
close
close
When you look at your calendar before having a cup of coffee and all you see are meetings back-to-back for the day, you already know it’s going to be a marathon to make it to 5 P.M. Not only is this physically and mentally exhausting, at least in my experience, but it can also have a pretty significant and negative outlook on your day.
Microsoft is publishing a new Work Trend Index report today that emphasizes how digital overload is an actual problem that needs to be addressed. In the report, the company cites research that back-to-back meetings are a primary cause of this overload.
advertisment
With this in mind, Microsoft is rolling out a new feature for scheduling meetings in Outlook that will provide you with a bit of breathing room during your day. Available starting today, users have the ability to automatically shorten the meetings that they schedule either on the front-end or back-end.
New meeting options in Outlook to create breaks in-between meetings
Meaning, you can select the option to start meetings later, so that you have a mental break after your previous meeting, or end your meetings early so that you can relax before the next meeting begins. But it’s also context-aware, as you can set a five-minute break before a 30-minute meeting or a 15-minute break before an hour-long meeting.
Once enabled, all future meetings will align to these rules and these rules can be applied at the individual level or across the entire org. Keep in mind that if you do enable this in your tenant, a notification will be shown to users when they schedule their next meeting.
New notification if you enable org-wide setting to shorten events.
In addition to the new Outlook feature, the Viva app for Teams will offer the following new wellbeing experiences:
advertisment
But the one thing that AI, ML, or fancy metrics can’t control is what actually happens in meetings. If you set buffer space for your meetings and then steamroll them when the time for the meeting to end arises, then this feature will be useless for helping you decompress between events.
Meetings and collaboration are only worthwhile if all of the participates are focused and aligned which starts with being relaxed and ready to work. These new Outlook features are a step to helping you and your employees stay focused in meetings but like all technology, it’s only useful if supported by management.
More from Brad Sams
advertisment
Petri Newsletters
Whether it’s Security or Cloud Computing, we have the know-how for you. Sign up for our newsletters here.
advertisment
More in Outlook
M365 Changelog: (Updated) Outlook: Suggested replies expansion to Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish languages
Apr 30, 2022 | Rabia Noureen
Microsoft's New Outlook for Mac is Hitting General Availability Next Month
Jan 27, 2022 | Rabia Noureen
Microsoft Provides a Temporary Workaround for Outlook Search Issues on Windows 10
Jan 7, 2022 | Rabia Noureen
Most popular on petri
Log in to save content to your profile.
Article saved!
Access saved content from your profile page. View Saved
Join The Conversation
Create a free account today to participate in forum conversations, comment on posts and more.
Copyright ©2019 BWW Media Group