Save Time At Work With Microsoft Copilot - Learn How I Freed Up 5+ Hours Weekly!

T-Minus365
11 Mar 202434:56

TLDRThe video script discusses the challenges of time management in a busy work environment and introduces Microsoft 365 Copilot as a solution to save time and increase productivity. The speaker, a VP of product development, shares personal experiences and strategies on how leveraging Copilot can save at least one hour per day by streamlining tasks such as email management, meeting recaps, and document creation. The video provides practical examples of how Copilot can be integrated into daily workflows, transforming the way individuals manage their time and tasks, and ultimately enhancing work performance.

Takeaways

  • 🕒 The speaker aims to save at least one hour per day by leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot, resulting in 20 hours of saved time per month.
  • 📈 As the VP of product development, the speaker manages three departments and deals with a high volume of emails, meetings, and chats daily.
  • 🚦 The speaker uses a bin diagram exercise to identify time-consuming and repetitive tasks, which can be mitigated with tools like Copilot.
  • 📅 Weekly and daily preparation activities, such as summarizing follow-up items from meetings, can save significant time with Copilot's assistance.
  • 📧 Copilot aids in managing and summarizing emails, allowing the speaker to batch process their inbox more efficiently.
  • 📝 Meeting recaps and action items are streamlined with Copilot, reducing the time spent on manually summarizing and assigning tasks.
  • 🤝 As a manager, the speaker finds value in using Copilot to review interactions with employees and bosses to ensure no action items are missed.
  • 🌟 Copilot can draft initial job descriptions and client-facing communications, saving time and providing a solid foundation for further refinement.
  • 📈 The speaker emphasizes the importance of changing workflows and processes to fully adopt Copilot and experience the maximum time savings.
  • 🔄 The speaker's strategic use of Copilot in various tasks, such as creating presentations from documents, highlights the versatility of the tool.
  • 📊 On average, the speaker saves around 20 minutes per day through weekly planning and daily interaction with meetings, and another 15 minutes per day on other tasks.

Q & A

  • What is the main challenge the speaker is addressing in their daily work?

    -The speaker is addressing the challenge of time management and productivity in their daily work, specifically the difficulty of handling a large volume of emails, meetings, and administrative tasks that consume valuable time and distract from strategic decision-making.

  • How does the speaker propose to save at least one hour per day at work?

    -The speaker proposes to save at least one hour per day by leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot, which assists in automating and streamlining various work tasks such as summarizing emails, drafting documents, and organizing the inbox.

  • What is the speaker's current position and what departments do they manage?

    -The speaker's current position is the VP of Product Development, and they manage three departments, which contribute to about forty different employees.

  • How does the speaker typically spend their daily emails and meetings?

    -The speaker receives about 200 emails per day, participates in four to five meetings, and is included in about six to ten different chats, both individual and group chats.

  • What is the significance of the Venn diagram exercise mentioned by the speaker?

    -The Venn diagram exercise is meant to help identify time-consuming tasks and manual, repetitive tasks. By finding the intersection of these two categories, the speaker aims to determine areas where tools like Copilot can provide the most significant time savings.

  • How does the speaker use Copilot to save time during weekly and daily preparation?

    -The speaker uses Copilot to summarize meeting notes, create project briefs based on meeting transcripts, generate meeting agendas, and plan for the next week by summarizing follow-up items from the previous week. These activities not only save time but also improve organization and reduce stress.

  • What is an example of a time-consuming task for the speaker?

    -An example of a time-consuming task for the speaker is drafting a presentation deck, which is something they don't do very often but when they do, it can be very time-intensive.

  • How does the speaker use Copilot to handle follow-up items from meetings?

    -The speaker uses Copilot to generate a detailed summary of meeting notes, which includes condensed bullet points of action items. They can then use this summary to quickly create tasks or tickets for their development team, or to follow up with clients directly from the summary.

  • How does the speaker utilize Copilot to improve their email management?

    -The speaker uses Copilot to summarize long email threads, draft responses, and create templates for frequently sent emails. This allows them to quickly organize their inbox and save time on repetitive email tasks.

  • What is the speaker's strategy for managing their calendar and meetings?

    -The speaker schedules a recurring weekly closure meeting to summarize follow-up items from the week and plan for the next week. They also use Copilot to recap meetings they've missed and to prepare for upcoming meetings by reviewing relevant documentation and previous discussions.

  • How does the speaker plan to use Copilot to enhance their role as a manager?

    -The speaker plans to use Copilot to record and summarize one-on-one meetings with employees for future performance reviews. They also aim to use it to identify areas where they can provide praise and recognition to their team members based on their performance and contributions.

Outlines

00:00

🕒 Time Management and Productivity

The paragraph discusses the challenges of time management in a work environment, highlighting the distractions and administrative tasks that consume time. The speaker introduces a goal to save one hour per day using Microsoft 365 Copilot and shares their role as VP of product development, managing departments and dealing with numerous emails and meetings. The speaker emphasizes the importance of identifying time-consuming tasks and presents an exercise to help viewers understand where they spend most of their time, suggesting that tools like Copilot can help save time.

05:04

📋 Streamlining Work Processes with Copilot

This section delves into how the speaker utilizes Microsoft 365 Copilot to streamline work processes and save time. The speaker demonstrates how Copilot can summarize meeting notes, draft follow-up emails, and create project briefs based on meeting transcripts. They also discuss how Copilot can aid in weekly and daily preparation, making the speaker more organized and reducing stress. The speaker provides examples of how they use Copilot prompts to generate summaries and action items, highlighting the tool's ability to condense information and improve efficiency.

