Enhancing Productivity with Microsoft Teams.

Our top tips and hacks.

As the world of work continues to digitise, we now have access 100s of tools and platforms all promising to help us maximise productivity and improve our workflows and processes. However, while new apps seem to appear almost daily, Microsoft Teams is more than holding its own as a pivotal platform that continues to offer a comprehensive set of tools to help teams collaborate, communicate and manage projects.

If Microsoft Teams is the platform of choice within your organisation, read on for some practical tips that will help you make the most of what the platform has to offer.

1. Mastering the basics

Before diving into some of the more advanced features, it's crucial to master the basics of MS Teams first. Spend some time familiarising yourself with the interface, understand how to create and manage teams, and explore the core functionalities such as chats, calls, and meetings. The more comfortable you are with the basics, the easier it will be to leverage some of the more sophisticated features.

2. Organise teams and channels effectively

Structuring your teams and channels in a way that makes sense to you (and your teams) will really help to enhance your productivity. Create teams based on departments, projects, or functions, and use channels to segregate discussions on specific topics. For example, if you head up the marketing team, you could have different channels for social media, content creation, and analytics. Organising your work this way ensures that conversations and files are easy to locate, meaning you spend less time asking, ‘can anyone remember what we agreed re LinkedIn content for next month?!’

3. Tabs for quick access

Tabs in Microsoft Teams can be a game-changer for quick access to essential tools and documents. Add tabs for frequently used files, OneNote, Planner, or third-party applications directly within your channels. This feature allows team members to access important resources without leaving the Teams environment. This saves time, reduces distraction and improves workflows.

4. Leverage the power of integrations

Microsoft Teams integrates seamlessly with various Microsoft 365 apps like Outlook, SharePoint, and OneDrive, as well as a wide range of third-party applications. These integrations mean you can bring all your favourite tools together in one place, helping you stay focused and giving you access to everything you need in just a couple of clicks. For example, you can create a Planner tab in Teams to manage tasks and track progress or integrate Trello to keep all your project boards in one place.

5. Enhance communication with chat and meetings

Efficient communication is the foundational pillar of productivity. You can quote us on that! The easier it is to send quick messages, jump on a one-to-one call or organise meetings, the better your working day will be. Utilise chat for quick messages and document sharing and aim to keep threaded conversations in separate channels to keep discussions organised. For meetings, make use of features like screen sharing, meeting recording, and live captions to ensure everyone is on the same page. Scheduling meetings directly from Teams, and using the meeting notes feature, can also help to document and effectively track everything on your actions list.

6. Don’t forget the command box

The command box at the top of the Teams interface is a very handy tool that can save you lots of time when you use it properly. You can use it to search for messages, files, and people, or to quickly perform actions like setting your status or starting a call. Use commands like /files to see recent files, or /unread to view unread messages.

7. Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts can significantly speed up your workflow in Microsoft Teams. Some essential shortcuts include:

• Ctrl + Shift + M : Mute/unmute yourself
• Ctrl + E : Go to the search bar
• Ctrl + N : Start a new chat
• Ctrl + 1/2/3 : Navigate between Activity, Chat, and Teams.

By incorporating these shortcuts into your daily use, you can navigate Teams much more efficiently.

8. Automate with power automate

Power Automate (formerly known as Microsoft Flow) allows you to automate repetitive tasks and workflows within Teams. For example, you can create a flow to automatically save Teams meeting recordings to OneDrive or send a notification to a channel when a new task is assigned in Planner. Automations are great for ensuring that things get done even on the busiest days - when brains are overwhelmed and there’s a chance some tasks will get overlooked. We’ve all been there!

9. Customise notifications

Managing notifications effectively will help you maintain focus and avoid being distracted by messages or chat that isn’t relevant. We all enjoy a bit of Teams banter every now and then but it’s also important to be able to tune out when you need to get your head down on something so you can hit that deadline! Customise your notification settings in Teams to ensure you only get an update if it’s important. For example, you can set notifications for mentions, direct messages, or specific channel activities while muting less important channels.

10. Explore the help and training resources

If you haven’t checked out the training resources provided by MS Teams, including tutorials, webinars, and a robust help centre – make sure you set some time aside to take a look. These resources will help you stay up to date on new features and best practices. This continuous learning can help you and your team to leverage the full potential of Teams, ensuring you stay on top of your game and ahead of the curve!

Remember, there’s so much more to Teams than the basics, and as competitor apps and platforms continue to jostle for market share Microsoft know they must keep upping their game in order to maintain theirs. If you’ve only scratched the surface with Teams to date, it’s well worth setting some time aside, or better still, booking one of our User Adoption training workshops to ensure your people are making the most of everything the platform has to offer.

Find out more:

To find out more about our bespoke workshops email our User Adoption Specialist: [email protected]

Back