want to mute notification sounds when you are busy or in a meeting, or you want to assign a specific sound for urgent messages, you can now tailor your notification experience to better meet your needs.

Stay on top of your work

Effective task management can help reduce worry that you might be forgetting upcoming deadlines. In Teams you can organize and prioritize your tasks efficiently. Use the right-click functionality to create a new task in planner from a chat, pin important messages to the top of the chat so you can revert to the message with ease, and you can even create automated flows like getting reminders to follow up on a message. This helps you stay on top of your day without feeling overwhelmed.

With AI changing the way we work, we understand that at times, the most difficult part is how to get started. For instance, you can ask Copilot to organize your inbox so you can focus on what matters most, with a prompt such as: “Summarize my inbox for unread messages today. Try to ignore anything that seems like junk mail. Categorize them in a table in order of priority, where 1st priority is emails that expect a reply, and 2nd priority is where I’m on the To line, and 3rd priority is where I’m just on cc.”

Many of us experience the pressure that comes from having back-to-back meetings with little time to prepare ahead of the meeting. With Business Chat, you can get ahead of your pre-meeting preparation by referencing conversations from previous meetings to ensure you’re following up with the right items and gaining additional insights into who you are meeting with. Copilot can also review meeting documents and suggest a list of anticipated questions that may come up, to make sure you’re well informed and ready to engage.

After the meeting you can take the Copilot summaries and action items to then draft follow-up emails, thanking participants and outlining the next steps, making the post-meeting process seamless and efficient. 

Bring your very best forward

Staying engaged during meetings can be challenging for many of us, due to digital distractions, virtual fatigue, and the tendency to multitask. Unfortunately, most of these meetings also lack the interactive elements that in-person would offer which can be a contributor to the disengagement. On top of all that, working from home or in remote locations can bring its own distractions and technical issues which can further disrupt focus.

With voice isolation and decorate your background features, you can minimize distractions and show up your best. With voice isolation, you can be sure only your voice is heard clearly and distinctly during conversations. With decorate your background, you don’t have to worry about where you are or what is being seen in your video calls, using AI you can blend your physical and digital spaces to revamp what is seen of your physical meeting space.

During the meeting, Copilot in Teams can help with summaries of the discussion, capturing key points and decisions made, ensuring that nothing is overlooked. Copilot can also recommend follow-up questions to ongoing discussions and even propose next steps.

And for those of us who may not be native to the language that is being spoken, you can make the most of your contributions with live translated captions and transcripts, and even querying Copilot in the preferred language. Removing the stress that language barriers may bring.

Express Yourself and Create Fun

Expressing yourself creatively during your workday can have a positive impact on both your productivity and mental well-being. When you show your authentic self to your professional environment, it fosters a sense of belonging and satisfaction. This creative expression can break the monotony of routine tasks, making your work more enjoyable and less stressful.

Moreover, it encourages open communication and collaboration with colleagues. Customized emojis, personalized backgrounds, and fun GIFs can lighten the mood and create a more dynamic and engaging atmosphere.

These small touches can help boost your morale, enhance your creativity, and ultimately lead to a more fulfilling and productive workday.

Bonus tip: Getting a Usefully Wrong Start and a helpful polish

‘Writers block’ can set in when we are under stress and finding it difficult to get our ideas down on paper. Did you know that this blog was written with the help of Copilot?  Copilot can help you get started by providing a preliminary draft, even if it’s not perfect. This “usefully wrong” start can spark your creativity and help you overcome the initial hurdle of putting words on the page.

Once you have a draft, Copilot can act as your personal writing coach, offering suggestions to refine and polish your work. This ensures that your final product is both professional and reflective of your best efforts.

These are just a few examples of how you can use Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot to stay focused and productive, to learn more about Microsoft Accessibility or ask questions here.  

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