10:05

📧 Email Management and Batching

The speaker shares strategies for managing emails more efficiently with the help of Copilot. They describe a batching process where emails are checked at specific times to maintain focus throughout the day. Copilot is used to summarize long email chains, extract key insights, and draft responses, saving significant time. The speaker also explains how templates can be quickly generated and used for repetitive emails, further streamlining communication and saving time.

15:06

📅 Meeting Preparation and Recap

In this part, the speaker discusses the importance of meeting preparation and how Copilot can assist in this process. They explain how Copilot can help summarize previous discussions and emails to prepare for upcoming meetings, ensuring better preparation and more effective meetings. The speaker also talks about how Copilot can recap meetings, making it easier to manage follow-up tasks and action items. They mention how this has improved their ability to hold others accountable and maintain clear communication within their team.

20:09

🤝 Enhancing Management and Employee Skills

The speaker explores how Copilot can enhance the skills of both managers and employees. They discuss how Copilot can help summarize interactions with superiors, ensuring no action items are missed. The speaker also talks about using Copilot to record and summarize one-on-one meetings for future performance reviews. Additionally, they mention how Copilot can identify instances where employees have done well, aiding in recognizing and praising their team's accomplishments.

25:12

📝 Drafting and Task Automation

The speaker illustrates how Copilot can be used to automate various drafting and day-to-day tasks. They provide examples of how Copilot can help draft client-facing communication, job descriptions, and even PowerShell scripts. The speaker emphasizes the time-saving aspect of using Copilot for these tasks, as it can generate first drafts and summaries that can be quickly modified or expanded upon. They also discuss how Copilot can transform documents into PowerPoint presentations, making it easier to present information visually.

30:14

🔄 Workflow Transformation with Copilot

The speaker concludes by emphasizing the transformative impact of Copilot on their workflows and processes. They stress that to fully realize the benefits of Copilot, one must be willing to adapt their workflows around the tool. The speaker invites viewers to share their experiences and time savings they've achieved using Copilot, encouraging an exchange of ideas and best practices for utilizing the technology effectively.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Time Management

Time management refers to the process of organizing and planning how much time is spent on specific activities. In the video, the speaker emphasizes the importance of saving time through effective time management strategies, such as leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot to automate repetitive tasks and batch processing of emails.

💡Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI-powered tool designed to assist users in their daily tasks, such as email management, meeting summaries, and document creation. It is integrated within the Microsoft Office suite and helps to automate and streamline work processes, leading to increased productivity and time savings.

💡Productivity

Productivity refers to the efficiency and effectiveness with which tasks are completed. In the context of the video, the speaker is focused on improving productivity by reducing time spent on non-strategic, manual, and repetitive tasks through the use of Copilot.

💡Strategic Decisions

Strategic decisions are long-term, broad actions that shape the direction and success of a business or organization. In the video, the speaker's role as VP of product development involves making strategic decisions, which are more valuable to the company than dealing with time-consuming administrative tasks.

💡Task Automation

Task automation is the process of using technology to perform tasks without human intervention. In the video, the speaker leverages Copilot to automate various tasks such as email summarization, meeting recaps, and document drafting, which would otherwise consume significant time and effort.

💡Email Management

Email management involves organizing and handling incoming and outgoing emails in a way that maximizes efficiency. In the video, the speaker discusses strategies for managing emails more effectively, such as using Copilot to summarize and prioritize emails, and setting aside specific times for email checking.

💡Meetings

Meetings are formal gatherings of people for a specific purpose, such as discussing projects, sharing updates, or making decisions. In the video, the speaker highlights the time-consuming nature of meetings and the subsequent need to summarize and act on meeting outcomes.

💡Project Planning

Project planning is the process of defining the scope, objectives, and overall approach for a project. It involves setting goals, identifying resources, and establishing timelines. In the video, the speaker discusses using Copilot to create project briefs based on meeting discussions, which facilitates project planning by providing a clear overview and actionable steps.

💡Administrative Work

Administrative work refers to tasks that are related to the day-to-day operations of an organization, such as organizing files, managing correspondence, and handling paperwork. In the video, the speaker identifies administrative tasks as being time-consuming and often repetitive, which can detract from more strategic and productive work.

💡Workflow Optimization

Workflow optimization involves making changes to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of business processes. In the video, the speaker discusses how adopting Copilot has led to changes in their workflows, allowing for better organization and time savings.

💡Job Description

A job description is a document that outlines the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills required for a specific role within an organization. In the video, the speaker mentions using Copilot to draft a job description for a director of software development position, highlighting the tool's ability to save time in HR-related tasks.

Highlights

The introduction of a new goal to save one hour per day by leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot, resulting in significant time savings.

The importance of focusing on strategic decisions and managing departments efficiently to improve productivity.

The challenge of handling a high volume of emails, meetings, and chats that distract and consume time.

The exercise of identifying time-consuming tasks and manual repetitive tasks to optimize work processes using tools like Copilot.

The strategy of weekly and daily preparation to reduce stress and increase organizational skills.

The use of Copilot to quickly summarize meeting notes and action items, streamlining follow-ups and project planning.

The potential of using Copilot to draft well-defined tickets for developers, improving communication and efficiency.

The integration of Copilot with Outlook and other tools to automate task creation and project management.

The method of batching emails to focus on important tasks and reduce the time spent on email management.

The ability of Copilot to summarize long email threads and generate responses, saving time and increasing communication efficiency.

The use of templates and Copilot to draft new emails quickly, saving time on repetitive tasks.

The strategy of using Copilot to summarize and act on meeting recaps, improving accountability and time management.

The potential of Copilot to enhance the performance review process by summarizing one-on-one meetings and interactions.

The application of Copilot in drafting client-facing communication and job descriptions, expediting document creation.

The use of Copilot to transform documents into PowerPoint presentations, improving presentation preparation and visual communication.

The emphasis on changing workflows and processes around Copilot to fully realize the benefits and achieve time savings.